Front or Rear Drum Felt Seal WP314820

1. Removed front of machine (2 screws at the bottom).
2. Removed 4 screws from inside the dryer, to take off the blower housing.
3. Removed 4 screws and took out the large metal piece which supports the drum at the front. Removed the drum.
4. Replaced the two rollers that support the drum in the rear. Cleaned the pins they run on, and oiled very lightly. Also replaced the idler roller. I was surpirsed to see that these rollers use plain bearings, not ball bearings.
5. On the front support piece, drilled out the rivets for the glides, and replaced the worn out glides with new parts. Applied a little glue (3M weatherstrip adhesive) to the cork pieces, to glue them to the metal. Attached the plastic pieces over the cork pieces, and riveted in place using rivets that came with the glide kits.
6. Replaced front and rear felt seals. This was not as tricky as I expected it to be. They were held in by metal tabs. Glued the ends where they came together.
7. Replaced the felt blower seal. Glued to the blower housing.
8. Reinstalled the drum, installed new belt, which came with good instructions (luckily).
9. Reassembled front support piece and the front of the cabinet.

I also cleaned the lint from the cabinet and from the vent hose.

In general, the job went without a hitch, and the machine probably has quite a few years left, despite the fact that it's 18 years old. This gives me a good feeling.

I'd say this would be challenging, though, for someone who is not pretty experienced with machinery repair. Also, the cost of the parts was significant enough that it would not have been unreasonable to have opted for a new machine.

After much coercement from my wife, I listened to the squealing noise she kept telling me about. Then it quit working completely and I had no choice. Probably the motor. Not being one to want to do this more than once and figuring after 16 years all of it could be bad, I ordered all moving parts, as well as new front and rears felt seals for the drum and the blower seal. Everything in taking the dryer apart was straight forward and obvious. The tricky part was getting the belt back on the tensioner. Working from the front of the dryer, I did this one-handed via the lower left side around the motor while my wife held the drum in place.

Remove top two front cover screws. Disconnect wiring. Set aside front cover - door assembly.

Remove two screws at top of the vertical riser cover to expose entire dryer interior. Remove filter. Remove screws to blower cover plate. Remove 4 screws that fasten front drum guide assembly. Remove drum. remove and replace 2 drum support rollers . Replace one rusted drum roller shaft. Replace both drum rollers and non-metalic washers.

Drill out 4 rivets holding two front drum glides. Replace and rerivet new drum glides.

Pry back slighty the many retention points around the front drum assembly which hold the front drum felt seal. Refit the new front drum felt, pressing the retaining clips back in place with a screwdriver.

Replace tumbler motor belt.

Install Drum. Install front drum retention assembly. Install new blower seal with reassembly of blower cover.

Total time - about 1 hour

The repair went better then I thought it would go.
the seals went on just fine

I took off the front of the dryer with the screws at the bottom. I removed what wires would easily come off and took a picture to remember where they go. Then I took of the front panel and had to take off the cover for the blower wheel. Some screws were difficult to reach because they were in a very tight space. I used a combination of needle nose pliers and a hex screw bit to loose hared to reach hex screws.
For the felt seal on the front panel, I used a flathead screwdriver to remove the old seal and replace the new seal. The most tricky thing was making sure the seal was laying right along the drum when putting the front panel back on. Once back together, the skidding sound disappeared.
Replacing the blower wheel is pretty easy once I got past the difficult screws holding the cover down. I used snap ring pliers to remove the snap ring then put the new blower wheel on and put it all back together. I found that the tip diameter of the snap ring pliers needed to be less than 0.05'' to fit into the snap ring holes of both the snap rings for the roller wheels and the blower wheel.

This website is awesome. After imputing my dryer model I was able to select from the list if symptoms my issue...Dryer will not start. From there was percentage of issues that would cause my issue. After determining it was the motor (after 25 years who would have thought that!!!). In this process I discovered other non related issues that i should attend to. So I basically rebuilt the dryer and it worked right away. I am retired military and in the tax preparation/representation business now, so a lot of this was new to me. The detailed instruction and especially the videos provided foolproof methods to complete each of the repairs. It was a little time consuming but very easy to complete. I did gain some new tools and diagnostic equipment that will come in handy in the future. Now I am going to tackle my daughters dishwasher. Thank you Parts Select and Steve (on the videos). John Beazle

My first attemp was to replace the drum roller and idler roller, drive belt, and the felt seal for the back, since I had experience replacing these on an older machine many years ago. The dryer was very easy to work on....After installing the new parts, I reassembled and discovered it still made the same loud noise. I then, disassembled for the second time to discover the blower wheel was worn out; so i ordered another blower wheel and a drum support roller (i only ordered one the first time.). After reassembling it made an annoying high pitch sound. I attributed that to the new parts...probably the new belt and new felt seal. Gave it some time to run-in and it seems to have quieted down. Overall, i found the dryer very easy to work on. I actually found the felt seal the most onerous to install....needed to have about three hands to get the drum back in place! I just wish that the stamped metal dryer housing didn't have such sharp edges. I had to be very careful to avoid sharp burrs but still got nicked a couple of times.

Took it apart according to the videos, replaced about all moving parts (almost). Put it back together and still made noise. It turned out to be the blower wheel. Ordered a new blower wheel and installed it. Works great and has mostly all new parts. The website was great!!

If your dryer is making a rumbling noise, change the blower wheel. It's plastic and the heating and cooling cycles causes the keyway in the plastic to give out and the wheel just spins causing the noise and the slower dry time. The other parts I replaced see below. Like many other repairs, remove screws below dryer door. Mark all wires and locations for re-assembly. Next remove front tumbler/lint screen assembly (4 sheet metal screws 2/L 2/R. Work belt off back of tumbler and remove. Use flathead screw driver to release tabs that hold felts on both front and back tumble supports. Make sure you know rotation of tumbler and install new felts so the overlap goes in direction of spin. Use a drum stick or 3/8 ratchet extension, something dull and flat to press tabs back down on felts. A screwdriver could slip off and tear cloth. Next drill out heads of the rivets on the glides and remove teflon glide and cork backer. Make sure all rivet material is removed front and back. Install new cork and glide. Rivet one side back in, then the other. Repeat on 2nd glide. Re-assemble dryer. Super smooth, super quiet.

Removed two screws on bottom of front panel. Lifted bottom of front panel, it then it dropped down and was moved to the left side. Removed 4 socket screws and removed drum front cover. Replaced felt strip, removed belt and replaced. Replaced two idler pulleys in back. Removed blower housing front cover, removed blower wheel and replaced. Installed front drum glides after drilling out rivets from the old glides. Vacuumed entire inside thoroughly and reassembled.