Idler Arm and Shaft

From the first time the motor buzzed (but dryer tumbler then started to turn), 2 weeks elapsed for the dryer drum to stop turning altogether. If this occurs, DO NOT continue to push the start button because the motor armature wiring will heat up and the insulation will begin to melt and smell - a SAFETY HAZARD. Unplug dryer and lockout/tagout as appropriate.

Through basic troubleshooting, discovered the motor had seized up. Since the unit was about 10 years old and it had to be disassembled for replacement, the decision was made to replace "likely to fail mechanical components including motor, belt, both rear drum rollers/shafts, idler arm pulley/assembly/wheel, associated washers, snap rings and both front glides. Reviewed the PartSelect website and drawings, ordered the parts and they delivered on time. Buy the correct sized snap rings at a local hardware, they're much less expensive. Also once inside your dryer, you'll likely find alot of lint to vacuum out...have fun.

I went online and Googled several resources that showed how to remove the front dryer panels, as well as PartSelect repair stories. From that point on, I took photos as I was disassembling so I would know how to put it back together. Utilize pictures or whatever system you prefer to keep track of taking something apart and putting it back together.

Remove the dryer door, then the front panel Disconnect wires to the light, dryness sensor and door switch. Note belt and pulley configuration that is near the motor-this will help you later when reinstalling the belt. Also note if the ribbed side or the flat side of the belt is against the outer drum wall. Remove the door shroud.

Slip the belt off the idler pulley wheel. Remove front drum support, then dryer drum Note which end of the dryer drum is the front and the orientation of the glides on the drum support. Discard old belt. Drill out and remove the old front glide supports, then install/rivet the new glides.

Remove both old rear drum rollers/shafts, washers, etc. The rear drum roller shafts are secured to a back bracket by a hex nut....feel around you'll figure it out. Replace new roller shafts. Lightly grease using a high quality silicon grease, then replace new washers, roller, snap ring, etc

Carefully unplug wiring harness on motor, there are fragile clips on each end. Don't forget a separate ground wire from the harness is attached to the motor mount bracket. Carefully release tension on the idler arm spring. Using the correct size nut driver, remove three screws (on this model) then take out the motor/idler arm assembly. Remove the old idler arm/pulley assembly. Remove the motor mount clips on each end of the mount (I used a wide blade screwdriver). Remove and replace the motor. Motor configurations changed after Whirlpool bought Maytag, so orient it correctly insuring mounting gasket "nubs" on each end of the motor correspond to the cutouts on the motor mount. Reinstall the motor mount clips. Replace the new idler arm assembly/pulley wheel; grease moving parts with high quality wheel bearing grease. Replace motor/mount bracket assembly back into the dryer. Replace ground wire to motor mount bracket and plug wiring harness back in. Reinstall idler arm spring.

Place belt back on the dryer drum and move into place on rear rollers. Reinstall front drum support. Dryer drum should turn relatively easy. Insure belt is oriented on the drum correctly before connecting belt to motor shaft end and idler arm wheel pulley (the picture you took comes in handy here).

Reinstall the rest of the parts in reverse.

disassembled dryer and removed and replaced rollers and shafts and installed new belt while i was at it. very easy fix, ordered parts from PARTS ELECT.COM , excellent website with great views of my machine made it east to order correct parts.very fast delivery , will use partselect again! HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Did an on-line search on Matag dis-assembly, pulled front panel, dryer drum, replaced idler pulley, rollers and belt. Also, vacuumed dryer cabinet , now the dryer works like new. This is an easy repair for anyone with any mechanical ability, and just basic tools.

1) Took off the front door of the drier (first unscrewed it in the sides, then lifted the door to lift the hinges up and pulled the door off)
2) Pulled the front panel down and off
3) I checked the belt to see if it was broken and it wasn't
4) I tried to turn the drier barrel manually to see if I can move the belt... it didn't move. Not knowing if there was just too much resistance, I tested the drier while looking at the motor and motor pulley as it ran.
5) I noticed that the motor pinion rotated, but the belt was slipping against it... that's why it smelled. The rubber was burning
6) Then I found that the idler pulley had stopped rotating, and the belt actually cut a channel into part of the plastic... That's when I realized that I had to replace at least the idler pulley.
7) Not knowing whether the bushing and other parts were going to be salvageable, I ordered parts for the whole assembly... but I wasn't sure how to best approach the repair...
8) Then I found partselect.com, and they had both diagrams of the assembly, all the parts easy to order, and best of all, a video of someone actually going through this repair! I was dumbfounded! :)
9) For swapping the parts I just watched the video on how to pull out the drier barrel... the only difference is that I didn't see a need to unplug the cables from the front top panel before removing the drier tumbler. (Obviously the power was turned off :P)
10) when I removed the barrel, I swapped the whole idler pulley assembly, just keeping the original spring.
11) Put everything back together, and it ran like a champ!

The video helped me save a lot of time though... it showed me how the whole thing is most easily serviced and made the repair a breeze!

If your dryer is squeaking it is most likely either the idler pulley or drum rollers. First I took apart the dryer to see which parts I would need. I checked the drum rollers by spinning them with my hand to see if they spun freely and also checked them to see if they were loose, they were okay. Then I checked the idler pulley and found my problem, it was hard to spin it so I figured the bearing was shot. I sprayed some lubricant on the bearing to help with the squeaking while I waited for my parts. It took about 30 minutes to diagnose my problem and put the dryer back together.
I took some advise from another story saying to get the whole idler arm, shaft and pulley assembly. It might have cost me a few bucks more, but I did not want to run into the same problem he did (the pulley bearing was fused to the shaft). It took me about 20 minutes to take apart the dryer, install the part, and put it back together. If you are pretty good with fixing things, you should have no problem doing this repair.

This was a pretty easy repair. The idler wheel bearing was bad and I replaced the wheel, the two drum support rollers, idler arm and belt. The video for replacing the idler wheel was spot on for my model and made it easy to complete the job. My thanks to PartSelect for a great repair experience.

Removed power to the dryer by turning the dryer AC breaker in the breaker panel "off". Removed dryer door and front panel with phillips screwdriver and/or nut driver. Removed spring tensioner from idler arm and shaft assy. Slipped off drive belt and removed idler/shaft assy with 5/16 open end wrench (or maybe 11/32, don't remember the exact size). No need to remove drum, you can get both hands in there, also used a flash light and mirror to locate the mounting screw. Mounted the new pulley on the new shaft assy, using the old washers and clip. Glad I ordered the shaft assy because it was scored up pretty bad. The pulley just has a bushing/sleeve, not a roller bearing. (I put a tiny dab of light gease on the shaft before mounting the new bearing.) Replaced the shaft assy, hooked up the spring and replaced the belt onto the pulley. Reassembled the front panel and door and was good to go.

Note: You may want to consider replacing the 2 Drum Support rollers at this time (while your in there)

1. UNPLUG YOUR DRYER FIRST.

2. Using a phillips head screw driver - Remove 2 screws that secure the dryer door hinges to the frame, Lift door very slightly to unhook hinges and pull out door with hinges attached as straight as possible, set aside. Remove the 2 plastic tabs from the opposing side of the door hinge also secured by screws.

3. Remove the front panel (panel is shaped like a football goal post) by tilting out the top ends of the front panel toward you, then lift up to remove panel from the bottom metal retaining tabs.

4. Remove the 2 hexhead screws from the 2 retaining clips (security hooks) that secure the top
of the dryer closed.

5. Systematically remove the hexhead screws from the rest of the front of "shroud" (it holds (suspends) the drum in place between the front and back of the dryer).

*** I didn't disconnect any wires, I carefully swung out each piece that had wires attached, propped up those parts vertically ensuring no strain on the attached wires. Others may want to disconnect wires to avoid breaking or damaging them.

6. Vacuum out any dust/lint that may be present.

7. Draw a quick diagram of how the underside of the belt is threaded on the idler pulley and motor pully first. Release the tension of the belt from the underside of the drum. The easiest way is to push the idler pulley arm away from the belt and slide off the belt from the idler pulley and motor pulley. Slide the drum out.

8. Remove the hexhead screw from the bottom of the idler arm. Disconnect from retaining spring.

9. You may only need to replace just the Idler Pulley Wheel. I recommend replacing as a "unit" the Idler Pulley Wheel, Idler Arm, Ring-E and Idler Shaft Washer(s) - then you can just swap out the old one for the new one.

10. Reassemble

(When reassembling the belt - place around drum first and slide drum in place. Now from the underside-place (drape) belt around the motor pulley (it will be very loose) Now push the idler pulley arm toward the motor pulley, engage the left side of the belt around the idler pulley and slowly allow idler pulley to increase its tension on the belt) You can test manually by rotating the drum by hand to ensure proper movement.)

Unplugged the unit
Removed door and two clips that hold front panel on (6 Philip crews)
Then removed front panel by hand hold each side of the panel at the top
Of the “U” shape and pulling out ward until it frees it self from the two
Bottom clips.
You can now see a belt that is no longer tight around the drum
When I tried to put the belt back on I noticed the idler pulley was flopping around and I would need to replace it .That where you guys saved me.
Your exploded model and parts list made it easy to see exactly what parts I
Needed to order.
The rest gets a little tricky there is another plate that supports the barrel
A couple of clips that hold the top cover in place all of this must be removed
Note the top cover only need to be lifted up an inch or two at the front where the
Two steel clips where and doses not need to be removed to get this panel off that
Supports the barrel.
There are some wires attached to it also I only had to unplug the three that go to
The door safety switch then I was able to rotate it off to the side out of the way
And now the barrel can be lifted out. You can now remove the idler pulley assembly
I used pliers to remove the spring and a crocket wrench to remove a bolt that holds
The bracket that also should be replaced due to ware at the idler pulley barring pin
The tricky part is putting it all back together again. To explain this I would need to Wright a book. It takes a lot of good common sense. I was proud of how I reached
Around from each side of the motor and by feel alone and get the belt around
The motor pulley and the idler pulley that keeps the belt tight around the barrel
Makes me think I should have been a repairman.

After reading all the other repair stories on Partselect, by the way thank you all, I removed the door, then removed the two security hooks that hold the top secure. Then I removed the front panel. I then marked all the screws on the outer door and shroud so I could easily put it back together. I left the all the wires connected and set the shroud and outer door to the side and removed the drum belt and drum. Removed the spring off the idler arm, then using nutdriver, removed the screw that secures the idler arm to the motor. Assembled the new idler arm parts and reversed the process to put it all back together. If I would have replaced the idler arm assembly the same time I replaced the drum support rollers, I wouldn't have had to do this twice! But now I am an expert repair tech on this particular model.