Ice Bucket Housing

First I removed to ice-bucket and noticed the plastic that holds the motor with a head of what I would call a two-prong fork had broken off the plastic (enclosure). Thus it lost contact to the ice bucket's screw that pushes the ice forward when the dispense button is pressed. After ordering a new enclosure I had to remove one screw nut and pull the wire plug (to the motor) out carefully. Then I had to remove eight screws holding the motor and related parts to the old enclosure and attached it to the new enclosure. The only tricky part was taking that fork off. It screws off, but in the opposite way. Also, I had to get a pair of pliers to hold the turn shaft from turning when taking the fork off.

The motor had broken loose from the plastic enclosure, so I first unplugged the motor from the power supply in the rear of the freezer compartment in order to remove it from the freezer. I then removed the four screws which held the motor against the plastic enclosure. I also removed the screws which hold the plastic enclosure to the freezer compartment.

The most difficult part of the repair was removing the 2 pronged fork from the shaft of the motor as it was reversed threaded on the motor. I held the motor in place on while using two pair of pliers to remove the fork from the end of the motor shaft. I used one pair of pliers to hold the shaft in place while using the other pair of pliers to turn the fitting in the opposite direction.

Once this was off, it took only 5 minutes to reattach the motor to the new enclosure and place it back into the freezer. Total repair time was about 30 minutes because I had to figure out how to get the fork off of the motor shaft. Everything else went very smooth. The new part fit perfectly.

1. Removed ice bin.
2. Removed vertical panel next to ice bin by sliding two top supports off of support posts and pulling the panel out and up.
3. Removed screw on left side holding ice enclosure in place.
4. Pull ice enclosure out about six inches and tip back end down exposing electrical connector.
5. Detach the electrical connector by pressing the release tabs on the top and bottom of the connector.
6. Removed ice eclosure by pulling it up and out.
7. Detached motor (4 screws) and relay (4 screws) from plastic enclosure. Make sure to keep track of screw positions since they are not all the same size. Use same positions to reassemble.
8. Hold shaft of motor with needle nose vise grips and remove the "U" shaped end piece by turning it clockwise. A sharp rap with a screwdriver handle breaks it loose. Pay attention to the orientation of the washer under the "U" shaped piece (the raised inner edge next to the shaft goes against the "U" shaped piece.
9. Attach the motor and relay to the new ice enclosure paying attention to the screw position.
10. Put the washer on the motor shaft (raised side up) and screw on "U" shaped piece (counter-clockwise).
11. The rest of the installation is a reversal of the removal process.

Very easy to remove one screw holding the enclosuer, then unplug the wire harness, remove 4 screws holding the solinoid, and the 4 screws holding the auger motor. The hardest part was removing the auger from the shaft of the motor. this took most of the time. reassembly went very fast.

The driver that turns the screw broke off the ice enclosure. I removed the side panel, removed one screw underneath the enclosure, unclipped the wire harness and removed the entire enclosure.

I did one unnecessary step and removed the magnet from the housing. Better to remove the entire housing, then transfer the motor and magnet to the new housing.

I noticed that others had problems unscrewing the drive unit (which you need to do to transfer it to the new housing.) I simply held the center hub with a pair of pliers, and gave the drive one tap with a hammer. Like the other reviews, note that it unscrews opposite way.

Reassembly was quicker and easier; just undo everything you did to get the housing out of the freezer.

Removed the four screws around the shaft. Removed the support nut on the underside of the enclosure. Pulled the enclosure out of the freezer. Removed the "blade" from the drive shaft - This was somewhat difficult as others have described. Needle-nose vice grips are almost a requirement or you'll never get it off. (Turn clockwise to remove it, as the threads are reversed). Attached the motor to the new enclosure with the four screws. Replaced the enclosure and screwed in the support nut on the underside. The difficulty in this whole process by far is removing the blade from the shaft. It takes a lot of force. At one point I almost gave up thinking that it was manufactured or pressed on. It finally came loose, and then the reinstall was no problem. My suggestion would be to let the motor and parts heat up to room temperature for a bit. It may help. A little spray of WD-40 may help as well.

Remember the bolt holding U piece is reverse screw off.

This was the easiest project of the Holidays. Literally saw the part was broken, went on-line and ordered the part and in a few days it arived at my door. Removed a few screws, unplugged the electrical connector and transfered the motor to the new part.

Saved me a few hundred dollars the repairman would have charged!

THANKS

followed blog left on your site.
job was easy except for housing
that you reverse thread off. used visecrips
which helped. otherwise no problems.

I followed the directions from John from Virginia Beach, with the added warning: Unplug the electrical connection and bring the whole ice enclosure out before you remove screws holding the relay and motor to it so you can see how it goes together. When you remove the relay, notice that a metal cylinder (Michael from Vienna Va calls it a magnet) slides out of it. If possible, keep this unit together. If it comes apart, notice there is a spring on this metal rod. Don't lose the spring and remember how it all goes back together. This job was just as easy as it should have been.