Water Dispenser Actuator

First I pulled the fridge out and unplugged it. Then I removed the drip tray at the bottom of the water and ice dispenser. This exposed three screws that held the frame of the dispenser mechanism to the freezer door. I removed the three screws and lifted it up a little and I could pull it out and tip it to get at the inside of the dispenser mechanism. I could pull the whole mechanism out a bit, but I was afraid to pull it out too far for fear of unplugging something and tearing or breaking a wire. The water dispenser actuator piece has two round plastic "pins" on either side to allow the actuator to rock back and forth. These "pins" are held in place in a round channel by two metal plates which were in turn held in place by two screws. When I tried to take out these retaining plates, I dropped one of the screws in the dispenser mechanism. I had to fish it out with a magnet. By the way, the plates did not respond to a magnet, so when I dropped one of these, I had to use needle-nosed pliers to fish it out. It took a while, but I finally got the old actuator out and out the new one in and carefully re-attached the retaining plate with their respective screws and re-attached the little spring to the actuator. Before I put it back together, I cleaned off the little door to the ice dispenser. It looked a little crudded up and I just wiped it off with some damp Q-tips. I then put the dispenser mechanism back on to the freezer door, put the screws back, slid the drip tray back, plugged it in and it (surprisingly) works fine. Looking back, I probably should have bought a part for the ice dispenser, too, and replaced that at the same time.

Project requires removal of 9 phillips head screws. Also have some needle nose pliers and a paper clip and/ or skinny magnet handy for steps (7) and (9).

(1) Turn off power to refrigerator.
(2) Slide out water catch tray at bottom of dispenser unit.
(3) Remove the three screws that are now visible.
(4) Pull front water/ ice dispenser (cosmetic) panel off of the refrigerator and set aside.
(5) Remove the 3 screws affixing circuitry panel in place and set aside.
(6) Gently pull out the circuit panel and allow it to hang from the refrigerator door. Note: Unless you have very large hands you should not have to disconnect any wiring to do this repair.
(7) Remove the three screws and two plates holding the dispenser actuator in place, being careful not to drop the screws or plates into the unit. If they do drop you can get them out of the unit using the needle nose pliers and/ or a bent pointy piece of metal (e.g., paper clip).
(8) Remove broken dispenser arm.
(9) Insert new dispenser arm.
(10) Replace all screws and panels.
(11) Turn refrigerator power back on.

Note: The new dispenser arm has reinforcing bars molded into the back that were not on the original model. The company is apparently aware of the problem of the weak dispenser arm and fixed it in the replacement part... so, you should not have to be doing this repair again.

First I removed the plastic drip pan that catches the ice and water. There were two or three screws that had to be removed. Next I removed the old broken actuator and put the new one in. There were two more screws to be removed to replace the old actuator. Those screws were pretty small and hard to get out. Other than that, the new actuator went right in and was working in no time. Overall a pretty easy project.

Fridge has Ice & water in Door.
Slide bottom plate out.Remove three screws
across bottom.
Remove two screws that holds a circut board.
pull the water hose off and remove board.The hose is a little tricky getting back on.

remove two screws that holds two little plates and remove old part.
Reverse prosedure to put back.

The repair was easy. It just required a little time and patience. There are about a half dozen screws to remove and three of them are very small. I woild suggest a phillips head screwdriver with a magnetic tip for the small screws. They can easly fall into the control unit and be hidden. If they happen to fall, a small pen-type magnet that is expandable will make it easy to retrieve. I used a small set of needle-nose pliers to replace the small metal plates over the plastic pins that hold the water actuator in place. If your are careful, this repair can be done without disconnecting any of the electrical wiring.

It was a dreary day, too cold to be outside so I decided to tackle this repair. The first problem was one of the three screws holding the dispenser to the door was rusted in and would not come out. If I was smart I would have stopped there, but in the spirit of Tim the Toolman I found a way to work around it. I was able to get the panel off and disconnect the plug in wires and twist it to the side. The actual change of the paddle was a breeze- three screws and it was done. I turned the front section back into place, connected the wires and proceeded to replace the two remaining screws. All of a sudden the ice diispenser kicked in! First in the crushed mode then in the cube mode. You would be amazed how much ice the dispenser actually holds! I was trying to take screws out to disconnect the wires and catch ice at the same time not; an easy task. Once I had all the ice picked up I tried again and all seemed fine-the chilled water even dispensed again. Problem solved? Only until there was ice in the dispenser again and it decided to start dispensing on its own again. This time I learned and unplugged the appliance from the wall. I took everything apart again and disconnected the wires from the control panel and reassembled without reconnecting it. The repair company will be coming out next week to fix. Hopefully what would have been an easy fix will not become an expensive repair. It was one of those times I should have followed my gut when I ran into the first obstacle. I'll let you know the outcome when the professionals do their work.

Followed the exploded diagram at frigidaire.com and replaced part from partselect.com. Easiest repair I have done in a long time!

It was easy getting to the part, the most consuming part was getting the water tube back,when putting it back to together my hand did not fit to replace the tube, the tube is just long enough to fit with mechanism in place.what i did was take a small phillips put it trough the water sprout into the the tube to guide the tube into place,that worked for me.all in all it took 20min-15min spent on trying to get the tube in place.

My Man looked on YouTube - took the cover off and successfully replaced the dispenser arm. The hardest part was placing the spring back correctly. I'm so proud of him. Saved us a ton of money and it's better now that it ever was

On the bottom edge of the ice maker the half inch strip slides away from refrigerator. Under the strip is 3 phillips screws. The screws release the plastic frame. On the switch panel are 3 screws which release the button panel. I unplugged 1 connector to left side of switchs freeing the switch panel. I pulled the spring over to the left that holds the lever tight. I was then able to remove 3 small screws that hold the lever in place. I just inserted the new part and in reverse assembled all parts back. It really was a no brainer. I really feel good not having to pay $100.oo for a service call.