RC8640XBB1 Whirlpool Cooktop

Well, I found the two screws that held the cook top in place and backed them out. Pulled the cook top out of the counter and took out a bazillion little sheet metal screws that held the cover in place. The controllers were grouped in a cluster of four, and the "Front Left" was easy to spot. I pulled the wires off one-by-one and noted t ... Read more he marking on the old controller, and noted the markings on the new controller, especially the translator table that came with the new controller - the old and new controllers are a bit different. Then screwed the new controller in and tested the cook top - worked fine. Then I changed the hard wiring to the power source (a bad job originally) to a three prong plug and socket arrangement. Put it all back together and was back in business - a "piece of cake" repair. A week later "somebody" dropped "something" onto the corner of the glass and chipped out a little chunk of glass. Oh well, fun to fix anyway!

This was a countertop mounted cooktop. The hardest part of the repair was getting the cooktop out of the hole and separating the glass top from the burner box. It is highly recomended that you have two people to seperate the top from the burner box. Be sure you turn off the breaker to the cooktop first before you do any work. One time sav ... Read more er is once you have the top sperated from the box use 2- 10"-12" pieces of 1x2 or 2x4 to prop the top open. This will eleminate the need to disconnect the power leads (be sure the breaker is OFF). If you are not electrically inclined mark the color of the wires to the corrosponding terminals on the new element BEFORE you remove them from the old element. The element that I replaced was the dual heat element. I ended up having to change 2 of the terminal ends on the wiring harness becacuse they were too small for the new element. Carefully remove the wires from the old elenent using needle nose pliers and remove the old element by removing the 2 screws that hold the element to the hold down clips, then loosen the clip mounting screws & remove the element. Change terminals if needed & reassmble in reverse order. Once I got it reassembled with a couple of the top mounting screws in, I turned on the breaker and tested for proper operation. Breaker OFF, finish reassembly and remount. You may want to consider replacing foam gasket before remounting. Good luck... R. Moore

I removed the rangetop from the counter, Then I removed the knobs and about 12 screws and removed the glass top. I then removed the panel with the controls. I marked down the wire and terminal locations and removed the defective switch . I installed the new switch and connected the wires using the supplied wiring instructions.
I was ... Read more glad to see that the new switch came with wire extenders and shrink tubing. I used one of them.
I replaced the glass top and installed it back into the counter ,Turned on the circuit breaker and everything worked perfect..