DDW361RAW Amana Dishwasher - Instructions

slid the part in the groove (left side)

Took off the float, the jam nut was hard to get off, we ended up breaking the bottom piece of the float to get it off, but that was okay because we had a new float. The new float went on real easy and the jam nut went back on real easy. The foam insulation strip was real easy to get off we got a good hold of one end and striped it off slowly so there was nothing left on the door, then we cleaned the surface and put on the new insulation strip. We ran dishwasher to test it and there was no leak. Awesome. Cheap and easy to repair. We were impressed.

All I did was put in the slot and it fit like a glove.

Sooooooooo, I ordered a new kick plate, it arrived promptly, tried installing it and it was being difficult. Removed plate above that and lined up new plate(kick plate) tried putting plate above it on and as when we installed the machine that upper plate was difficult. Removed upper plate to fcheck problem of installation and guess what? Stuck in the inside of the upper plate was the lower plate complete with sound insulation. Happy ending :-)

Removed four screws on bottom plate. Located repair site on outside of cabinet. Had to hook spring on bottom rear plate by brail. Then attached linkage to spring and ran stiff wire through linkage to raise it above arm. Called a man with stronger but larger hands had him stretch the spring while I guided linkage over arm and into the slot using the wire. Removed stiff wire with needle nose pliers and reassembled front plate.

I replaced the door latch grommet just as everyone else has described on this site. It was pretty easy. I was amazed that such a little piece of rubber can let so much water get by. The inlet valve was not too bad either. Take the two bolts out that hold the bracket to the dishwasher. Remove the rubber hose on the back side and take loose the two electrical connections. My water line was long enough to pull it out in front of the dishwasher. Then I took the water line loose and removed the fitting. Installed the new one in reverse order of what I just described. These items took care of the bulk of the leaking problem. But I am in the process of ordering a new door seal which I hope resolves the rest of the issue. Also make sure you check the upper and lower control arms to make sure the spray holes are free of debris. This dishwasher was full of pieces of clear plastic that caused the spray arms to spray indirectly and towards the cracks of the doors.

Myscanning other reviews i saw mention dishwahser developed a small leak on RHS of door. I assumed the door gasket and planned to order that. On of the dispenser gromet which is only a $5 part so ordered that as well. I first replaced the door gasket which is an easy 10 mins job and ran the dishwasher again, but it still leaked.

I then removed the 7 torx screws on the door panel which came away easily. It was obvious that water was in there, so i removed the two screw on the dispenser with a nutdriver to replace the grommet. This process took 20-30 mins. After reassembly the leak was gone.

Without the comments on the website i would never have thought of the disepenser as source of the problem.

First I turned off the circuit breaker to dishwasher. Then removed the lower spinner and related parts. The water in the bottom needs to be sucked out with a shop vac next, because when the pump screws are removed any remaining water will drain underneath onto the floor. Remove the wash pump and drain rotor.
Remove the front bottom plate to access underneath, unplug the electric motor and thermister. Unscrew both hoses,drain and upper wash arm. Move the locking ring to release the the entire assembly up into the dishwasher.
The kit I bought had most of all the washer parts included, so on reassembly I used the new ones. The rest when back together in reverse order after a good cleaning. Since the thing was apart anyway why not clean up all the filters on reassembly. The kit also came with complete instructions.

Remove bottom rack. Unscrew the retaining ring on the wash arm, remove along with wash nozzle. Unscrew the eight retaining screws on the filter cover and remove (be carefull not to lose the two plastic bushings). Pick off and set aside the wash fan. Remove the six retaining bolts on the discharge housing. Pull up and remove the discharge housing. Remove the gasket (buy a new one, cheap and easier) with small screwdriver. Push gasket into new assembly. Under plastic nut with pliers and take off the plastic bushing that the wash arm rides on. Install new housing assembly with the parts that was taken off in the reverse order. Be carfull when installing the filter cover to make sure the drain outlet is aligned or mated to drain. Gently push down until the filter in down and continue reassembly.


(PS: Never use Sears parts, they extrembly slow as well unable to deliver on time).
Wash your dishes

It was difficult to use the guide provided online to determine what position to place the spring in. Finally I realized that the spring had to be placed with the tip that sticks out against the wall of the dishwasher to make the spring action work. The long and short pins were not a problem. How to place the spring was the main problem, but I finally figured it out. I did not need any special tools to accomplish this. I just used a kitchen knife to push the short pin into place.

I took apart the lower spray arm apart and removed the 6 hex screws. I noticed that the little plastic circle thing had been ripped off the dome-shaped thing. I replaced the part and put it all back together.

Replacing my dishwasher racks was very easy. I followed the guidance on the PartsSelect.com website for replacing the upper rack. Replacing the lower rack was only challenging when I couldn't figure out how to remove the water sprayer from the old rack and place it in the new rack. A quick search on Google.com and I learned to turn the sprayer counter-clockwise to remove it and then clockwise to put it in the new rack. Worked like a charm! I would recommend PartsSelect.com to anyone. Easy to use, parts came quickly, and I appreciated the guidance from others.

I used a torx driver to remove the seven screws holding the inside door panel in place. Flipping it over exposed the dispenser mechanism. There were two hex nut screws holding the whole assembly in place and two wires attached to the wax motor. As an afterthought I had ordered the sealing grommet for the latch, and as it turned out, the main problem with the sticking latch was that the grommet had worn out and allowed the hard soapy water to leak into the slider assembly and build up a hard crusty residue that had helped to ware out the old wax motor. After completely disassembling all of the parts, I scrubbed the residue out of the housing, replaced the slider, latch, spring, and grommet. Next I snapped the new wax motor into place and connected the two wires. The whole thing went back in place and the two hex screws went back to hold it all together. Finally, the seven torx screws went back to put the door back together. The whole repair went without a hitch.

We twisted the tower counter clockwise to remove from the old rack. It was a bit tight but came off quickly. Then inserting the tower into the new rack went very smoothly. That's all there was to it. The new rack did not have a place where I could attach the flip down shelf, but I rarely used it anyway. Love partselect. They helped me avoid buying a new dishwasher. Using Cascade pods, my dishwasher cleans like it is new and it is 25 years old!

Dish rack not same as original. No raised section on right for drop down ledge. Also the old rack had a section for wide rim bowls. New one is for plates only. Otherwise it is OK