MDB8959SFZ3 Whirlpool Dishwasher - Instructions

Video was great help. Replacing the balance parts was easy. My wife and I are in our 80's. Mobility is difficult when it comes to working on the floor. Between the two of us we spent the majority of our time just getting up and down,

Ordered the part. Called my son who brought over his toolkit. Played him the repair video on my iPad and he replaced both Door Balance Links. Door works great now.

Removed broken part by removing three screws. Installed new part which is better quality. Supports are metal. Replaced three screws and put rack back on supports.

Look at the way that 3 remaining Wheel Assemblies were attached to rack, Then pop off the offending assembly and attach the new one. Less than 5 minutes.

Easy. Just watched video.

I just followed the directions on the video that was part of the pictures for the door seal. I made sure that the channel was clean and the new seal pressed right in. i wish I had checked this site before I called a repairman, who wanted to charge me over $400 for a new one.

It has brackets that slipped right into the box. The hardest part was reattach the entire box to the side of my dishwasher.
I do feel anyone could do this repair

The video does a great job explaining the repair. I took the unit completely away from the wall and put it on its side, which I recommend. Only problem I had was getting the new part in the correct orientation to lock... try to pay attention to how the failed pump is facing when you remove it.

I ended up replacing the supply line as well as just moving it around caused a drip leak, guess it was about to fail. Pro tip: don't remove the old line until you have the new line in hand... but that's a story for another day.

Pull the two screws out of the counter top securing the machine in place, then pull out the dishwasher from the cavity and set it on it's face or door on a towel. Pry the clamp on the discharge hose to release/open it and pull the pump off the hanger and pull the suction line out of the well at the bottom of the machine. I reversed the process and installed the new pump sliding it on the hanger and squeezing the clamp on the discharge line. I tipped up the machine and ran it before pushing it back in the hole checking for leaks. I pushed it back in it's hole and installed the two screws above the door securing it to the counter top and I was done.

Pretty easy for the parts. Taking the dishwasher out is the hard part. Typically, you should be able to unscrew the 2 screws holding the dishwasher to the underside of the countertop and then slide out the dishwasher to expose the cable assembly - but you also need to unplug the unit (unless it is hardwired), disconnect the hot water supply line from the angle stop (remember to turn off the angle stop) and sometimes disconnect the drain line from the vacuum breaker or garb disposal. You need to disconnect these things so that you can move the dishwasher out far enough to be able to see the entire right and left sides of the dishwasher. Once that hard part is done, you use a hex driver to remove the old cable pulleys, put on the new cable pulleys, and then feed the light weight cable through the pulleys - the end with the big plastic thingie attaches to the door and the other end attaches to the spring. Then you grab the spring and manhandle it onto the back end of the dishwasher chassis (look for the small hole in line with where the cable would line up. Careful as the spring attachment step could result in an injury - Hope this helps.

Started the rope onto the top holder, threaded the rope around the rollers and using the pilers pulled the spring forward to attach the other end of the rope.

Received the part. No instructions came with it. Luckily it was pretty simple to figure out. i removed the appliance from under the counter, saw how the part was attached on the other side and simply replaced the other side that was broken. Easy.

Disconnect top screws
Pull dishwasher out halfway
Notice how the other side is connected
Thread cord, use pliers to pull spring to connect.

First I turned off the water and power to the dishwasher.I removed the two screws on the front bottom cover plate, removed the plate. Removed the two nuts and bolts holding the dishwasher in place between the cabinets. Then I pulled the dishwasher out about 6 to 7 inches so I could see the spring, pulley and rope connections. Then I saw the rope on the right side of the door bottom had pulled through the connector. I ordered the part and next day delivery was great.(excellent service). The repair kit comes with both sides parts but I only needed one(for now). I reconnected spring to rope connector and threaded through pulley and to the door and job was done. A little difficult stretching spring so I put a long piece of wire to hold spring tight while connecting to rope but I worked out great. My husband said "great job, honey". I saved a $150 repairman bill....now I might go shopping (ha ha) Kim

The repair itself was relatively easy. I basically only had to remove the two screws that were securing the diswasher to the cabinetry, disconnected the water line and extended the diswasher out approximately 10 inches. I then replaced the part by hooking the new cable assembly to the spring and using pliers expanded the spring so I could snake the other end of the cable through the pulleys and attach it to the door. The otherside was my guide. This part should be modified to replace the two plastic ends with metal counterparts. This would allow the part to have a longer life especially in my case since the plastic end broke and not the cable itself.