DDC4387LE General Electric Dryer - Instructions

disassembled chassis of dryer, unbolted top, lifted top to expose drum. bolted top back on. resumed repair next morning. unbolted top. lifted drum (it moved up and down about 1 inch) and got new belt around it. rebolted top down. tipped dryer to its back. unbolted and removed panel at bottom, exposing drive motor and tensioner spring. positioned belt around drive motor spindle and tensioner spring. replaced panel. reconnected dryer to electricity. reconnected gas using new flexible connector.

Researching on the web I thought the trouble might be lint buildup or trouble w/ one of the parts involved in spinning the drum. However I cleaned out all the lint and replaced the belt and idler pulley and this didn't improve the smell (drum bearing was fine). I then concluded the trouble was the motor. Running the motor w/o the drum in place confirmed this was where the noise/smell was coming from. Replacing the motor was fiddly--I had to remove the clip holding the motor (pried the top w/ a screwdriver), wires (made a diagram so as to put back in same order, they were hard to get off--a pliers did the job), clamps holding the motor on the duct, the motor mount, the duct, the fan. Putting all this back together took a while (not hard just fiddly). Tested the motor w/out the drum in place and it sounded fine. Put the drum and back/front/top panels back and the dryer runs fine now. All parts came quickly and exactly matched the parts in my 1993 Hotpoint dryer. As others have said the pulley kit is not needed--these are included w/ the motor. BTW I am a 53-year-old lady. Thanks to all who took the time to write up their experiences--big help!!

Pop off the old, pop on the new. I did it with one hand, the 'hard' part was putting the access panal back on.

Based on the symptom (drum not turning), I figured that the belt was shot. I found a video on YouTube that described how to fix it. I also found directions here on this site on how to fix it! Here's what I did: step1: there were two screws holding the top on. took them off and the top swung up, exposing the drum and broken belt. step2: took off the two screws holding the front on. tipped the front forward so I could get the new belt around the drum. step 3: took the back plate off (10 screws). had to remove the exhaust tube first. cleaned out all the lint with the shop vac. there was plenty of lint everywhere. step 4: put the belt onto the motor pulley wrapping around the tension pulley. step5: put everything back together and plugged it in. everything worked fine. it took longer to vacuum all the lint out than it did for the actual repair.

Took off the top cover then took off the front panel and installed the new coils on gas valve.