DDC0385LD General Electric Dryer - Instructions

Change the coil by removing the cotter pin around drum in the back I accidently removed the 3 star bits and the front and it was hard getting back together. The coils are easy to change, but found that the coil wasn't the issue it was the cyclical thermosat underneath the lint catcher in front. The part (heater coil) works better than the older one, so I guess it wasn't a complete screw up. I read up on a few others and think I should have check thermostat first oops. good luck

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.

removed four screws holding top. Swing back top to expose thermostat. emove two push on connectors and two self tapping screws. Instal new thermostat

take off door, take off front, mind the 2 wires for the door switch, take off top, take out enough screws on right side so it will lean out a bit for the drum to be removed. before removing drum you must remove the belt. pull the wheel to the right, minding the belt pattern for reassembly, its springy and will relieve tension. pull drum out. look to the left of the pulley and check to see any stray wire that may have pulled out while battling the belt. if you found a stray wire and it reaches the dryer motor find its home. on to the coils. I left assembly on dryer so I didn't have to figure out wire placement. the end connectors that the coils attach to are to be reused so don't get to mean with them. remove the end connectors minding how many wires it has and which of the 2 coils go to it. remove the old coils so as not to damage the very brittle ceramic insulators. on to the new, the instructions will tell you to stretch out the new coils to specified lengths. start with the shorter one first! just to see the stretchiness and how far is too far to stretch, if to long it will touch the heat shield and no good can come of that. after stretched out its time to string new coils in, carefully, so as not to stretch or collapse the coil. now hooking the end connectors to the ends of spring. I used 2 pliers to bend the tab a little bigger so it would cover the spring end. after springs are attached to ends and ends are in place, time to battle the drum and tensioner again, make sure plastic piece is on drum insert if equipped, put drum in place and bend tensioner down and install belt. put side screws on, then front and 2 wires , then top then door. plug in and start up. if unit doesn't start remember that stray wire going to the motor, you guessed it wire goes to the start switch. unplug and hook up the wire and it will work.