DDG8280RAL General Electric Dryer - Instructions

Remove top panel and front panel. 12 Screws. Be sure to vacuum entire inside of cabinet free of lint.

This is the third time for a belt on this 28 year old dryer. Not too much to it. Unplug the dryer. Open the door. Remove the screws holding on the front panel and loosen the screw at the bottom. Disconnect the wires to the door switch and lift off the front panel and start up the shop vac to clean out the lint - there is a lot to be found in various places. Slide the new belt over the front of the drum and make sure there are no twists. You can now reverse the order to mounte the front panel but don't close the top so you have light to see inside. Go around to the back panel and remove the machine bolts holding on the access panel at the back. This allows access to the motor and belt tensioner. Get the shop vac out here and get to some more lint. Google the model number to find a diagram on how to route the belt. Put the belt on the motor shaft and around the tensioner as depicted. Occaisionally the plastic idler pully is worn and this can be the cause of the brokent belt. If the idler wheel does not spin freely, squeads or is cracked it should be replaced or you will be right back replacing the belt again. If all is fine it is time for a test run. CAUTION - you can plug the dryer in but keep your hands out of the cabinet as there are live exposed 220 volt terminals exposed. This allows you to observe that all is working and not binding during a test run with NO heat. If all is fine, unplug the dryer and put the covers back on. Reconnect the exhaust hose (now is a good time to clean that and the vent to outdoors as well).

Removed 3 torx screws on the control panel. Removed two more regular screws from the dryer opening. This allows removal of the top. Removed some panels from the back to access where belt feeds through the motor. Found the belt snapped in two inside.

Now that I knew what the problem was I found partselect.com on Google. Ordered the part friday morning with ground. The belt arrived SATURDAY MORNING! I didn't even know fedex would deliver ground shipments on Saturday. Less than 24 hours later I had it. AWESOME.

Removed the front panel by removing two hex bolts to allow me to drape the belt over the drum. Not having seen how the belt was originally around the tensioner and the bad diagrams included with the dryer, it took some figuring to get it back on right. But we did it and we're back in business. I will absolutely buy from PartSelect.com again!

After identifying the issue, the biggest issue was trying to identify how to get the belt around the drum tumbler. After looking through the back hatch, I figured the best way was through the top. I removed the top just enough to work the belt in between the drum and the front sheet metal. Then I turned it on its side and worked the belt from the back hatch. I pulled the pulley back on the tensioner and slipped the belt under neath. Put it back together, been working great.

Removed filter as for cleaning. Replaced with new filter. NO TOOLS REQUIRED!

Before this fix which worked beautifully, I tried replacing the flame sensor which did not work. To read that story, search under part number PS459818 (Flame Sensor). Our model is a Westinghouse, so access to the unit is a bit different than the other stories. It's a stacked front-loader sitting on top of a washing machine.

1. Open the little front door (lower left side) by unscrewing the little screw right below it. The door will pivot and slide out vertically.
2. Disconnect the electrical main lead coming from the back of the unit (just in case).
3. Close the gas switch lever on main gas pipe coming from the back on left side (just in case).
2. Remove 2 phillips screws on top of the metal bracket holding the two coils. The screws have to be removed completely along with the bracket. It's easy, they are right in front and there is room for the screwdriver. Use a thin long one instead of one with multiple bits to better align with the screws, which are very close to the coils.
3. The two coils slide right out and are very different so it's easy to keep them straight. Remove electrical connectors before or after removing the coils (I marked the plastic on top with a sharpie to keep them in the right orientation).
4. Drop in the two new coils and reconnect them to the electrical leads.
5. Reconnect main electrical lead from back (match wire colors)
6. Reopen gas lever on gas pipe.
7. Drop in front cover at an angle, tilt vertically and put screw back underneath. Use magnetized screwdriver or a piece of scotch tape to hold the screw or it might fall off the screwdriver.
8. Voila'. It worked.

This website is great. Our dryer is a Westinghouse bought in 1991 (almost 20 years old!) and with this fix it's just like new. In 1994 we used parts bought here to fix our washing machine (Westinghouse LT350RXW1). That machine is now 15 years old and still going!

Unplug from electric outlet. Use putty knife to press on two brackets holding the top cover. Raise top cover. Unscrew two screws holding the front panel. Raise front panel up and move to the right (careful with the wires). Disconnect wires from coils. Unscrew two screws holding a small bracket holding the coils. Replace coils and reassemble everything. (HINT: make sure you drum is empty. Mine contained dump clothes, and it turned out front panel actually provides support to the drum, so mine was hanging there with some weight in it - probably not good).

I definitely would not have tried to do this had it not been for the other testimonials written here. But it sounded so easy, I had to just try it (the repair man estimated that with parts and labor, we would be looking at somewhere between $250 and $300!).

The repair itself took less than 15 min, but I spend a good deal of time looking around the garage for a few screwdrivers and my socket set (me and tools don't meet too often). I could simply pry up the top cover on the dryer with my hands, then got it all the way up after removing two screws from the lint trap and undoing this really annoying wire connector thing. From there the front panel lifted off. To remove the drum, just had to release the tensonier on the belt, and it came right out. From this point it was really obvious where the replacement parts would be going. A few screws later, and I could swap the parts, and put humpty dumpty back together again.

It works!!!

The instructions that came with the bearing were limited and the illustrations were too dark to see. However, after reading the reports of others on this website, the repair was very easy.

Prior to disassembly, remove theaccess panel on the rear of the dryer. Pull the belt drive pulley arm up and the belt will easily slide off of the motor pulley. The belt can be left on the drum.

Then, remove two screws at the inside top of the dryer door. The top of the dryer will then lift up at the front and slide forward to remove. This will allow you access to two bolt head screws on each side of the front panel. Remove these two screws and then lift the panel slightly up and forward. The front panel will then be free and the dryer drum will slide forward and out. Remove the four bolt head screws (behind the electric elements) from the heater element on the inside back of the dryer box.

You can now exchange the bearing on the drum and the bearing insert on the dryer heating element simply by removing the old and reinstalling the new just as the old was removed - four screws for each.

You will need an assistant to re-install the bearing. Someone needs to hold the three pieces behind the drum as you insert the three screws. You'll also need a star wrench set for this.

The drum is easily reinserted - just be careful to get the front of the drum placed into the front bearing surface when reinstalling the front panel. One word of caution, My wife tried to remove the felt bearing on the bottom of the front panel thinking that it was lint.

I found that the inside of my ten year old dryer was unbelievably full of lint. I'm sure that the efficiency improvements by cleaning the air passages will be substantial and I've just saved $400 on the price of a similar dryer ($900 if my wife and I decided to upgrade to the "new" model that we wanted but really didn't need.

The repair in retrospect was very easy. Not knowing alot about the dryer I made one mistake. I put the bearing in backwards and broke the rubber gasket. After ordering a new gasket and paying close attention to what I was doing it worked out fine. Saved me about $200 for a repairman.

Key starting point is to remove top cover by removing two long screws located at the front of the cover
Remove control panel and it's bottom and side supports.
Remove short vent pipe by bending retainer tab.
Support the drum at the top using piece of rope.
Remove main rear cover (leave bottom attached).
Remove electric heating unit and install new bearing carrier from kit.
Reinstall the the heating unit
Remove three screws (inside the drum)to release the inner drum cover and release the bearing carrier.
Install new bearing carrier. Note: the three holes in the bearing carrier are not tapped, I suggest that the screws be installed (threads cut) into the bearing cover before attempting to install the bearing carrier.
Install the new bearing carrier. Note: pilot one of the holes using a small nail etc. then go on to install screws in the other two holes remove the pilot device and install the third screw.
Reassemble in reverse order.

just changed out the gas igniter very simple to do thanks

Just took it out and installed the new one--thanks so much

I wanted to be sure a replacement would be available when the need arose. The dryer might be 30+ years old. Within a very few minutes I found the filter and placed an order. It arrived in 2 days. Now I won't have to worry about it in this aging lifetime.

Took the top and front off. DO NOT TAKE DRUM OFF!! Lifted drum slightly and worked belt around drum. Replaced front and top. Took off rear panel at bottom near vent pipe. Put belt around motor and then tension pulley. Buttoned everything up and that was it!