GEF331CS0 Gibson Dryer - Instructions

I contacted a company to come out and diagnose the problem. They informed me that the thermal limiter is bad and needed to be replaced for $15 for the part and $85 labor. I found the part on this site for about $10, and did the repair myself. The dryer was mostly dismantled so I pulled the drum back, and replaced the part. The tricky part was the pulley system was, so make sure you see it before hand or find a diagram online. Once that was figured out, I set the drum back up, greased and tightened the pulley, reattached the front of the washer with connections, and closed the lid.

The repair actually was quite easy but diagnosing the problem was another story. I found out that the dryer would not buzz and vibrate , if I just ran the fluff cycle but no heat. As soon as heat applied, the slight buzzing and slight vibrating would occur after a few minutes. I knew it wasn't the drum bearing, the drum rollers, the rubbing collar on front of drum, idle arm, belt, etc - I had replaced all of them less than a year ago. Anything I found on the internet dealing with the motor was always geared around not running or slow starting or shutting down, loud buzzing, needing a push start to start, etc but that was not the case. So I figured it was the blower housing and ordered that part. However, once I had the machine apart the blower housing seemed to be just fine - nothing obvious, everything tight. The one issue I had was removing the plastic nut with the metal insert on the blower unit that attaches it to the motor shaft which just wouldn't bulge. So I said to myself, the h*ll with it, lets get a new motor, too and remove both parts together which btw, was very easy. So that is exactly what I did. Now with new motor in hand and new blower housing in hand, I easily removed the old motor still attached to the old blower housing together and replaced both which was very easy. Hooked everything back up and no more soft buzzing or slight vibration. Now back to the problem or my guess at this point. I noticed that the rubber mounting bushing in the back of the motor which is used to attached it to the dryer bracket was funking looking - kinda soft and a bit perished. So I am surmising that once heat was introduced, it was enough to soften that bushing enough to cause the slight buzzing and slight vibration but without the heat to soften the bushing a bit, it was quiet and steady. Just a guess but for anyone that has this issue with just heat but no issue with fluff (no heat) check out the condition of that rubber mounting bushing on the rear of the motor. No where on the internet was there any info concerning the symptoms I had and I was flying by the seat of my pants. So am taking the time to get this on record in case someone else has these symptoms and finds it.

Tried to follow the directions of others but ran into a problem with getting the top panel off. This is how I did it.
1 Disconnect power and dryer vent tube. Move away from wall.
2 Remove slotted access panel in back of dryer and take belt off motor and idler pulley. Leave on drum.
3 Unscrew the screws on the back of the top panel brackets( mine are silver) where they screw into the back panel and pull up and to the back to get the top panel off. Someone else said to slide a putty knife in the front to release the top but my machine has no spring clips.
4 With the cover off you can see the two heat sensors and I tested them with a multi meter they registered 0 which meant they were OK.
5 Remove the screws that hold the control board on and the plugs that are wired into it making sure that you draw a diagram to remember the wiring. There was a zip tie that I cut to be able to feed the plugs through the hole in the front panel that the wiring must go when the front panel drops down.
6 Remove the screws on the top of the front panel and the screws on the inside of the side panel that hold the front panel secure.
7 A lot goes on on step 7 because the front panel which is hinged drops from the top down to the floor. Diagram and remove all wires there are two green ground wires on the side, Three wires on the door lock, two wires for the light and wires for a moisture sensor. When disconnected feed the control panel plugs and other wires through the hole in the front panel and lift up and out on the front panel it will pop out. Lower it to the floor and let it rest there.
8 Now you can get the drum out of the way by pulling up then out the front where the front panel is now on the floor. Leave the belt on it.
9 Diagram the wiring on the heating element there are connections for the element and the sensor. They gave me a new sensor screwed onto the new heating element. Then unscrew it from the back panel the screws are on the back of the machine.
10 Install is the reverse of the rip down

In hindsight I would have liked to have had the new part before I started the project because the wiring wasn't so fresh in my head a week later when it arrived even with diagrams. Over all it was very simple and took under two hours to complete. I did clean everything I could inside the machine and reglued a couple of the seals that had fallen loose. Works like new and probably went because of overheating with a clogged vent. Lesson... clean your dryer vent every year or sooner.

I don't think it would take others as long as it took me.
I had to take the drum out to get to the limiter. And my dryer is in a builtin housing with limited space in front of the dryer - so lots of manuevers to get access.

The limiter was very easy to find, thanks to diagrams on this site. The space between drum and limiter made it impossible to get to the limiter screws without removing drum. Found very helpful drum removal instructions on PartSelect here:

http://www.partselect.com/PS1148434-Frigidaire-134503600-Dryer-Drum-Belt.htm?SourceCode=13&ModelNum=FSE748GFS0

Great site - thank you.

Unpluged the dryer, took out the light assembly, unpluged the wires to the unit, replaced the old unit with new unit from Partselect.
Plugged dryer in, problem fixed.
Taa Daa

Thanks, PARTSELECT.

That saved me about $50.00 YAHOO!!

The best part of using this site the first time was that they had pictures and measurements of the part....it made me sure I wasnt ordering something that wouldn't work.

Its not a tough repair job, its broken a few times in the 8-9 years I've had it. I just order the part, it arrives promptly, I put in on...job done! I would use this site again anytime I need a part to something and have recommended it many times to friends and family.

To summarize.....it's just great when a process works so well and is so easy.

While changing power cable from 3 prong to 4 prong connection on a recently purchased used dryer I found the terminal block partially melted due to improper connectors which overheated. The bracket and cover were also missing which presented a shock hazard for anyone touching the exposed connections and there was no way to connect the strain relief. I disconnected the old 3 prong cable, removed the old terminal block, installed the new terminal block (required opening the dryer top for access), threaded power cable through bracket and fastened with strain relief leaving loose, attached the neutral/ground wires to middle terminal connection point, red to red wire in terminal block and black to black wire also in terminal block and tightened bracket and added cover.

my motor was making noise i tried to replace the motor but could not get the blower wheel off the motor so i had to buy a blower and housing assy. also... now it works great...

Dryer door would not close, part had broke and fallen in. Once part was received it took less than an minute to put the new one in and I was back in business.

thanks for making it easy to find the part needed. and the delivery was fast!

bonnie J.

Remove broken knob. Saw that the boss on the backside of the knob that mates with the timer shaft was cracked. Install (press fit) new knob.

unplug dryer. lift the top of the dryer up and back. Take the screws out holding the front panel on. One on each side. Disconnect wires from door open stop switch and take front panel off. Remove drive belt from around pulleys and lift drum up and forward out the front of the dryer. I had to replace the plastic and metal holder and the grounding ball also. Remove the shaft from the drum and put he new one on. Put the drum back in, wrap the belt around the drum and set drum in plastic holder. Then just reverse your steps. Fairly easy.

Used nut driver to remove screw and cover from dryer cord terminal block, used screw driver to remove two screws securing old terminal block, cut dammaged wire and stripped wire back and crimped on new terminal connecter, replaced old terminal block with new one, replaced two screws, installed new cord, and replaced cover plate and screw.

**I'd already installed a new rear drum bearing assembly (very simple) and the issue continued. Further testing (running unit with the drum removed) indicated the blower assembly and/or motor was the source as the issue only occurred when the unit was under load. I ordered both parts as there was simply no way the original blower assembly was coming off the original motor.** Disconnected Power. Removed Top and Front of Dryer. Removed Drum. Disconnected Wiring Harness at Motor. Disconnected Blower Housing Temperature Sensor. Pried Open Clip Holding Motor to Mounting Bracket. Removed All Other Mounting Hardware. Removed Original Motor and Blower Assembly. Mated New Blower Housing to New Motor. Mated Assembly to Mounting Bracket. Reinstalled Clip Holding Motor to Mounting Bracket. Reconnected Wiring Harness at Motor. Reconnected Temperature Sensor to Blower Housing. Installed All Other Mounting Hardware. Reconnected Power. Checked Assembly Alignment. No Issues Noted. Disconnected Power. Reinstalled Drum and Front of Dryer. Reconnected Power. Checked Assembly Alignment While Under Load. No Issues Noted. Reinstalled Top of Dryer. Issue is Resolved. ** Thoroughly cleaned entire unit including under the baffle located at the rear of the drum. Amazing amount of baked on lint located there. Checked heating element (no issues) and cleaned lint trap assembly in door of unit. Another area with an amazing amount of baked on lint. Total for all parts needed was $236.91. Total time needed was about 3 hours. Parts arrived within one day of order. Unit operates 'as-new'.**

Rear plastic drum support bearing got worn making the shaft come in contact with the metal bearing bracket. That contact created a groove overtime and eventually snapped the shaft tip off.

Cut power off. Remove all the screws from the front panel. (where the controls are) working from the bottom to the top. Insert putty knife between the dryer and the control panel and push down to release. Carefully disconnect the wire harness.
You will find 2 screws at the bottom and 4 on top holding the dryer door. Remove and expose the drum.
Remove the drive belt
Remove the drum.
You need a 5/16 nut drive to remove the bearing bracket and an extra set of hands to hold the support from the back.
Re-install the parts. I used bearing grease to make it run smoother
Attach the new shaft to the drum and reinstall the drum (its best done with help)

Re install everything back again. And you are done

First I unplugged the dryer. I removed the 3 knobs on the front control panel as well as the 6 screws on the back. The start switch easily removes by turning it 45 degrees and pulls out. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the two connectors loose from the old switch. (They are color coded wires, 1 brown and 1 gray. The switch is marked with the numbers 1 and 2 on the connectors so remember which one goes where) Then i hooked up the new switch in reverse order and was back in business in about 5 minutes.