MDE336RED0 Kelvinator Dryer - Instructions

After reading about similar problems people have had with this make of dryer, I focused attention on the thermal limiter. I determined that it was the culprit by "jumping" it with a 6" piece of wire. Then I simply went on the site, ordered the part. It arrived a few days later and I pulled out the old one, screwed in the new one, and the dryer is good as new.

Other repair stories about this product are very accurate and I used them to do the repair, so I see no need to be redundant.

I'd just like to draw attention to the following:
Disassembling the dryer is somewhat easy. Replacing the heating element is very easy.
Replacing the belt is very easy.

Replacing the drum bearing is somewhat difficult. I purchased a "T" screwdriver in order to get more torque on the screws. When I had the drum bearing in place and the screws partially inserted, I laid a piece of thick foam on the floor and set the drum, bearing side down, on the foam. It is very difficult to get enough tension on the screws to get them through the bearing plate, but setting the drum up this way at least allows you to use gravity to your advantage.

Thanks again to Part Select for making the part purchasing experience so effortless.

Thanks to other writers of "Repair Stories" for making my repair so easy.

A few screws out of the back of the top panel, pulled the dial off. Removed two more screws and the timer assembly came off. Then I just matched the color wires one at a time to the same spots on the new assmbly.

Unplug dryer (gotta say it). Remove the two screws that hold in the lint catch. Remove top of dryer (two screws in back hold brackets, the front snaps on). remove two screws along the front edge to take front panel off the dryer (there are also clips). Unhook the two electrical connectors that control the door shut off. Once the front is off, remove the old glide and felt and install the new parts. Be sure not to step on the tube of contact cement, making it explode inside the bag. That sucked. Reassemble.

Removed dryer front, unscrewed 3 screws in center hub, replaced bearing assembly. Removed old basket seal with razor scraper, cleaned surface with mineral spirits, applied new basket seal. Replaced dryer front and project was done. Dryer has no more sqeaks.

Had to pretty much disassemble the entire dryer. The schematics on the web site made it a snap to do. One word of advice. I you have to replace the rear drum assembly, the drum has to come out the front of the dryer. Part select made this a very positive experience.

Part arrived earlier than expected & when replacing the knob I merely lined it up with the timer shaft which was a 1/2 round shaft. It slipped on very easy & I just pushed the knob on as far as it would go. Replacement of the knob makes life much easier in being able to turn the timer on without use of a wrench. Very, very satisified customer.

Make sure you order a new belt and a new drum glide with the rear drum bearing assembly. If your bearing is worn out, so are the belt and drum glide!

1) Use a flat screw driver or putty knife to release the blind clips that hold the front side of the top of the dryer cabinet down
2) Swing dryer top up and remove two screws that hold the face of the cabinet.
3) Unplug the wiring harness and remove the cabinet face.
4) Remove the 3 screws that hold the drum to the bearing assembly (accessed from inside the drum. This makes it easier to remove the drum as the bearing assembly can be difficult to remove before you see how it snaps together
5) Reach under the drum and take the belt off the motor pulley, then remove the drum
6) Remove the old bearing assembly from the socket (slide up then out)
7) Remove the two screws that hold the bearing socket to the dryer
8) Fasten the new socket to the dryer (you'll need help doing this unless you have REALLY long arms because you have to reach inside the driver and the back of the dryer at the same time)
9) Grease the socket with the supplied high temp grease
10) Bolt the new bearing assembly to the drum and put the new belt around the drum
11) Put the drum back in and snap the bearing socket in and down
12) Guide the new belt around the motor pulley & tensioner
13) Glue the new drum glide / felt piece to the front cabinet
14) Put the cabinet back together

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.

Very simple to take dryer apart ,1st top snaps off and 2 screws and front comes off,Dryer needed new front guide but I replaced rear support and belt also as recommended, good time to clean it out too.Hardest part was getting old guide and lower seal off, don't know if it's right but I used a small die grinder with a wire brush attached and it went real quick to clean old felt and glue off. $85 and dryer runs like it is brand new. easy for anyone with some mechanical ability. PartsSelect webpage made getting the right parts fast and easy

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.

Repair to replace motor and blower kit. Disconnected Power Source and turned off breaker. Removed top and front with screwdriver. Removed back plate with screwdriver. Disengaged belt. Removed plastic piece in front top with phillip screwdriver. Removed Drum. Disconected thermostat from blower. Unplugged motor connections. Removed screws holding in blower unit. Removed blower unit and motor as a unit. Removed pully unit (2 Screws). Took off blower unit security nut to be used on new unit. Took old seal out of pully unit. (New Motor has one installed on it). Put pully unit back in. Put in new motor and blower unit. Screwed them in place. Reconnected thermostat. (2 screws).
Connected electrical plugs to motor. Put drum in and plastic piece in front top of dryer. Hooked belt back up from rear. Replaced rear door. (2 screws). Reconnected ground wire on back top of dryer. Put on front making sure all wires to Timer are connected(they can pull off when taking drum out). Close front. Polug dryer in. Reset dryer in place. Turn on Breaker. Done.

First, I liked for a reset switch, because I guess some dryers have one. It seems mine doesn't. So that didn't work.

Next I cleaned out the lent build up everywhere. I would suggest doing this if you have a problem or not. It ended up being very little work for great return.

Heating Element had actually broke in half, so I ended up needing to replace it. Really unhooking the little electric prongs was the worst part. The have little tabs that bend down to hold them in place, and they don't really bend back up. So you have to break them out. The only thing with the coil is to make sure it doesn't touch the pan.

I put a new built on only because I had everything open, and had know idea how old it was. It was not hard really. You just need to pay attention to how the old one wraps through everything before taking it off. If it was shredded, and you didn't get to see it first, well then good luck.

I thought I was going to have to buy a new dryer. I thought it was the whole cycling mechanism....I could see $500.00 being spent. When I tried to take off the knob it fell in pieces in my hand. I tried to get by with just turning it with a pliers to to any cycle and just time it till the clothes got dry.

Then I thought "I wonder if I could google it and maybe find anothe part. Never have done that before!!" I narrowed my search to Westinghouse dryer knob.. On the back of the knob was a part # ..I included that too. I went to Part Select.
Bingo, almost immediately it came up...with pictures and dimensions. There was my part and with the number on it.
I ordered it immediately, The cost was $26.00. I was told via e-mail the part was available and it would take 3-5 days. The time was 4:00PM. The next day at 3:00PM the door bell rang and there was my part...in 23 hours.
In 15 minutes the knob was on and the dryer was working perfectly.
My wife was elated. I was proud of myself for being able to actually do it myself and save us $475.00
Twas a great experience and gave me confidence to tackle other jobs around the house.
Thank You for allowing me to tell my story.

unpluged dryer first. Removed knob,rear panel and two screws holding timer in panel. Swaped wires one at a time to new timer and replaced it in dryer.Replaced rear cover and pluged it in and tested the timer
.it worked fine so repair complete.