11086894100 Kenmore Dryer - Instructions

My wife reported that the dryer was not working. I checked it and it seemed to work fine. This went on for about a month or two. Every time I checked it, it started just fine.

Well, she threatened to go buy a new dryer, I took her more seriously. I thought perhaps a thermal protection was the cause. But when I dug into it, I learned that when those trip out, they are permanent (have to be replaced).

I finally noticed loud humming sound the motor made at start-up, when it failed to start turning on one occasion and eventually tripped out the motors thermal protection.

I ordered the new drive motor form PartSelect.com.

Replacing the motor was fairly easy if you like to take stuff apart. One thing that I had not anticipated was that the two foam gaskets on the exhaust duct were dry rotted. I went to my local part supplier to get them. They did not have them in stock. :( While I was there, I asked how much the motor was, they wanted $50 more than PartSelect.com :D

I put it back together without the new gaskets, and it runs like new. I ordered the gaskets from PartSelect and will add them when they arrive.

My wife is happy again, she can bust out the laundry in one day; it had been taking here all weekend.

I learned to take her at her word.

I tried to follow directions followed by others on this site after diagnosing the problem via suggestions provided by users. I have a Whirlpool Duet dryer from 2002. We've had problems since moving about 3 years ago. I removed the front panel (lower) by unscrewing the two bottom screws (1/4" sheet metal screws). Then I took out the lint screen and the metal tube/contraption immediately beneath to get access to the area where thermistor is located. See the drawing/chart to help you locate this. It's really easier than it seems. Make sure you have the chart/drawing for your model - it makes difference! The thermistor came out pretty easily with a nutdriver that has a swivel offset shaft. Ask your hardware store tool dept. about that one. Put everything back in reverse order of course and test either with/without the front panel re-attached. In my case it fixed at least part of the problem. I was able to get clothes almost dry with most settings but I have yet to install the moisture sensor to see if that helps in addition to the internal-bias thermistor. I am the kind of person that does one thing at a time so at least I now know the thermistor was bad. Good luck and hang in there with your own repair. It's a lot cheaper even if it takes you longer to do than a pro.

First, I opened up the front of the dryer and then unscrewed the entire back piece. I assembled the new exhaust piece from the kit. Next, I took out the old straight rear exhaust and then replaced it with the elbow shaped left eshaust from the kit. Lastly, reattache the back and front pieces of the dryer.

It was easier to remove the blower manifold cover, (3 screws) to get at the heater element. Remove the heat shield, disconnect the two wires from the element. There is another screw on the side holding the element in the housing. Remove it and slide the element torward you. I used pliers as it was a snug fit. Replace. Good time to vacuum the whole area.

**** Remove power cord from the wall****

As said earlier, you will need to lift the top. Drop the two screws holding the lint shoot and pop the top by sliding a screw driver into the corner on the front. Lif tthe top and rest against the wall behid the unit. remove the two (4 total) screws at the top and bottom of the front door assembly.
Place sometin under the front portion of the drum. At this point you'll see the need to clean everything! :) Slide the belt off and around the drum, (take note of the routing it takes.) Remove the drum by gently pulling it towards you. Set it aside. Clean more. :) (It is nice to have a vacuum handy.) At this point you really need to get to the rear of the system. So I tipped the top back down, and spun it around. Removed the rear panel and cleaned some more. (15 years of a lot of lint in there!) Then you'll need to remove the rear cover on the left side, covering the blower impeller. Get read for a whole lot of debris. Vacuum again. So now you have the motor exposed in the front and rear. You need to remove the impeller by turning that clockwise to loosen it. The trick is holding the shaft in place from the front at the same time. I used an old rag and wedged it into the impeller edges and worked it around until it jamed up. Once the rag was wedged pretty good, I went back to the front spun the shaft. Then you can remove the impeller by hand. Vacuum more. You may get by without having to remove the lint shoot completely, but I did just to clean it up more. I did have to remove two screws in the upper corner near the top of the lint shoot. (Basically the hold the back in place.) I took a few notes at this point about the wiring harness. Used a heavier screw driver (standard), You can push down on the clips that hold the old motor in place. Then work it out the front. Clean more. The new motor is not an exact replacement slightly differnt but the instructions with it were ok. Follow them for the correct wiring. You will need to remove one wire and cut and recrimp a spade lug or two. I used ty-wraps to secure the lines back in place. Look closely at the diagrams and make sure you set the motor down in the same direction the instructions say, if you twist it slightly it will sorta lock in place where it needs to be. Re-install the hold down clips to the front and rear of the motor. Clean up your impeller, and reinstall it too. Then basically reassemble the dryer...tracing your steps backwards. This isn't really difficult, it just takes time and as you can see, you will/should clean as you go !

After unplugging the dryer, I removed the bottom panel in front. Remove the the filter inside the dryer and remove the filter housing below. There you can see the thermal fuse on the air duct, its white with two blue wires. You can check it with a ohmmeter after removing the wires. If its open its bad. Its held in place with two sheet metal screws. After replacing the thermal fuse the dryer worked fine. However I would suggest cleaning the air duct and the outside discharge opening. Hope this helps.

I disconnect the power, then the vent pipe. I removed the back panel of the dryer to access the pulley and removed the belt. Replaced the back and put everything back together.

Inside the dryer tub, remove the filter housing by removing two phillips head screws. Unplug the sensor wires, note when replacing wires, black wire goes on upper sensor.
Separate filter grill from housing. Using the pliers, compress the tabs on the sensor plugs and push it thru the grill. The small blade screwdriver may come in handy here to pry up on sensor to assist in pulling the plug end through the grill. Replace the sensors by hooking short end into grill and pushing the long end through the grill. When replacing the housing to the dryer, the most difficult thing is getting the screwdriver onto the recessed screws. Be sure to put the tab on top of the housing under the dryer frame when rotating the assembly into place.

With the correct parts and watching the video, it was so easy to repair. We ordered the wrong part (for the Electric Dryer when it should have been for the Residential Dryer) but the return was easy and we got the new parts super fast. Next time I would probably look at the offending part first before ordering just to make certain. But we used a socket set and Philips screwdriver and actually had our teens do all the work for experience. Fixed the loud noise one and for all.

I moved the dryer to a location where I could get to both the front and back sides. I opened the back by first removing the top cover and then the back. It requires either a Phillips head screwdriver or a quarter inch socket. In addition, it requires removing the four power wires which connect to the computer. If you are unfamiliar with the wiring layout, take a photo with your cell phone which you can then refer to when re-assembling. Once the back was removed, I saw that the belt was still intact, but the pulley which provides tension to the belt was frozen. Take a photo of the belt route between the motor and the pulley. Try to get the spring position in the photo. Remove the belt from the pulley by reducing the tension and then sliding the belt out (this assumes the belt is not broken). The pulley arm is held in place by a single bolt which can be removed by a socket set. Remove the arm with the pulley attached. Examine the pulley to figure out why it is frozen. In my case, the pulley had been frozen for some time and the belt had actually chewed through the pulley and was sliding (polishing) on the pulley axle? I used a pair of pliers to loosen the destroyed pulley by rotating it back and forth over the axle while gripping the arm the axle is attached to. As it loosened up I worked it off the axle. I used a cloth to clean the axle of grime from the belt, pulley, and dryer lint. The new pulley comes with a washer and triangular plastic "fastener". First you put on the washer, then the pulley and then you secure it on the axle by sliding the triangular fastener over the axle so it sits in a small grove near the end of the axle. Then put the pulley arm back by replacing the bolt. Make sure you do not overtighten the arm since it is intended to rotate about the bolt. If the dryer belt breaks, the spring will pull the arm down and throw a cutoff switch. Its operation should be obvious. Once the arm is back in place, refer to your photo and replace the spring (this can be tricky and frustrating, particularly if you don't use something like needle nose pliers). Once the spring is in place, depress it and re-install the dryer belt. Refer to the photo you took earlier if you've forgotten how the belt was routed. Then re-install the dryer's back panel, re-attach the electric wires (again refer to the photo you took earlier), and re-attach the top cover. You might want to test your handiwork at this point before you reconnect the dryer vent

once the back is off remove belt from tentioner and remove v clip. smooth shaft with wd-40 and scotch brite , then install new idler replace v clip
and your done !!!

After replacing the heat element as a guess, (which did not fix it), I measured voltage with a DVOM, found lower cut off switch in op, And thanx to some tips on parts select I ordered the the Thermal cut off kit, fast shipping, installed very easily and all is working properly

I'm still waiting on my idler pulley. It arrived at Fed EX depot in Tracy CA on December 14th and has still not been shipped. So it is pretty fucking hard for me to install it! Maybe if you had customer service that would answer their phones or reply to my Emails would be helpful

Rather than remove the front panels, door, control panel and drum, I noticed 1/4" metal screws on the back panel. There were approximately 6 holding the back panel in place. I did have to remove the top panel as well before removing the back. Once removed I had complete access to the broken idler pulley assembly. I immediately saw the broken pulley. I installed the new one with very little effort. Reset the belt according to instructions from the video. Reassembled, plugged in, hit start and enjoyed the sweet sounds of success. All told it took me about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Used socket set to remove the two hex-head screws from the bottom flange of the toe panel. Manually pulled the panel out at the bottom, pulled down, and removed the panel. Looked to right and found heater shield. Removed heather shield using socket set. Removed the two wires from the terminal block (had to use a little WD40 to loosen connection and wiped up afterwards). Removed the holding screw holding the heating element using the socket set. Pulled HARD on old heating element using pliers and a rag (protection from accidental cut-sharp edges). Once out, the new element slid in relatively easy. Screwed the new element back into place and re-connected the element wires, then put the heater shield back into place. Put the toe panel back into place. Tested and worked great! The only thing that made this "easy" but not "really easy" is that I had to really pull HARD on the old element to get it out...with the sharp edges and tight fit in play, you'll need to pay attention to safety when removing the old element.