DE180 Maytag Dryer - Instructions

I happened to come across a repair story posted by Wayne From Minneapolis MN about how he reinstalled the tumbler, plugged the dryer in, and started it up but forgot the belt and realized that it was the blower wheel that was loose on the shaft. As soon as I read that, I said, "Yes! that's it!" So I ordered the blower wheel and a belt. I decided to replace the belt since I saw it was slightly frayed. After all, the dryer is almost 20 years old!

First, switched off the power to the dryer or disconnect it from the outlet. Took the front panel off by removing the two screws near the bottom of the dryer. Pulled the bottom of the panel out and the two clips on the top just disengaged easily. Be careful, there are two wires connected to this panel. Just rotated it to the left and let it rest vertically. If need be, the two wires can be removed easily.

Next, I removed the four screws to take out the front tumbler and the tumbler. Set them aside. Then I removed the belt. You might want to pay attention as to how the belt goes around the motor pulley and the idler pulley before removing the belt.

After nearly 20 years, I'm surprised that it wasn't full of lint and dust. Gave it a good vacuuming and clean up.

Next, I removed the blower cover, the retaining ring, the hub clip, and the blower wheel. Installed the new blower wheel, hub clip, and here's the challenging task without the proper tool - putting the retaining ring back on the shaft! It took me about 5 minutes to put it back on the shaft with a small flat-head screw driver and an awl. Reinstalled the blower cover.

Next, I put the new belt over the pulleys and loosely hung the belt on the back tumbler to hold it up. Then I put the tumbler back in and worked the belt over the tumbler. I let the belt sat in the groove of the tumbler first and then when the tumbler was in position, I worked the belt over the two pulleys in to the proper position. Then I moved the belt to strap over the top of the tumbler. At this point, I just rolled the tumbler with my hand when part of the belt was out of the groove and on top of the tumbler. The motion took care of getting the rest of the belt out of the groove and on top of the tumbler as it should be located. Reinstalled the front tumbler and then the front panel.

Powered it back up and started the dryer and viola! the rumbling noise was not to be heard. Just like it used to sound - a low humming noise. Thanks Partselect.com for the helpful repair stories and the speed in getting the parts to me.

Well lots of other people here described the process and thats basically what I did.
Unscrewed the front of the dryer and behold the mountains of filth, lost toys, and spare change. Unplugged the dryer. Did some basic cleaning but wanted to get to the matter at hand.
Unscrewed the lint trap - realized I did not need to and put it back on. Unscrewed the 4 screws holding the drum and pulled the front off.
I just cut the old belt off. It was cracked and about to go. Put the new belt on and snaked it back into place. Opened up the back hatch and got it into place via the diagram. (It was spot on)
Put it all back together, plugged it in and started it up.
Hmmmm.. a odd rubbing noise.
Took the front off and looked around. Things looked fine. Checked the belt and started making sure it was working right.

NOTE!!!!!!! It is plugged in at this time you idiot.

Ok, so im trying to get the belt in the right spot and checking how the drum turns when i pull the belt. Well my arm touches the contacts for the dryer element and shocks me. Natural reaction is to yank my hand out as fast as I can. In doing so I punch a nice big gash into my palm. So laying on the floor, shocked, bleating, and its a flithy cut with lint in it.
Yeah me!!

After stopping the bleeding and cleaning it with peroxide I got back to it the next day.

I had the belt IN the grove of the drum. I messed around and moved it OUT of the grove. Worked perfect. While it was in the grove there was not enough tension. Moving it to the main drum tightened and had it go perfectly.

After removing dryer front, remove several metal shields(ouch sharp!). Remove clamp and keeper ring and blower wheel. Then remember where all those screws came from. If I did it again I would put a spacer washer behind the blower wheel which is not in the original design. This might prevent this happening again.

I watched the instructional video-it was extremely helpful! I have no experience with taking apart or fixing a dryer, but the video showed me everything I needed to do. It took me 1-2 hours, but I think it only took so long because my dryer was disgusting inside (full of many years of lint and dog hair) and a lot of that time was spent cleaning it. I was thrilled that I only had to spend $20 (including shipping) and a couple hours and now it runs great! I looked up the model-it's from 1985! A new dryer is not something I'm excited to spend my money on, so now I'm going to come back to this website if anything else goes wrong and fix it myself!

I have never replaced a belt on anything before, but I did this mostly with ease.I watched the video and said " I can do this". Removed the front and the blower as instructed, removed the tub and belt, tried to put new belt on,had a problem,watched the video again, put the belt on pretty easy, then put it all back together and WOW, it worked. So easy any WOMAN can do it !!!

I caused added difficulty and time by not taking pictures while I disassembled the dryer. Otherwise everything was accessible through the front. Two phillips screws to take off the lower panel. Two 1/4" hex screws on the top to loosen the front which tips out and can rest on the washer while you use the hex drive to access the blower. 4 hex screws inside the dryer for the plastic filter housing. Snap ring to remove the ring and pliers to remover the clamp . Pictures would have made it a job of well less than an hour. Note: Easy access to the snap ring so would allow remove and replace w/o the special pliers if you are handy with a flat blade screwdriver.

The Maytag OEM motor is no longer available, so what you get instead is a Whirlpool which is an exact mechanical match, as for the electrical wiring, good luck getting support from Maytag or Whirlpool as it was non-existent (maybe because I installed the motor on a Saturday) they should have put some wiring instruction in the box with the motor, as they were not available on line, I spent almost as much time online as I did working on the dryer trying to find a wiring diagram and finally looking through a bunch of Youtube videos to find one that was close to what I was working on, this task was not an easy one, if you are mechanically inclined you will do just fine.

had done belt exchange before so it was not a new drill...this time belt was *not* broken and probably wouldn't need to have been changed...bearings (they're a wheel- like in much the same way as are those wheels on the Chilian rescue capsule) seem to spin free but tumbler does not turn quietly

still drys clothes ok but imagine it is providing these noises as a clue to it's pending demise

the new lint filter works good, however

My 10 plus year old Maytag gas dryer was making a lot noise. I ordered a new exhaust fan and also ordered a new belt and two new rollers figuring once I got the thing opened up I should replace a few parts.

First unplugged the dryer (very important!).

Took the front panel off by removing the two screws at the bottom. Disconnected the two connectors for the door switch. Used socket wrench to remove the four hex screws that hold the front of the dryer drum in place. Put my arms inside the dryer to the back of the drum and slide the old belt off the drum. Pulled the drum out and put aside. Used socket wrench to remove several hex screws which hold the fan cover in place. Used needlenose plyers to remove one clip and a pair of circlip pliers to remove the second clip (had to buy these pliers at HD for $20). Took old fan off, put new on one, put clips back on. Replaced fan cover with hex screws. Then onto the rollers. These are held in place by similar clips as the fan and need to be removed with circlip pliers (really tough to do otherwise with trashing the clips). Took the old rollers off (they were actually in decent shape by I replaced them anyhow). Oil the shaft the spin on. Put new rollers on. Put clips back on. Now new fan and rollers. Vacuumed all the lint out from around the inside. Took old belt off (noting that ridged side goes along inside of motor pulley). Put new belt around the motor and tensioner pulley and rested the rest of the belt against the inside of the dryer. Put the barrel back into the dryer against the back. Put my arms inside the dryer and managed to get the belt around the drum in the proper position (take note of proper position when you take the old belt off). Put front drum holder back in place with 4 hex screws (make sure felt "glides" are not folded in and are positioned properly). Put front panel back on (2 screws on bottom). Don't forget to reconnect the door switch. Plug into power. Test. Quite as a mouse.

Read the instructions included with the parts, removed the 2 screws on the front of the dryer. Removed a couple of wire connections and 4 screws that held the drum in place. Moved the drum enough to have access to the roller supports. I removed the nut from the back of the supports with a 1/2" wrench. Placed the new supports on the old support pins and reinstalled them. Put it all back together. Probably the most difficult task was getting the drive belt back on the drum correctly. I was done in just over 1 hour.

After reading the other E-mails and checking the Schematics included with this website - I found the information extremely helpful. I decided to order a new belt (even though the old one looked acceptable), because mine is more than 10 years old. They send you information with order too that helps explain the process of replacement. I followed the procedures that everyone else recommended - therefore, It would be repetitive to do over again. I could not find an exact match with my model number, but some of the descriptions were close (unfortunately I do not have the model number with me right now).

People who attempt to replace their belt should be aware that replacing it is a trial and error thing. It took me a while when holding the tumbler up with my left hand and hooking the belt over the motor wheel and pulley wheel with my right hand, at the same time. You can not see what your doing and you are doing everything by touch. You have to twist it a certain way - not easy in tight quarters! The other thing that I discovered was the pulley wheel was difficult to turn. I had to spray alot of silicon spray and turn it by hand a number times to get it loose. Once it loosened up it turned over very easily.

I'm glad I did this procedure on my own. Its good to know that you are saving money by not calling a repairman and figuring it out on your own.

Thanks again Parts Select!

When this dryer was given to me, I was told the door switch was going bad. It was originally purchased in 1996 as a REAL MAYTAG, so fixing it was no brainer, but the switch did not fix the problem. I pulled the small panel off the back to expose the motor and struggled to spin it by hand, so I assumed the motor was seizing up.

I entered the model number into this website and found a motor that would work and also decided to go with a belt and a fan. There was an installation video provided when I added the motor to my cart. The dryer was older than mine, but obviously identical on the interior. The only difference was that older dryer didn't have a little deflector shield that I have and I still can't remember where that goes. My dryer appears to be working just fine without it though.

Like the video stated:
Remove two screws at the bottom of the front panel to remove the panel while disconnecting the door switch wires. Since I had an old switch, I took the three wires and plugged them into that so I would remember where each one went .

I believe after that was the fan housing with a few bolts, then the drum. I reached through the small back panel to loosen the belt by moving the tensioner back, then removing the drum. The fan was secured by a snap ring and a spring loaded hose clamp that required a small set of pliers.

There were two bolts that held the motor in; once removed, the motor slid out with the bracket. The tough part was using the screwdriver to get the clamps off that hold the motor to the bracket, but the video helped with that.

The new motor did not come with instructions on how to wire it, so I had to go to this site and find somebody who had asked the question. The video did not do all that great a job in showing me where the wires go and since the motor was different than my REAL MAYTAG motor, I had no idea where the wires went, but I found someone who asked the question and he got the answer, so I was able to figure it out.

It had been over a month since I had taken the dryer apart so I went back to that video which, except for the wiring and that tiny little deflector plate, provided excellent detail of how to install everything. I had trouble deciding where I wanted the wires to make sure the drum didn't rub on them, so after it was all back together, I watched the drum rotate with the dryer running from that little panel in the back.

One thing that saved me was every time I took something off, I kept the bolts with that item. It only became a problem when my friend came over and saw the dryer in pieces. He just had to give me his own lecture about fixing dryers and when he talks he has touch everything, so all my bolts are going flying! I was like, "What are you doing? Are you gonna put this back together for me after you lose all my bolts?"

Unplugged dryer. Removed two screws and removed front of dryer disconnecting the wires from the front. Removed 4 screws and blue wire allowing the me to take the shroud off. Removed blower fan cover by taking out the screws and pulling down. Used pliers to take off clamp on blower fan and then had to use snap ring pliers to remove snap ring. Pulled blower fan off, replaced with new and put back on snap ring and clamp. Reinstalled blower cover, Removed drum by cutting belt (noted the direction of the belt around the idler pulley). Replaced belt (decided since I was going to be in the dryer and it is 14 years old I would replace belt as well) and drum. Reinstalled shroud and front cover. Dryer is very very quiet now.

Disconnect Power - Slide dryer away from wall to allow access to front & rear - Remove 2 screws on lower part of front panel - Slide small screwdriver under top cover to release 2 spring clips - remove front panel (disconnect 2 wires at the door switch) - remove 2 5/16 screws and remove lint trap & piping - lift tub and work the belt rearward as you remove tub - remove belt (make note of the belt routing) - use snap ring pliers to remove snap ring that retains Drum support roller - Remove and replace roller (there are 2 rollers, but usually only 1 needs replacing) - Reverse for assembly - (Note: you will need to remove the lower right hand cover (rear of dryer 2 1/4 screws) to gain access to the motor for belt installation)

There was a rhythmic loud banging noise coming from our dryer (sounded like there was a sneaker going around in the drum). After reading several diagnostic recommendations, assumed it was either the drum belt or one of the guide rollers, but these were found to be OK after opening the front panel. The noise was coming from the blower fan- the center D-shaped hub that connects to the motor shaft had snapped, causing the fan to wobble when running, not what was expected. Had to then place another order for the blower fan part, which was replaced along with a new belt, drum guides and new rollers. Cleaned out a lot of dust and lint, especially around the motor. Re-assembled, and now works like new.