DE180 Maytag Dryer - Instructions

I bought this machine in 1984. For the belt to last this long, is extraordinary. The belt comes in a plastic bag with instructions. After removing the front cover(2 screws at the bottom, tip bottom out towards you. Cover unhinges from the top. Lean face against a wall. Don't remove any wires). I then vacuumed the inside thoroughly. Used a parts brush to wipe everything off, and blew out with compressed air. Vacuumed again. A bit obsessive, but gas and dust are not a good combination. So why not take the extra time. There is a continuous mark on the circumference of the drum, left by the original belt. Use this as your guide to locate the new belt. Rotate the drum by hand to make sure it tracks correctly. I also ran the motor with everything open, to make sure everything was cool before I buttoned it up. Also took the time to replace the gas line with a new one, and duct-taped the vent pipe to improve air flow.

Removed the door then removed front panel then removed 8 screws that held the drum in. At this point reached in and removed the snap ring on the wheels and replaced the washers and wheels. Then reassembled it.

My son did the repair work. He took off the door and then carefully unhooked the belt and removed the drum. Replacement on the drum roller kit went smooth, and he then oiled the idler pulley while he was in there. I now have a "quiet dryer" once again!!! Had orderd the wrong part to begin with, but was very easy to return, receive my credit and get the "right" replacement part.
Great Service!!!!

My husband took off the front panel and noticed that the center of the wheel was melted. We went on to this website and confirmed the noise with other customers. We ordered the part - received it in 1 day and the dryer was repaired and back together within a 1/2 hr. Part was as is - istructions excellent.

First remove 2 screws on bottom of front panel,pull panel out from bottom to remove. Then remove 4 screws,2 on each side to remove tub support. Then remove approx. 6 Screws on fan access cover to expose fan. Then remove snap ring and clamp on fan hub. Pull fan off and push new fan on and reverse procedure.

First thing to do. . . . Unplug the machine. After that, remove the top 2 screws from the cover from between the washing machine and the dryer and remove cover. Then remove the 2 screws from the top of the front dryer cabinet, pull front cover out slightly and gently let it lay forward. From this point, you can look in and see the drum rollers. Behind the rollers on the roller shaft is a 1/2" nut. Use a 1/2" gearwrench to remove the nut, and pull the shaft with roller attached out forward. Use snap ring pliers to remove snap ring, take off old roller with bushings, and replace with new. To re-install shaft with new roller, you will have to lift the drum slightly to give yourself enough room. Re-assemble the front of machine (note: be careful of the wiring on the control panel, as some connectors may have pulled loose. Make sure they are all connected before replacing front of machine). Plug machine in and test it out. While you have the machine open, use a good vacuum cleaner and remove the lint that you will find inside the machine. Depending on how old the machine is, you should find quite a bit.

Given the age of my dryer, the repair wasn't exactly as proposed on the belt's packaging, but it provided a great drawing of how the belt should contact the motor drive, pulley wheel and drum at the same time. First, I took off the front cover of the dryer with a nut driver. I discovered that I had to put the belt around the drum first and then use my arms to hold the drum up as my hands simultaneously pulled the motor pulley tight and threaded the belt around the motor drive and pulley wheel. After not quite slipping the belt on correctly the first time, I was able to very easily do it on a second try. Had I gotten the belt on correctly the first time, repair would have taken ten minutes. Runs great!!

Unscrew two screws at the bottom of the front panel. Grip the front panel by the bottom and swing it up so it comes off. Leave the wires attached and place it out of the way to the left. Notice how and where those wires come out of the dryer (don't be like me).

Then remove the top by unscrewing two bolts near the front, one on each side. The top should now come loose and you can push it backwards and out of the way. You can now see the drum and the drive belt.

To figure out the problem, I took it this far and saw that the belt was broken.

Now take off the bit that holds the drum in place from the front. There are two sheet metal screws on either side. Undo them and lift the front bit off and out the way.

The instructions that come with the belt are terribly written but they contain nuggets of truth. I departed from their instructions by removing the drum completely. It slides out easily.

With the drum out the way, slip the new belt round the drive shaft and idler wheel, making sure it's the right way round. The smooth side of the belt touches the drum while the rough side is against the drive wheel.

Now come the tricky part. Slide the drum back until it is close enough to the belt, then slip the belt round the drum. There are two depressions in the drum. The back end is slightly smaller than the main part of the drum and there's a 1" by 1" groove a couple of inches forward from the back of the drum. The belt should end up a couple of inches forward from that groove (you'll see the marks from where it was before) but for now, place it in the groove - it's easier that way. WHen you pull on the belt, the idler wheel moves enough to manhandle the belt round the drum. Now manhandle the drum back in position, attop the two free wheels it rolls on.

Reassembly is the opposite of disassemble. :-)

Now comes the other tricky part. If there are two of you, have one person hold the drum in place while the other person attaches the front bit that holds the drum from the front. I was on my own so I tilted the dryer back so I got a gravity assist, then put the front bit back on. After you've noticed that the wires going to the dryer door are all messed up, remove the front bit and do it again but this time attaching the wire where they were before.

Now reattach the top, screwing in the two screws that hold it down.

To reattach the front panel, hold it horizontally and push it in so the two clips on the top engage whatever they're supposed to engage, then let the front panel rotate to the vertical. Two screws at the bottom hold it in place and, as we say in my country, Bob's your uncle.

We had to squeeze the replacement heater housing into a round configuration while pushing it into the inlet duct in the back of the dryer.

I followed the YouTube video for pulling the heating element to remove and place the thermostat. The actual thermostat removal and replacement was pretty simple. Most of my time was spent removing the front panel, pulling and reinstalling the heating element.

Basically just followed the video instructions on this site. Only thing I did differently was rout the belt through the pulley via the back access panel. I also would recommend taking the belt out of the package right when you receive it and hang it on a hook overnight so gravity can pull out all the kinks (makes twisting on the drum less probable).

This was my first time doing any type of appliance repair and it was relatively easy...just scary and time consuming. Took me about an hour to take everything apart, replace belt and reassemble...but took me another hour to vacuum/blow out all the lint that had escaped into the chassis, motor, etc. I also recovered about $2 in change from the blower unit...I'M RICH!!!!!

Removed front cover screws at the bottom, using a stubby screwd river and a 2x4 under the front. Killed the circuit breaker at the panel, removed two wires on fron door. Removed 4 5/16 inch hex screws from drum front cover. Removed 6 1/4 inch hex screws from the cover over the fan blades. These are hard to reach in the back and left sides. I had to use my pliers and the nutdriver socket and my fingers to get them out. Using the pliers I removced the retainer clip from the old fan blades and use the tips of my long nosed pliers to remove the C-clip from the end of the motor shaft, ruining my old pair of pliers. ($15 for a new c-clip retainer removal tool.) removed the old fan baldes, pushed the new blades onto the motor shaft,using a bit of force to pop it on. Replaced the C-clip and the new retainer clip. Replaced 5 of the 1/4 inch hex screws. The screw closest to the drum would not line up, being about 1/4 inch off. Didn't seem to make any difference. Made sure the drum was seated on the rear rollers and replaced the drum front cover, making sure the air tube was seated in the front of the fan assembly. Replaced the 4 5/16 inch hex screws, routed the front door wires behind this piece and replaced the wires on the door switch. Pushed the front door up into the upper cover, lowered the bottom into place and repalaced the two front screws. Reomved the 2x4 and reset the circuit breaker at the panel. Tested the dryer, noting that the noise had stopped. Totat time about 40 minutes.

I took off the front panel by removing the two screws at the bottom. Then removed the bulkhead by removing four hex head screws. I left the drum in place while removing the blower cover by removing the hex head screws from the blower cover. I then removed the clip from the center of the blower wheel with needle nose pliers. Then the part that made this repair a bit difficult was removing the retaining ring. I had purchased Kobalt retaining pliers from DIY store and found that the tips of the pliers were to big to fit in the holes of the retaining ring. I then wrapped a paper clip around each of the needle nose pliers leaving a tiny hook on each. I inserted these into the retaining ring holes and was able to pull them apart enough to remove the retaining ring. I then pulled out the blower wheel and replaced it with a new one from partselect.com and put everything back together in reverse order.

Remove the door and front cover ,then the top flips up ,remove the front drum support then the drum,remove the snap ring and the pulley

I followed the instructions given by other DIYs. The rubber band for the belt was a great suggestion, however having no rubber band nearby, I used a zip-tie that worked out perfectly.

The only tool that I wished I had is a pair of split ring pliers. Not having a pair, used a pair of needle nose and a very small screw driver to provide the leverage to remove the washer.

After following the instructions that came with the belt on how to properly align it to the motor wheel and tension wheel, I plugged everything back in and started it up. Sounded like it was brand new.

I decided not to replace the rollers or drum guides as they looked to be in good shape.