3LG5701XSW0 Whirlpool Dryer - Instructions

I noticed my dryer was heating, but not tumbling. I"m a 53 year old single female, and my dryer I bought used 3 years ago. I had no clue what the problem was. I texted my brother and said, "it heats but doesn't tumble - is it shot?" He texted back "probably the drive belt - pop the top and see." So I popped the top, and sure enough, the belt was broken. So I googled "diy + dryer + drive belt" and watched a You Tube video. I then drove all over town looking for a belt, and the only place that carried it had closed at noon (saturday). So I googled " appliance parts + dryer and came to this site, ordered the part and it was delivered in two days.
I borrowed a nut driver from my brother, removed the front of the dryer, used a plastic cup to prop up the drum. I put the belt on the drum, being sure to place the ribbed side down, looped through the pulley and onto the motor, removed the cup, put the front back on, dropped the top, replaced the lint trap and the two screws holding that in place, turned the dryer on and voila! All done.

Removed and replaced both the thermostat sensor and the ignitor. Tested thej dryer and it worked. Replaced the front panel and it was good to go.

Found the switch part on the floor and after I figured out where it came from it was minutes before it took to find the web site and order the part, I then watched the installation video which helped with a few pointers and days later it was installed and fixed for 10 dollars with shipping,AMAZING!!!

Raised the top of the dryer then took the front of the dryer off. Took the drum off. Replaced the pulley and support rollers. Then, put the new belt on and put it back together.

My dryer started squeaking and I thought it was the drum rollers, so I bought a set. When I attempted the repair and got as far as removing the dryer drum and I decided to spin the shaft on the motor and that was where the squealing was coming from. I put the rollers on and reassembled the dryer. One day later the motor seized up. Ordered a new motor and installed it with no problems. The nut on the back of the motor ended up being a 20mm wrench. Motor cost me $105.56 and the maintenance kit (ps37308) (2 rollers,4 clips, button clip, new idler pulley and belt) cost $32.08. It cost a total of $137.64 in repairs with no labor costs and I accomplished it in under an hour. Minor handyman skills needed or find a friend who is handy. My dryer is 14 years old and now is running like new again. I used the 50% rule, if a repair exceeds 50% of the cost of a new machine, replace it, if the repair can be done for less than 50% of the cost of a new on, fix it.

I did what any novice would have done. I took the entire thing apart to get to the gas jet. I did not know about the thermal fuse until I got to the schematic behind the timer and controls. I was a tech back in the 70's and 80's and only worked on electric dryers. Back then I would remove the heater core and twist the coils together to save money. So I had no idea how a gas dryer heating unit worked. So now any one that reads this. You do not have to take the dryer completely apart, I did that for all of you. Just replace the thermal fuse on the back of the unit by unplugging that wires and removing the screws! It looks like a long white piece of plastic with 2 wires to it. You will find this under the full metal shield on the back of the unit. This should be about a 1 hour repair at the most!

After opening the bottom access panel, I found a lot of lint build up which is very flammable. I took my leaf blower and cleaned it all out. Then I just followed the instructions that came with the part. But be careful as the igniter is fragile. I broke the first one...

I simply removed the rear panal of the dryer. Removed the two wires from the fuse at the rear of the dryer. Attached an OEM meter across the two fuse connections and had no continuity. Ordered a new fuse and recieved it in 2.5 days.Replaced the fuse,reconnected the wires and replaced the rear panal. Started dryer and it now blows hot air and runs like new. I can't say enough about PartSelect. Great diagnosis using their website, the delivery was fast and I recieved the correct part at a good price. Very satisfied, Thanks PartSelect. Fred F

Two Phillips screws, and 2 5/16 bolts and the dryer is open for this repair. Remove the drum and note the placement of the drive belt. Then using a pipe wrench grab the rear plastic fan housing, at the rear of the motor shaft, and turn the front of the motor shaft CLOCKWISE. If the Fan is ceased (as it was in my case) you will need to use locking vice grips (at least 3 or 4 between the fan blades to stop the fan blades from turning on the rear shaft.) while your turning the front of the motor's shaft. If done properly, you should have about 25-30 turns before the motor is free for replacement.
Once this is accomplished, mounting the new motor back into the dryer is a simple matter of reversing your steps. But keep note of the belt placement and the motor wiring placement before starting.

There are two screws that hold the switch in place. And two wires connected to the switch. The most difficult part of replacement is to place the new switch and hold it in place to reinstall the mounting screws. The space to work in is limited unless you remove the front panel from the dryer, which I opted not to do.

The first step was to check the electrical supply to make sure I had power 120 volt. I unplugged the dryer and turned off the gas supply and turned the dryer around so I could have access to the back panel removed panel to access the wiring harness and safety thermostats. All switches and wire checked good with my ohmmeter .I pulled off the front kick panel and checked the electrical schematic and found the door switch was in the circuit to check it I had to lift up the top and pop out the front to access the door switch checked switch and found it defective. Replaced switch vacuumed out dryer and vent reassembled dryer and all worked good.

Checked fuse with Volmeter, had continuity (acted as a short) not the problem. Disconnected Hot Surface Igniter 2 Position connector to check resistance for a range of 50-300 Ohms of resistance with Voltohm Meter. Meter read open (High Resistance). Removed Igniter by unscrewing 5/16" hex nut on igniter plate assembly and noticed silicon carbide element was cracked in the middle. Ordered a new igniter and noticed assembly was required. Be careful here as igniter element is fragile, also do not touch it with your bare hands. You have to lay down on floor to reinstall igniter assembly and you might want to practice anchoring the defective igniter to gain confidence. Finally with slow movements anchored new igniter assembly and turned on dryer. Watched igniter glow heating gas valve and heating gas flame returned. Dryer fixed for a few hours of study online and cost only $24, plus learned how the gas dryer works.

It went well, I followed the instruction video and referred back to it if any questions or difficulty. The instructor on the video was obviously very experienced and duplicating his actions exactly was very helpful, One thing I noticed that wasn't mentioned was that the thread on the wheel / motor is left handed.

I removed the base cover and cover over my lint blower. The thermal fuse is located on top of the blower housing. I removed the thermal fuse utilizing a small nutdriver and installed the new fuse.

Removed the dryer's back panel and took a look. Had no idea what to do next, so I read up on it. Partselect was extremely helpful to me, the exploded views with the part numbers called out were particularly helpful. So I determined it was the thermal fuse. Unscrewed the screw holding in the fuse and disconnected the electrical supply. New fuse went in really easily. Job took a lot longer than it had to cause since I was in there, I cleaned out the dryer really good.

Why the fuse blew was interesting: had an extension cord routed over the dryer, well it was situated such that it caused the timer knob to bind up. Apparently, the dryer ran all night because of this and blew the fuse. So don't obstruct the knob or you will be replacing a thermal fuse!