106721581 Kenmore Freezer - Instructions

Replaced the water valve. I knew that the ice maker was working by watching the movement. It was not getting water to it, s I figured it was the electric water valve and sure enough, that fixed the problem.

First I removed all the screws from the back cover.
2nd removed fan nut and fan blade
3rd removed fan bracket
4th I traced wire to the condenser and disconnected wires from wire nuts.
Installed existing fan brackets to new motor kit
then reconnected wire nuts to new motor cord
Reinstalled fan nut and blade,
reinstalled cover, plugged it in and BAM .WORKS PERF!

This was very easy and pretty fast to do and its working great...all for $40 bucks ! you can do this...trust me!

The repair was easy, I removed the cover on the top front of the fresh food compartment. It housed the defrost timer which was easy to identify and replace. Just removed a screw, unplugged the wires and replaced with the new part. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only problem. I also had to replace the defrost element that the timer sent power to. While I was at it, I replaced the defroster thermostat. The entire repair took under an hour, diagnosing the problem took the most time and effort.

I got the product very quickly. (thank you) Looked at online instructions that were quite vague. Pulled plug.Removed the holder for the fan motor slid it out to see what I had. Removed the mounting screws (3) and slid the motor an fan blade out. I made a cut between the wires and marked the "top" wire to motor to be sure to spin in right direction. Removing fan blade hold down clamp was NOT explained at all but I noted that the shaft on the motor was threaded, so I used pliars and held the shaft white un-screwing clamp. I cleaned the fan blades with degreaser and scraped edges of opening on holder opening. Make sure to use ALL the NEW parts included with this kit when re-installing. They send them for a reason. When slpicing and connecting wires it is a 50/50 shot if you don't mark before cutting. You can connect and try plugging fridge back for moment and make sure it is blowing OUT. Put everything back together and after turning DOWN the thermostats twice, fridge is back to usual. Ice maker is cranking out ice and outside case is cool to the touch.

Note: This can be a DIRTY job especially with 4 dogs in house. Fir and grease don't mix well

After the front panel was removed, disconnected the timer and installed new in reverse order. The provided instructions could be more straight forward, I spent more time reading it than the installation itself.

The Defrost Timer is located in Refrigerator section (not the freezer) where your temperture guages are. Move panel and replace the non working Defrost Timer with the new one. It took my husband about 30-40 mins to fix. This was about 2 weeks ago and my Freezer and Refrigerator are working like new. I bought this Kenmore Reftigerator brand new in 1996 and I lost the manuel to it. Thanks to my daughter who found the Defrost Timer on the Internet, I thought I was going to have to buy a new one. This was real easy to fix. The instructions that came with the part was easy to understand and very self explanatory. It also had very good diagrams to follow.

Removed cover change mounting bracket on fan put it back in works great

I removed 7 screws hold the heavy cardboard cover on the rear of the fridge. The dificult part was taking the screws that hold the 3 fan motor braces on the fan out. After that it was a matter of making the wire conections and putting it back in. I did not have enough room to laydown to do the work, If i had it would have been a lot easier to see the screws that had to be removed. All in all an easy job, and the part was a perfect fit.

Unplug fridge, unpluged fan motor from plug socket, removed bracket screws, removed fan retainer clip from shaft. removed screws holding fan to bracket

Reviewed Youtube video as a reference. Unplugged refrigerator. Removed old defrost timer. Matched the color of the wiring harness to the diagram that came with the part. Attach new part to wiring harness.

(1) Ordered PS371704 from PartSelect! Best advice EVER! (2) Unplugged refrigerator (since the water solenoid on the back of the refrigerator is powered to switch ON the water, you NEVER have to turn off the water!) (3) Pull off the refrigerator's bottom grill. (4) With a small saucer under the fittings, unscrew the black and white tube fitting. There is only one nut to remove on the white tubing side. You'll need to undo the compression fitting on the black tubing and slide off the compression nut. You'll need to MAKE SURE you keep these nuts and replace onto the black and white tubing the SAME WAY you took them off. You'll NOT need to use nut drivers as finger tight is the key. Too hard and you'll ruin these plastic nuts. You should get only about 1/8 cup or less of water during this whole exercise. (5) Cut off the old, broken water nozzle. (4) Find a screw of the appropriate size to fit tightly 1/2 way inside the new tubing (this is to ensure your old and new tubing are connected to feed through the door). If screw is not tight within the tubing, wrap part of a plastic (thin) sack around this screw a couple of times and force into the tubing. You'll, of course, then need to use the hacksaw to cut the head off the screw as you'll be forcing the other half of the screw into the old cut tubing (6) Chase the dog out of the kitchen and cajole your wife (significant other) to push the newly joined tubes through the top of the dispenser, through the door and out the bottom as you will be gently PULLING on this old tubing from the bottom until the new tubing pops through the doors bottom. (7) Once this new tubing is out, you will separate the old tubing and, using the nuts in the proper sequence, connect this new tubing to the white tubing. (8) Plug the refrigerator back in and test flow the water. Check to ensure the plastic nuts have no leakage ... button up the bottom grill ... and enjoy the fresh water! PS> Don't forget to praise the wife (significant other) and give the dog a treat for staying out of your face!!

The Whirlpool water inlet valve was better design than the original. All I had to do was drill 2 holes to mount it since it didn't mount in the same location as the old one. I liked the push in connection for the water outlet to the ice maker better than the original plastic screw connection.

Followed video and had one problen, the metal pipe would not release as shown,so I used a hacksaw between the plastic and metal pipe, removing the metal pipe from inside as the video shows. Good instructions.

Replaced the valve and cleaned all the coils at the same time. The ice maker is spewing out ice. Wife is happy again.