KEMS378GSS1 KitchenAid Microwave Oven Combo - Instructions

My mother and I were having considerable trouble baking or using the wall oven due to the escape of heat because the door wouldn't close properly. She, on many occasions, rested heavy baking pans/sheets on the door which, over years, caused it to "spring". Before I started the project I took a level and saw the door was facing down at least 3/8"-1/2" more than being level. I assumed it was the Door Hinges and after much research I found PartSelect who was extremely helpful in not only advising me as to the exact problem causing the door to not close properly but also in the ordering process itself. Because of the complexity of how the door is assembled I took digital video at various stages: removal of the door, disassembly of the entire door, removal of the control panel, and various small parts of the door - all with audio description by me as I went along. Because it took a few days to order and receive the parts I had time to clean the baked-on, caked-on grease inside all the parts to include the vents on the door and under the control panel using a power-washer when possible. I obtained auto-strength grease cutter/remover and soaked every "group" of screws in separate glass jars with covers (labeled). I also taped screws to a piece of paper, traced them to make sure they went back in the same place, and washed these as I went along. At the time the parts were received they were packaged in a fantastic way - quick shipping, easy to order, and I immediately started to reassemble the door. When I found my video wasn't enough to help me get the door assembled properly I used .pdf files I found on PartSelect which were extemely helpful and with a laptop close by I referred to the video I had taken and also SmartSelect's .pdf files. Because my digital camera was - and is now defective - I lost some of the most important video and this is the reason it took me almost 5-1/2 hours to reassemble the door. I wanted it to be correct given the oven is self-cleaning plus I do not want fires in the house!! All parts were laid out across three rooms and after being like this for almost a week it was great to have the entire oven back together again. At this point the oven door, when opened, is now facing "up" at least 3/4" as opposed to hanging down as it was before this project started. I closed the door and it actually pulled itself shut - something it hadn't done in years! The hinges came with pins already inserted so I didn't have to wrestle with the hinges to insert the original pins. The gasket was the easiest part to replace - simple removal of the old, worn, charred one and pop in the new one using the little clips that came on the hinge. The hinges themselves are extremely strong and well-made. After this project I have to say the oven now looks BETTER than when purchased, my mother has used it to cook with only once and it took 1/2 to 3/4 the time given the door is now completely closed because of the new hinges. I am totally satisfied with the parts, with PartSelect, will keep this site as a reference for further replacement parts if needed, and the oven is positively GORGEOUS after it was thoroughly cleansed of built-up grease. It looks BETTER than a new oven!! THANK YOU, PARTSELECT, for all your help and perfect parts!!

Killed the power to oven, removed oven from its enclosure (its heavy), removed back off oven and the part that needed to be replaced was right there. After that simply reverse the procedure. Honestly hardest part of whole job was remembering what i did with the screwdriver after my last home repair job. The oven is heavy you may need help.

Took off the covers and replaced the little bulbs. Took a long time to figure out how to get the covers off. Bulbs were $26 apiece!

I was able to convince a local mechanic that he could do this after watching it done four times. The most difficult part was unscrewing and taking out the oven to get to the back. He suggested since this has happened everytime I used the self-cleaning feature, that I cut a hole in the wall for easier access (tongue-in-cheek). The most difficult part was dealing with the extended warranty service plan - this is covered, but they could not find a technician to do this. Then I found out they don't pay mileage so who would want to come out to a rural ND ranch to repair an oven?

Contacted repair person on line and explained the problem. Person suggested testing the thermal fuse. Checked for continuity and there was none indicating the fuse was blown. Ordered new part and installed. Everything working again. Only problem was that the new part did not have the same connection as the old one on one end. Made substitution and it worked.

I found several posts about Whirlpool/KitchenAid ovens having this problem and most of the time this required a replacement of the thermal fuse. Other than the large number of screws to remove the oven and the sheet metal coverings, replacing the fuse was mostly about waiting to get the part. If I had a local dealer with the fuse, I probably could have been baking Deep Dark Chocolate Cheesecake that same evening. Even so, this particular repair should be left to those familiar with doing moderate-level handyman type repairs. You have to make sure the breaker is off and beware of the sharp edges on sheet metal. Fortunately, the fuse was easy to find using online documentation for my model. Part Select was very helpful when my original order did not arrive. Their customer service was great!

Removed trim strip from each side of oven, removed one screw from each side hat held oven in place and slid oven out of wall. Finally found the thermostat located on the back side of the oven after removing the sheet metal on back. replaced the thermostat and reversed the procedure. Only difficult part was locating the thermostat. I thought it was on top, when in fact it was on the back. Pretty easy, really, and saved some cash in the process.

Because of the complexity of this door I video-taped my disassembly of the door to make sure I was able to put it all back together again (self-cleaning oven). Original order from PartSelect.com of 2 replacement hinges and a gasket worked only 3 months (the hinges) and the door again wouldn't close. I tried a couple dozen times to remove and put the door back on to no avail. It was my opinion that the original hinges were defective and I called PartSelect.com again. By this time I had removed the hinges (the first set purchased) and noticed the metal was "soft" and had sharp edges in a couple of areas where the hinge hook into the oven. When the replacement hinges arrived (the 1st two purchased came with a 1-year warranty) I compared the 2 new ones with the 2 first purchased and they were slightly different. I once again installed the new hinges, tightened all the screws, and the oven door immediately fell into place and is working perfectly. I have no idea why the first two new hinges worked for only 3 months and then the door once again wouldn't close but the two new replacements from PartSelect.com are working perfectly now. I am disappointed I was charged shipping for the 2nd set of hinges while they were covered under warranty. I do feel that because the 1st set were defective and under warranty I should not have been charged shipping of the 2nd set of hinges.

The only difficult part of this repair was figuring out how to get the oven door off. Most instructions advise you to flip the hinge locking clips, then lift off the door. But this oven does not have hinge locking clips. What it has is holes in the hinges, just behind the hinge pins. To get the door off, you need to open the door and insert some 3/16' pins in those holes, then close the door and lift it off. I almost got this right the first time, but I used 1/8" pins, and they didn't work, too small. It took me a long time to figure out to use bigger pins. Once the door is off, it's just a few Philips screws to work your way down to the glass. There are 4 layers of glass in this door.

When the oven is installed, there are two pins on the replacement hinges that are removed. If you were like me, you tossed these pins so you need to take a large nail and cut a 3/8" of material to replace these pins. This will allow the door to be removed when you open it half way. This is the most difficult part of the repair since you need to carefully pull the door off and a precise angle with an upward pull from the bottom. You will notice the new hinges have these pins so you can also try to get some new pins at a hardwire store that are similar. Next, you need to careful set the oven door down on a smooth work area and remove all of the philip head screws. The front of the door will be remove from the inside door piece by slipping it up a little when the screws are removed. The two screws that are on the inside panel hold the hinges. Take note of how you remove these since you will do just the reverse in putting in the new hinges. It would be a good idea to take the glass section off and clean it if you want to take on the extra challenge but you need to be very careful not to break these and that you put them back that same way it was removed. Now that you have it all put back together, you simply install the door back the way it was removed and then you can open it all of the way down to remove the pins in the hinges. Now would be a good time to put these pins in a save place with the rest of your paperwork for any further removal.

I followed these instructions put in by a fellow customer. These were very helpful. Just make sure the glass is finger print free before you put it all back together. My time was 30 minutes end to end. =========================== The first thing I did was to remove the oven door by releasing the two latches on the hinges (by hand). I then raised the door toward the vertical position and lifted up. The hinges slide out of the oven housing. I laid the door, inside face up on my island counter top. This ensures that none of the parts will fall when disassembling the door. Next I unscrewed the screws 4 top and bottom and four on the inside face. This releases the frame from the front housing. Lift the frame off the door, exposing the glass pieces. Lift off the broken inside glass and place the new piece in the glass retaining housing. Replace the outside frame and replace all screws. Take door back over to oven and slide hinge bottoms back into slots on oven. Rotate to horizontal position and flip latches back to locked position. Total time was about 10 minutes mainly because I was curious how the door was constructed and I poked around while it was disassembled

PartSelect service was quick and good and the price was about 35% of having the appliance store replace the hinges. We have two wall ovens - one a Whirlpool and the other a Kitchen-Aid - and strangely enough both use the same hinges. The oven door hinges are the weakest part of the ovens and we have had to have them replaced before. After paying over a $175 each for the repairs I was shocked to see how quickly they failed. Within 8 months one had to be propped closed with a broom handle and the other with a stool just to keep the doors closed so my wife could use the ovens .. and keep the oven light from staying on all the time.
My wife was ready to call the service people again when I said let me see if I can replace the hinges. I looked at the YouTube videos on oven door hinge replacement and it looked easy enough. I found PartSelect had the replacement hinges so I decided to start with one oven to see if I could do the replacement. It took almost three hours to get the oven door off and the hinges changed. Why? Every demo video on YouTube showed opening the door all the way and flipping over a lock that stopped the door closing at that almost closed point. This allows you lift up on the oven door releasing the hinge arm from the catch so you could slide the oven door away from the body of the oven. Guess what! These hinges didn’t have that little flip over lock!
I finally managed to get the door off using a screw driver to help me disengage one of the hinges from the oven itself. The rest of the hinge replacement went exactly like the demo videos described. Now I had to get the door back on the oven.
I held the door as shown on the videos and it slipped right in, but when I tried to close the door the whole thing was too high and bound. Messing with it I finally heard something drop out and onto the floor. I picked up this little apx. 1/8th inch diameters by ¼ inch long pin with a flared crimp on one end. I looked carefully at both hinges with a flashlight and saw that there was a pin like that on one side and not on the other. I slipped the second pin out of the remaining side and suddenly the door closed perfectly. It was then that I realized that the pins acted like the flip over lock! The problem was the new hinges had the pin and the old one did not, and you should not remove the pin from the new ones before you put the door back as it holds the hinge in a tension needed need to fit the door back on (and that tension is strong).
So there is a trick. You will need something to function as those pins, like a 16p finish nail, when you remove the oven door.
I immediately ordered hinges from PartSelect for the second oven .. saving the pins from the first hinge replacement. The second set of hinges arrived two days later and I opened the second oven door and put in the two saved pins – the door lifted off perfectly and 15 minutes later it was back on with new hinges. By the way, I saved the now four little pins in a zip-lock bag and put them with our file of appliance manuals. If I have to replace the hinges again I will have the pins I will need for removing the door.
One other thing I learned was why I believe the original hinges worked for several years while the ones installed by the service guy failed in months! On each of the ovens the service guy had replaced only one of the hinges. You could see the grime on the 4 or 5 year old ones that wasn’t there on the months old ones. I wish I could show you the pictures I took of both hinges (which this site won’t let me add), but the two hinges placed side by side had slightly different length and shaped locking arms (that part that slides into the body of the oven). On that first door I struggled with I couldn’t understand why one side just slid out while the other I had to force out. Looking back it was the old hinge that slid out and I don’t believe it was ever engaged as the locking arm was slightly shorter and a different sha

removed perimeter screws from the bottom side and the lower cover is hinged at the wall side. Motor is visible and easily removed with two screws. Take of the old one, install the new one, and reverse the procedure to put the bottom cover back in place. Will nee helper to hold one side of the bottom until couple of screws can be put in on the other side.

The Kitchenaid oven has 2 interior oven lights. They are behind rectangular glass panels, in an assembly housing The repair is pretty simple. Shut off the power at the breaker box to the oven first. First remove the small screw that holds in the assembly with a Phillips screwdriver. Put down a white piece of paper towel to catch it in case it drops. It is grey color and hard to find against the bottom of the oven. This will free up the assembly and you can move it out. There is a wire on the back so it only comes out a short distance. Next the glass panel covering the bulb must be removed. The small metal clamp with 2 projections that act like a spring to put tension on the glass. Gently pull this out parallel to to the glass and it will release the lens. The old bulb is a simple 2 prong halogen that pulls out easily. Replace it with the new bulb carefully pushing the prongs in. If you did not turn off the power the light will come on immediately. it will get hot quickly so don't touch it for more than a few seconds. Next slide the glass lens back into place into the back of the assembly. Slip the other clip with the screw back on the front. Replace the assembly back into the oven side opening. Secure by replacing the small screw removed in the beginning. You are done. It is about a 5 minute job start to finish. I would replace both bulbs even if only one went out because the other one probably will go out a short time later and you will have to go through this again soon. Oh, and cheap bulbs are not worth it. They are very dim and burn out quickly. Go with the better bulbs you get from PartSelect.

1. Unplug the power cord from the wall socket. 2. Remove the 10 screws holding the bottom cabinet cover in place. The bottom cabinet cover will swing down allowing acces to the inside ofe the microwave. 3. Remove the connector from the turntable motor. 4. Use a T15 Torx driver to remove the 2 Torx screws holding the motor in place. 5. Remove the motor. 6. Reverse the process using the new motor.