J438B3 General Electric Range

The hardest thing was finding the part to order! The GE Cooktop is from 1957 when the house was built. I followed the instructions that came with it. After seeing where the screw on hinge was supposed to be, I cleaned away the caked grease and finally saw the screw. I had to use a nut driver to remove it since it didn't have a slot for a ... Read more screwdriver. Once that screw was out, the rest was easy. Before disconnecting any wires, I laid the new and old parts beside each other and drew a diagram showing where each wire (red, black & white) connected. It was a bit scary stripping the wires since they were old and fragile. It said to bend them into a "U" and solder but I didn't have soldering skill or equipment so I just tightened the screws holding the wires carefully. The connections are all nicely isolated in the bakelite insulator so it didn't seem cruicial. After working the new unit into place and turning on the power (at the circuit breaker), the burner worked perfectly. The replacement part looked exactly like the original. I was so amazed to be able to obtain the replacement burner after all these years! Thank-you PartsSelect!

Successful repair to Our GE range, manufactured prior to 1965 (when installed in house). Pulled range from wall, unplugged, removed burned-out broiler element. Previous check with GE to make cross reference of range part number to Part-select part number for this nearly 50-year-old range. Obtained new part and installed. Works. Range has ... Read more self-cleaning oven, accidentally destroyed thermal switch attached to element mounting bracket, difficulty with frozen mounting nut. Self-cleaning still works; thermal switch locks out a solenoid which defeats door latch; prevents premature opening of oven door when oven too hot to open safely. Internet search did not find GE part but there are generic devices of the same type available; will consider installation later.

It was so easy. I turned off the power to the range, loosened the hinge screw and removed the burner unit from the stovetop. Next I removed the two spring clips holding the ceramic housing covering the three connectors. Then I loosened the three screws holding the 3 wire connectors to the burner, reconnected the 3 wires to the new bur ... Read more ner unit, positioned the ceramic insulator housing and reinstalled the spring clips and finally replaced and tightened the hinge screw. It took about 5 or six minutes, max.
You can do this!