RB18KA-4BW (BG46A) Admiral Refrigerator - Instructions

Old ice maker leaking water and produced ice cubes with black inclusions. First, I removed old ice maker per video instructions. Transferred electrical cable, cover, and bail to new ice maker. First installation failed because I failed to make sure water tube correctly enter back of ice maker. No ice. Initially thought electrical cable wasn't firmly in place. Then I noticed frozen water dripping down back of freezer. A clue! Removed ice maker and reinstalled making sure water tube went through the hole in back of ice maker. Now the new ice maker works beautifully!

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

Just kept working on it.

figured out the condenser fan was kaput. Tried WD, worked for several days then gave out completely. Took off back of fridge and trained small fan on compressor while I ordered new condenser fan. The swap was easy, undid the housing bolts, stripped off the connector, reconnected and voila! works perfect.

Loosen the screws on the sidewall (don't take them all the way out and drop them on the floor as I did) and remove the screw from the bottom bracket. Change out the electrical wires and the wire level sensor that does not come with the new unit. Put the new one in place and give it some time to cool down and make ice ( don't be impatient like I was and think the new unit was bad or that you replaced the wrong part)

removed old and instaslled new. biggest problem was getting to one of the screws.

I disconnected power, turned off water supply, removed three hexhead screws, disconnected wiring harness plug, then reversed procedure. New icemaker seens to be a little slower in making cubes. However, the cubes are clean, perfect shape and THEY DO NOT CONTAIN ANY OF THE BLACK COATING AS THE OLD ICE MAKER CAUSED. THIS WAS A FAIRLY SIMPLE TASK.

Had to remove the freezer door. Held on by 4 screws. Removed bottom screw on old icemaker and loosened the top 2. Slid the old icemaker up, removed the wiring harness and installed it on the new one. Took the wire out that turns the icemaker off and installed it on the new one. Hooked new icemaker on 2 screws, installed bottom screw and installed freezer door. Turned water back on and started making ice.

Removed all screws on back and 4 on front. That part is easy IF you have a Torx of the right size. Slip out the ice bin a bit and replace the drive ring. Reassembly is a bit harder since some internal shift can occur -- rotate or tilt the whole assembly to get two -- I think -- screws started. No need to over tighten screws; snug is good enough.

Since it was an older appliance I decided to replace the whole ice maker assembly. I carefully disassembled the old one and then installed the new one. piece of cake.

Reattaching the kickplate clip was easy, but the tab that holds in place was broken. It would slide back when the kickplate was installed. I fashioned a replacement tab out of a piece of 3/32 aluminum bent into a U with the hammer. To hold it in place I drilled and tapped one hole and used a 6-32 machine screw.

First had to remove baskets and door from freezer. Removed three screws; removed old ice maker; Attached new ice maker with three screws; removed arm from old ice maker and placed in the new ice maker. Replaced door and baskets

When that one came and I went to install it, I found that my fridge was so old (almost 30 years) that the wire harness on the old icemaker could not be transferred to the new one. The old one was hand wired into the guts of the machine with wire nuts and other connectors. The new unit needs a plug in harness to match a plug connection on the ice maker. Also, the bent wire arm that senses ice bin levels was different, old unit hooked in with clips and such, new one pops into a socket in the new ice maker.

I called PartSelect back again, and the clerk spent a lot of time in the books (no parts in the online listings) and found new style connector and wire arm. Another 25 dollars and problem is solved.

Once those parts came, the actual installation was a breeze. Remove three screws, unplug the ice maker from the back wall of the fridge, plug new wire harness into new ice maker and the back wall of the frige, install new ice maker with the same three screws, pop the new style bent wire arm into place and pop the plastic cover from the old ice maker onto the front of the new one. Done! Took me ten minutes (plus two weeks of chasing parts, but only half an hour of actual time in those two weeks).

I let it make a couple of loads of ice that I disposed of (to capture any dust and crud that might have been on or in the new ice maker) and then turned it loose. We had a nice full bin of ice in the morning.

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

Repair done according to video and instructions. What you need to know is myself and my husband are adverse to all kinds of "simple" repairs because they never go well and we are not handyman kind of persons. This, I must say, was a delightful change in our typical experience of attempting to make our own repairs.
Thanks
Sandy