21604A Admiral Refrigerator - Instructions

I made use of instructions for other users, see 'My ice maker has been shedding.....' and they were very helpful. The one problem not covered - the instructions that came with the new icemaker said to 'remove the bearing and inlet from the old icemaker and install in the new icemaker', but gave no instructions for how to accomplish this.

The old inlet has a square opening in the back and a u-shaped knockout in the side. The new one has a round opening in the side and square knockout in the back)

After several attempts to remove them, I gave up and used the new inlet with the knockout removed. I did not attempt to cover the side opening and it worked fine that way - no leaks.

The can drinks in refrigerator were not as cold as usual. I opened the freezer and touched the back panel and noticed there was a frost buildup. Since I have had this problem before, I knew that the defrost heater must be bad. I removed all the shelves and the tracks. The back panel is held in by 8 small sheet metal screws. I removed the screws and pulled the back panel up and out. The refrigerator is in garage, so I put a fan in front of it and the fan melted the ice off the coils. I disconnected the wires and checked the the heaters (both wired together) with an ohm meter. The meter showed the heaters to be open. (bad). Actually only 1 of the 2 heaters were bad, but I replaced both of them since they are wired together as a set.

Pop off six mounting screws and the ground screw. Remove the fan blade and reattach. Reinstall. Save yourself big bucks.

There are basically three screws that hold the unit in place on the inside of the freezer. Removing them is relatively easy, and the unit is replaced with the same three screws. You do have to use the formed metal wire from your old unit, so don't throw it out! You also have to use the wiring harness from your old unit.

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!

Found a tip online that said to check the resistance of the defrost coil, when I had none I knew the coils had burned out. Before pulling the old coil out I tied on some long pieces of string as was suggested, that made things go very quick! The hardest part was reaching to the back of the narrow freezer space, but fortunately I have long arms. So far all is working well, and I have a great deal of satisfaction knowing I did the repair myself!

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.

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 did not do the repair yet, there is no schematic on how to route the hose; also no description of how to do the routing/connections.

evaporator coils were frozen solid and air wasn't flowing across them

read all directions first, then consider which steps you'd like to take

in any case...
- check for blockages in the upper and lower air vents that allow air from freezer side to cool the fridge-side
- inspect that the fan in the freezer side is actually turning and not blocked


- if no blockages and air is flowing between the sides...

- unplug the unit
- remove all goods from freezer and fridge
- remove freezer side racks
- remove rear panel on freezer side using philips screwdriver (note that the ice-cube tray motor housing must be freed by removing its screws. it can be pull out a bit to get to a single screw holding the top of the rear panel in place)
- allow the evaporator coils to evaporate all ice off, checking the drain pan under the fridge frequently - accelerate the process using a hair dryer or paint stripper (heat gun)
- disconnect the white wires from the connection block located about 2/3 of the way up the rear wall and check resistance using an ohmeter (see specs on back of fridge on circuit diagram)
- if you get a very high resistance reading, the heater element is likely broken. if so...
-- remove the 2 metal shields located horizontally across the evaporator coils (behind them are the two series-connected defrost heater elements)
-- visually inspect the elements - if they are discolored green or black, remove and inspect more closely (most likely they are blown, just like a light-bulb filament that shows black on the glass)
-- if you see nothing, remove them anyway (since high reading) and check connectors
-- replace them (likely only $30 to $75, depending on type)

- if coils seem ok, or if not suspect, check the defrost thermostat WHILE IT IS STILL IN A WORKING/COLD FREEZER.
- get the defrost thermostat into a coil chamber (other freezer or bucket of ice?) and check resistance using an ohmeter. It must be WELL-BELOW 40F to test it. When it is truly immersed in cold (as it would be in a working freezer), test the resistance. it should be 0-ohms when <<40F and some much higher resistance (>200KOhms) when > 40F.
- if not, replace it

-lastly, if neither the defrost heater elements are bad nor the defrost thermostat is bad, open up the defrost timer
-- the defrost timer is located in the fridge side, likely with the fridge thermostat knobs/controller
-- it is a 5-pin part that cannot be repaired. If all else is checked, most likely the defrost element is never coming on because the timer is not turning it on

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)

I took out 1 screw , unplugged the icemaker and lifted it out and installed the new one and had ice in no time at all. can't get much easier.

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.

Merely remove the front bottom screw that attached the ice maker to the refrigerator
Lift the ice maker gently off of the 2 top screws
Unplug the icemaker wiring harness from the back of the refrigerator, and remove
Snap off the end of the maker and remove the keeper for the wire arm
Remove the wire arm and install on new maker
Unplug the wiring harness from the old maker and plug into the new one
Plug the harness into the refrigerator, slip the new maker over the top screws, with the water feed tube inserted into the maker
Install bottom screw into the bracket that holds it in place.
This took less than 5 minutes.