85168-P1117112W Amana Refrigerator - Instructions

replaced the entire ice make - 3 screws and a squeeze -off connector and it's out. Reverse to re-install... except that the fill tube had iced up. To thaw the fill tube: unload freezer section (leave food in fridge, but keep door closed), remove ice maker. Boil water, dip drill bit (dull end) into hot water, swirl around, insert (dull end) into to fill tube. Depending on how hot you got it, maybe a tablespoon of ice will melt. Repeat many times - fill tube is about 14" long! Do not use anything sharp - you will nick the tube and ice will form causing you to repeat this procedure. Do not try to break the ice - let the heat work. It took me about 30 minutes to thaw the whole thing - it made a nive gasping noise when the final plug opened up. Re-install ice maker.

After unplugging the appliance I needed to thaw a large ice buildup off the evaporator cover panel before I could even remove the panel. The freezer being on the lower part of the appliance has the evaporator mounted vertically and it was 100% encapsulated in rock hard ice. It took over an hour to thaw the ice and collect all the water with a shop vacuum, since the condensate pan began to overflow.
One thawed, I checked all wiring for good connection, checked heater, defrost thermostat, timer unit with multimeter. The defrost thermostat checked out fine after putting it into another freezer for a 15 minute cooldown, but I noticed a crack in the seal and suspected internal moisture and decided to replace that part. A simple plug in of two leads to the new part after clipping it to the evaporator, replacement of the panel, and the appliance was up and running problem free.
A workbench disection of the old part confirmed my assessment, it had internal rust and water and had failed causing the defrost cycle failure.

i just took the prts apart and replaced with new part really easy and saved $185.00 easy as pie

After removing the old ice maker, I pulled off the wiring harness and plugged it into the new unit. The new unit went in place of the old with 3 screws. This was the only repairs needed. It started talking to the frig and we had our first batch of ice in minutes.

Pull refrigerator out from wall to shut off water and power. Remove ice bin, pulling front down then out. Remove screw at bottom of icemaker, then pull down to release two clips, Pull out a couple inches to get hand behind icemaker to release wiring harness connector. (squeeze top and bottom to release clips). Remove unit. Remove wiring harness and wire bail from old unit and install on new unit. Reverse steps to install new unit. Make sure ice bin is fully inserted, or unit will not function.

I simply removed the old switch by gently pulling down on the old switch with a screwdriver. When it was about half way out I just gently pulled down on the old switch and it popped out... I removed the two connectors attached to the old switch by pulling on the connectors with a pliers...I tried using my fingers but wasn't able to pull the connectors off so I used pliers. It worked perfectly.. When pulling off the old connectors, make sure you attach the new switch to the same tabs on the new switch... It was very easy to do and took under 5 mins.....The light switch works perfect....P.S. You should unplug the frig while making the connection just in case....Safety first....!!!

After checking the water valves ordered new ice maker. received the part three days after ordering! Clearing out food, removing the old one and installing the new unit took under 15 minutes. Everything went fine.

inserted a knife between the switch and the plastic interior in order to pop the switch out.
then took off the 2 wires on the old switch put them on the new switch and reinserted the switch into the plastic interior.

Despite a long delay due to a lack of stock on hand, the correct part arrived and matched in color. It came without the little rectangular plastic cap or cover for the bottom bolt, so it was good to have kept the old handle and plastic cap on hand. I imagine other owners might have thrown out a broken part, bolts and cap in the meantime. Strictly the handle arrived, but it was easy to install. I'm grateful for a part I wasn't sure could be found.

The ice maker plugged in easily , the most time was spent drilling hole in floor and running water line to pipe. In 4 hours ice was being made.

installed replacement ice maker kit. 1st removed power. next loosened 2 upper phillips screws. then removed lower phillips screw and lifted and removed old ice maker. released wiring connector and pulled entire unit out of freezer. then i reversed the procedure to install the old unit. check youtube for instructional videos.

It's self-explanatory. The procedure is obvious; it's just a little difficult. The only hard part is attaching the mounting brackets to the fan. If you can't tighten the mounting bolts, loosen them and reposition the brackets. You might end up mispositioning them at first, because they are hard to reach.

, to remove the inlet tube holder/guide gadget thingee: (1) remove the three Phlipscrews from the motor end of the housing. (2) pull the housing straight off the end. (3) remove two Philips screws in deep holes that hold the ice tray onto the motor housing. (4) this frees the ice tray assembly, which you have to pull out, freeing the rotating blades, from which (5) you slide the sxle out of the middle of the inlet-tube thingee, so (6) you can then remove the inlet gadget from the ice tray.

You then reverse these instructions to reassemble with the correct inlet gadget. The tricky part is the front cover that hides the ice-tray from view. That cover has a couple of ears that have to fit into mating holes in the motor housing before you replace the two deep-hole Philips screws that hold the tighten the ice-tray assembly back onto the motor housing.

So it's too bad they don't see the ice-maker assembly with all the knock-outs inplace, so you can knock out the one you want. Other than that, it would have been no more trouble than other people have reported in working in the tight space inside the freezer compartment.

Replacing the icemaker is pretty simple. Three screws, an electrical connector. Hardest part is getting to the icemaker since the freezer is below the refrigerator.

Instead of the ice maker unclipping from the wall after one 1/4" screw being removed from the bracket, I had to remove three of the 4 Phillips head screws from the ice bucket slider below the ice maker and swivel it down to allow the ice maker bracket to clear. The two 1/4" screws holding the ice maker to the wall at the top had to be removed and then the ice maker could be pulled away from the freezer wall. The rest of the instructions went according to the video and went well.