GCE21MGTJFBB General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Actually this was a two part repair of which I purchased both parts. The micro switch Pt # PS296176 and also a double outlet water valve Pt # PS304374 from Parts Select as well.

The difficult part was accessing the area to get to the micro switch.

The trim had to be removed, then the cover.

Then one unplugs the board and removed the face plate which also contains the micro switch.

Once removed the two electrical terminals had to be disconnected, the micro switch installed and terminal reconnected.

Then reverse the removal procedure.

Then on to the double outlet replacement.

Suggest watching the installation video for the replacement although it was really a straight forward repair.

Two things to remember.

1. Unplug the fridge

2. Shut off the water to the dispenser

Overall it was not bad at all.

This was my first attempt at refrigerator repair and it went well.

Good luck on yours.

John

Replacing servo was not hard, but did not solve problem. Searched some more and the cure is to remove the light bulb from the dispenser. Seems that old bulbs draw too much current and cause the control panel to fail in sending signal to icemaker motor. Removing the bulb cured this fault and the control panel worked fine.

unscrewed old filter by hand, installed new filter.

First, had to use punch tool to pop out electronic face panel. Face unit still connnect via wires. Use painters tape to hold against refrig. Next, Remove ice/water dispenser and also tape to door. This will give you access to solenoid. Remove the 3 screws holding it in place and unplug fsolenoid from Face Panel. Screw new solenoid and place and connnect to Panel. Goood idea is to unplug regrig. while doing this and put a little WD-30 on shaft of solenoid. May want to order new screws, could be rusty, that hold solenoid in place. Sounds a bit complicated but not that bad a job. You'll save over$100 over GE's service.

Called partselect and gave my model number for the frig. I wanted a filter plug because we did not need a frig filter. We have a whole house filter. They looked up the part, took my info, and sent it to me by UPS. It arrived fairly quickly and fit the frig perfectly. I screwed it into place immediately. It was the simplest order I have ever placed and the salesman was very pleasant and proficient. If I have more issues with my frig, I will call partselect again. Just remember to turn off the water before you start.

The repair is easy, just pop the grill off around the ice and water door, then there are 4 screwws to take out so the touch pad can be moved out of the way to unsnap the old door assm. and snap in the new one and wait about a year and a hald to order another one!!!!!

Of course, the first thing I did was remove the ice cube container from the freezer, and dump the ice cubes. (Conservation note: If you're in a place with water conservation rules, dump the cubes in a big pot and save them. If they melt, use the water for your house plants.) Following the advice from another DIYer, I let the container warm up before doing anything further.
Turned the container (I'll call it the "tray" from now on) over, removed the two screws holding the front cover with the Phillips screwdriver, gently pulled the cover out to disengage it from the rest of the machine.
Getting the next part out was tricky because it didn't want to release just by pushing in on the tabs on either side of the front assembly. That's where the two table knives came in, courtesy another reviewer. Be careful here not to jam or twist too energetically because the plastic housing is still quite breakable.
Just to be safe, I unscrewed one more screw that held the little bracket holding the rod with the spring on it and disengaged it. Then I discovered that I had to unclip the part that holds the auger in the front part of the assembly and slide the auger out of the way so I could pull the broken part out.
Having done all that, putting the new part in and reassembling the whole thing was pretty easy.
Slide the new part in, carefully rotate the auger back into its place, slide that assembly back into place, replace the clip holding the end of the auger, be sure the long rod engages the ice crusher gizmo, replace the screw that holds the rod in place, hook the front of the drawer back into the proper slots, rotate the cover back into position and replace and tighten the two screws.
You're done! The ice cubes you took out will probably still be frozen, so you can dump them back into the tray and slide the tray back into the freezer.
If you're cleverer than I am, maybe you won't need to do all the little things I did, but even so the whole exercise took less than 15 minutes--the ice cubes didn't even melt!

No self defrost. Measured heater coil with ohm meter which was OK (not open). Ordered 2 temp sensors (there are 2 in freezer, 2 in fresh food sections). The original and the new all meaured ~150 ohms. Replaced one by one. This did not fix problem. Ordered defrost thermostat. Original measured ~150 ohms - new one was ~100 ohms. Unpluged refridgerator. Removed coil panel (4 nut screws) in freezer and light cover (1 small phillips screw). Locate defrost thermostat clipped to top of coils (orange / pink wires). Cut wires and unclipped thermostat. Stripped insulation off of wires and reconnect using wire nuts. Clipped thermostat back to coils. Ran refridgerator without panel on coils to see if coils frosted up again and listend for fans/compressor to stop ( took hours). Opened freezer and viewed glow of defrost heater. Problem resolved.

I lifted the old switch with a flat screwdriver, attached wires, and popped into place. Saved 80 bucks for a repair call.

Moved refrigerator out from wall. On the back of the refrigerator at the bottom there is a metal plate. Removed this plate with a socket wrench to expose where the end of the tube pluged in. The grommet securing the tube, white on my unit, had to be pushed up to release the old tube. I pushed the new tube into where the old one was and it self secured the tube. The other end of the grommet I pushed through the hole feeding the ice maker,first pushing out the broked part with a screwdriver,and securing that end with the attached sticky tape already attached to the grommet. I cleaned the area around the hole with alcohol before attaching the grommet.Replaced metal plate and done. No leaks.

I had to remove the fridge door (side by side), which took approximately 10min (most of which was retrieving the right size socket wrench from the garage). With the door removed, I could replace the broken door closing cam and door stop... with 4 screws. Not much to it. Had the door mounted back on in another 5min and that was it. :)

I followed the instructions found on this website. I removed the control panel by inserting a small Phillips screwdriver in the three holes at its bottom. I used the same screwdriver to pull the dispenser assembly down but could have used a larger one. The microswitch could be seen in the assembly at that point and was easily removed by opening the "fingers" that held it in place. I attempted to pull one of the terminals off without using a pair of needle-nosed pliers and ripped the wires right out of the terminal(I was able to find a replacement at Radio Shack). Low and behold after reinstalling the new part, it did not take care of the problem.

My problem is the water dispenser does work intermittently. When we place the glass in position and hit the lever, the lights in the control panel go off and no water is dispensed. My next guess may be the water valve or the control panel. The icemaker makes ice but I have had problems with it dispensing for nearly a year now.

After thawing out freezer pushed water supply tube out from inside freezer diconneted the supply line from the valve assembly by pushing in the bushing with my finger and inserting the new line. Sadly that wasn't the problem!For anyone with the same symptoms of ice building up on your ice maker, to the point where it clogged the water supply line and started leaking from the grommet assembly. The problem is the valve not closing when the ice maker does not need any water. so I ordered a new valve and hopefully that will fix my problem.

Removed control panel, snapped out pretty easy. Removed flapper assembly (4 small screws). My spring was broke but it ended up being the solenoid assembly after I replaced the spring, door crank, micro switch and flapper it was obvious the solenoid was hanging up. I had to go back an order it but it was at my door 2nd day (quickly). I took the time to clean the area with Tylex (some mold), and everything went in easily. I didn't really need the new flapper, crank, and micro switch but they were fairly cheap and then all is new. We use our ice dispenser a great deal so I didn't want to have to go back in and fix a part I "should have" replaced. I used Part Select for my washer motor as well. Doing both repairs myself probably saved 3 or 4 hundred dollars easily.

I had lost the provided bypass filter plug. I decided to replace it with your part.