TPJ24PRBGWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Remove front cover did not remove wires remove ice and water unit took off flapper put new one on 5 minutes back together

Removed icemaker from freezer,
Removed 3 screws from cover plate, and removed screw securing main gear, removed gear.
Pulled back cover plate to expose switches and mechanism.
Removed screw holding switch to remove switch, and installed new switch.
I should have taken a pic of the cover plate, the interior mechanism and the wiring as I went along. It would have saved me 45 minutes in reassembly. Also, as luck would have it, I reversed the wiring on the switch. So off was on, and I had to remove it, switch wires and re-install.
But it works!

Use small putty knife to cut internal sealant on ice maker door trim piece. Then you can easily remove it.

Followed the online video. Unplugged refrigerator, removed trim piece, lifted control board cover, removed 4 screws retaining circuit control board and removed the 3 connectors from the control board. Located flapper and removed by using small flat tip to take tension off flapper connectors. Helper held flash light to illuminate flapper connectors. Reversed procedure. New flapper seals well and cured problems. Circuit board was a bit different than one in video, but still had the 3 connectors. Marked each connector with grease pencil at top edge to ensure correct reconnection. Should note how wires are threaded around circuit board to ensure they are tucked back in correctly in reassembly. Remove trim piece carefully. I broke 2 of the 8 plastic pins that hold trim on. May be due to age of unit as they were brittle. 6 pins still hold trim piece flush.

------------- defrost heater replacement --------------------------
- unplug the refrigerator
- unload all shelves underneath ice maker
- move ice crem into the refrigerator section
- remove all shelves and the bottom tray.
- remove light bulb cover and the bulb
- unscrew two 1/8" screws on top corners of the back panel
- unclip the ground clip on top
- pull the back panel up; pull the left side toward yourself
- test 3 thermistors (see instructions below)
- test the thermostat (see instructions below)
- if either thermistors or the thermostat units are defective, they may be the reason for fan malfunction, not the fan itself.
- unscrew 2 philips screws on either side of the defrost heater
- pull it out and unplug the 2 wires on either end. Replace with a new part.
- putting together is the reverse of disassembly
- move ice cream back to the freezer


--- thermistor testing

- unplug the refrigerator
- locate thermistors to be tested. There's one on evaporating coils, one on bot. left of the freezer (behind deep tray, with white wires), 1 in fridge section (top left, in the corner, inside square white wire conduit; undo the top 1/8" screw ONLY and pull conduit up).
- without disconnecting from the circuit, place a thermistor in a cup of ice water. Wait for 5 minutes
- locate the main control board. Locate and unplug the J1 connector. The pinout, starting from the side with all wires connected:
* pin 5: ground
* pin 4: evaporator thermistor
* pin 3: freezer
* pins 2,1: fresh food thermistor
- use an ohmmeter to measure resistance. Push the needle of the ohmmeter into the socket, where the wire plugs in, without trying to remove the wire. It should be 16.3 kOhm +/- 5% (for 0 deg C)

to replace a thermistor
- cut out the old thermistor, leaving as much wire as possible
- strip the wires, twist them pairwise
- use a bell connector filled with RTV silicone, to ensure that no moisture can get to the connection
* others have also used butt splices and screw-on caps with electrical tape (for moisture isolation)
- using a proper crimping tool, squeeze the bell connector to secure the wire

------------- thermostat testing ---------------------------------
- it's a round quarter-sized cylinder w/ pink and orange wires
- check for bulging (= burnt)
- locate temperature ratings on the side of the thermostat. It should read e.g. 140-30F. This means it's switches to open circuit when >140F is reached and switches to closed circuit when <30F is reached.
- unplue the 6 pin connector that has thermostat.
- test the thermostat. Orange wire is in the 6-pin connector; pink wire can be disconnected from the defrost heater under the evaporation coil. It should read closed circuit (no R).
- place the thermostat into a cup of boiling water. It should open.
- if OK, reattach the thermostat

Replaced flapper. Followed the video. The lamp caused the removable plastic bracket (which supports the control panel and the ice chute) to fuse with the plastic frame in the door. Eventually broke the fused plastic, removed the bracket, and filed the rough broken plastic before reassembly.

I removed the plate covering the water valve for the ice maker and water dispenser, removed the nut holding the 5/16" tubing to the valve and took off the tubing and nut. I did not need to turn off the water supply or unplug the unit. I removed the kick panel in the bottom front of the refrigerator, replaced the existing plastic fitting with a new push-on fitting, then spliced the tubing coming from the water chiller to the valve where the leak was thus bypassing the broken tubing with new tubing. I reassembled the valve using the original plastic compression nut, replaced the cover and ran the water dispenser while checking for leaks. The water dispanser works great with no leaks.

Part attaches to metal plate near crushing fingers which attaches to ice holding bin. Remove about 6 screws total on each side of plate. You must disassemble the auger & other parts so you can reassemble it in the proper order. Not many parts but i always take pics to cut down on time. New part is at the other end of the auger and acts as the holde of the auger shaft. Picture a crankshaft with a bearing on each end so the auger rotates between new part and the other end of auger shaft. That's it.

Had to defrost the freezer to melt off all the ice before servicing. Once that was done the icemaker replacement only took about 15-30 minutes to complete. The new icemaker came with many accessories and adaptors that were not needed and the instructions were based on replacing an older model and not really clear for my model. They mentioned not being able to use the new stripper but it was exactly the same as the old one so I left the new one in place. All in all it was easy and did the job.

Opened, discovered not flapper but more complicated

The video to replace the flapper looks easy, howerer the first step is to remove thestic cover of the icemaker. In my refrigerator model (as oposed to teh one shown n teh video) teh coved if firmly attached and goes under the refrigerator external plate so I was never abel to take it oot (so step 1 failed).
I was able to replace the flapper TROUGH the whole whre te ice comes from! this took lots of patients and someone with small hands!

Easy

Pulled ice tub, removed auger rotation motor and solenoid housing, removed solenoid and replaced with new one and reinstalled. Checked solenoid was working by holding freezer door open and closing switch to door an activating ice switch-- solenoid picked up. Put ice tub with auger back into freezer.

son did the work BUT ONLY AFTER- trying to order the part from Sears parts online, in which they never from the right part and i spent 1 and 1/2 hours on chat and finally gave up. THEN i called sears replair, made appointment for two weeks later requesting 1st repair time of the day, was asured the repair would take place between 8-12 and beacuse it was 2 weeks away it should be the 1st repair. The day of the appt I received a phone call at 11:38 saying they would be here about 12:20, I SAID NO THANK YOU< OUR AGREEMENT WAS BY 12:00. THen I got online typrd in water tank your company come up, showed photo, and price which i ordered it can in my son fixed it and all was complete within an hr.

Unplug your refrigerator. Remove the shelves, light bulb shield and light bulb. Remove the two hex head screws to either side of the light bulb. Wiggle out the back panel. Locate the heater assembly hanging from the bottom of the coils secured with two screws. Remove both screws and lower out the heater. Unclip both connectors from either end of the heater. Take the new heater and replace both end clips. It only goes in one way, so you can't mix them up. Using the two screws, attach the new heater exactly like the original. Wiggle the back panel into place and replace the two hex screws. Put the light bulb and shield back in place and put back in the shelves. You are done.