ZIR300NPKAII General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

I had to remove all of the shelves.....part of the ice maker.....the rear cover over the freezer coils.....There were two wires that came from the back of the freezer that were also incorporated with the fan motor plug from the factory....This caused me to cut all of the wires from the new motor and soider them to the existing plug and shrink wrap the connections. If GE would have supplied two new ends I could have cut only those wires added the ends and inserted them into the new motor plug thus eliminating an extra hour and a soildering iron,,,,In my case not a big deal however not a project for those who have trouble with repairs using these type of tools.

This story starts with a GE side-by-side refrigerator that has always had wide temperature swings and a temperamental water dispenser. The ice maker was not making ice, and the built in digital thermometer showed it was running warm. I suspected that the heat exchanger was full of dust and so looked there. What I found was that the condenser tank was hot to the touch and the fan wasn’t running. As an experiment, I aimed a fan at the it for a while I saw that the freezer temperature dropped back to normal.
.The fan is marked as 11.2 DC so I checked for voltage at the fan and found some. With three wires and no wiring diagram I wasn’t sure this answered all the questions, but hooking the fan to a 12 volt power supply didn’t get it to spin.
I priced parts at a couple websites before using partselect.com . They also have a good diagram to look at (Sears diagrams are really poor). I ordered the part with 2-day shipping; it arrived on time, was correct and fixed the problem.

Removed rear and front grills,brushed and vacuumed area- probably caused the fan motor to fail- unplugged fan, removed fan,motor,and shroud in 1 piece, carefully slipped fan off motor shaft, unscrewed shroud and motor. assembled in reverse order. Frige is in tight area, .I'll now roll it out and clean often

we just pried out the old switch and pulled it out the rest of the way with a pair of needle nose pliers. Pulled off the wires on the broken switch and reattached to the new one and just slid/clicked it back into the hole.

First ,I placed all the frozen food from the freezer into the lower fridge compartment. Removed the main shelf. Removed the ice cube tray shelf. Removed the center plastic covers using a nut driver. Removed the complete inside back wall of the freezer to get access to the fan. Simply removed about 5 screws, and cut 3 tie straps that held the wiring in place. Unplugged the fan connector and removed fan with its brackets and placed them on the kitchen table. Then used the nut driver to remove 2 screws which hald the fan to its bracket. Simply pulled off the fan blades and pressed them onto the new motor. Mounted new motor onto the bracket. Reinstalled the fan assembly back into freezer. Reconnected the wiring and the fan began to run... BE CAREFUL NOT TO TOUCH THE FAN WITH YOUR FINGERS!
Finally replaced all the covers, panels, and shelf etc. and everything is once again nice and cold.

1) Unplugged fridge and removed cover over light in freezer.
2)Removed screws holding cover over motor.
3) Removed screws on bracket holding motor in place.
4) Un plugged motor and used razor blade to cut grommet holding wires in place.
5) Plugged in new motor and routed wires through grommet. Then used zip ties to hold grommet together.
5) Re-attached motor bracket and installed new fan.
6) Reinstalled cover over motor.

I should state first that I am a DIYer and have no experience fixing appliances. The fan noise seems to be a common problem. It has something to do with the bearings. Mine was actually hitting the housing in front on the fan as well. Getting into the installation, I knew I had to take the back panel and fan housing off. But I found out that everything needs to come off. This is the ice maker, the housing underneath the ice maker as well as the fan housing and back panel. This isn't difficult but good to know before hand. A quick note, the light bulb housings come out by pulling them forward. It's a good idea to label the screws as you take them out as there are quite a few that need to come out. I replaced the evaporator fan the fan blade and one grommet. In hind sight I should have replaced both grommets as they both showed wear. They are both exactly the same so you can order two of the above. All in all this is a pretty easy fix. It takes a bit of time, but it's not to difficult. Th most difficult thing was the wiring. The fan comes with a six prong connector and has four prongs taken up. There is, what I think is a temperature sensor, that takes up the other two prongs. Since I didn't order that part, I had to cut it out of the old connector and insert it into the new evaporator fan connector. This was a bit difficult and would have been much easier if I had ordered the part. Unfortunately, I don't know what that part is called, but it must be some kind of temperature sensor as it clips on the coil. The wires also run through a blue rubber wire-run that needs to be sliced open. This was pretty easy to do with a small serrated pocket knife. SLice it on the back side of it and pull the old wires out. When you are ready to install, just run the new wires through the hole from the old wires. Once you have replaced the fan the new blade and the two new grommets, it's just a matter of replacing all the equipment. Fan housing first, then the upper housing followed by the ice maker and the back panel. Good luck

Firt Removed the Ice Maker Tray and the full ice maker assembly. Removed the plastic shroud that sits over the fan assembly. Since the original connector (or the plug)for the motor had also a temperature sensor attached to it and did not know how to remove and trabsfer to the new motor connector I spliced the new motor to the old connector. It was fairly straight forward. Overall the job was not that difficult and since I was trying to be more meticulous it took a little longer. An average person can do it in around 30 to 45 minutes.

I replaced the motor that runs the fan in the freezer compartment. Had to remove a number of shields to get to the fan and then some wires and screws to get at the motor. It came with a plug with 4 wires in it and I was supposed to pull 2 wires out of the old plug and place them in the new plug. Long story short the pins would not extract from the plug and the wiring harness was molded in solid plastic, so I ended up cutting the 4 wires to the motor and splicing in the new one and taping them with electrical tape. So far no more moaning and the ice cream is still hard, so I think we nailed it.

First I removed the shelf and light cover, then removed 3 screws from the ice make. Then I removed 6 screws from the moter cover (back wall of the freezer) and removed it. I then removed the 2 screw holding the moter. This is where the soldering iron comes in. The wire leads from the old motor were molded into a 3" rubber holder and the end wire plastic connector held 6 prongs (2 from a thermo tube). The new motor only held the 4 moter prongs, 2 were empty. To resolve this problem I cut the wires on both the new and old motor. I then attached the old connector to the new moter with the soldering iron and shrink tubing. Replaced all the parts I had removed and started it up. Works like a champ.....

First I hired a repairman and he said that it was in the unit and would not be worth the expense to fix.

I started to research on the net and this was one possible source. ( evaporator fan). I had to take it apart to verify it. Then put it back together to use until the part came.

The next time went much faster as I did not have to take near as many screws out to access the fan motor. Very Happy to have it working fine again as a new relacement would cost $1200. Thanks much. Ron

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

First, I removed all the shelves and the light guard. Second, I removed the nuts that held the fan guard and the freezer back in place (2 just under the fan guard and removed the freezer back. Third, lifted fan guard out of way (being very careful not to crack it..... cold plastic). Fourth, unpugged fan from pug then removed nuts that held fan bracket in place...removed fan. fifth, then removed fan blade and remove fan motor from bracket, removed two wires that went to freezer light (pay attention to where they go) and installed them into the new wireing harness. Sixth, installed fan blade on new motor, bolted new assembly in fan bracket, plugged in and reistalled fan into the freezer, replaced fan guard and freezer back (reverse order of above) and then replaced freezer racks. works beautiful.

I had taken the noise long enough and wanted to get this repaired. I didn't want to pay a repair man hundreds of dollars to do it so i decided to do it myself. I went on to YouTube and found a few videos that showed me how easy it was to do (very helpful).

I wasn't so sure all that noise would come from the Evaporator Fan motor so i ordered it and took the chance. For the small cost, it was worth the try.

All went well accessing the unit and removing the old part. Very fast indeed. However, the snag came when i went to plug in the new part electrical to the existing electrical adapters. The old part had 4 lead connections. The new part had 6. and the wires on the new part were different colors than the existing. I had to use some logic and courage to cut the wires on the new part and rewire the old adapter to this piece. Luckily, i wired everything correctly.

Calling Part Select got me a phone number for the parts manufacturer to help with the splicing but i opted to do it on my own.

The result is i have a noiseless refrigerator again. What should have taken 10 to 15 minutes took half an hour because of the wiring but overall, very easy.

Two tabs hold the switch in place. I used a plastic wedge to remove the switch. Removed and replaced the two connectors held in by friction. Painless.