39761-1 General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

I replaced both lower hinges without removing the doors. First a couple of observations. The hinge kit consists of two parts; the lower part (bolted to the case) consists of an “L” bracket with a plastic cam, and the upper plastic cam (attached to the door). For some reason the upper cam is available as a separate part . If both cams are plastic both are worn out. Don’t bother ordering the individual cam. If one hinge is worn out the other probably isn’t far behind. Consider replacing both at the same time. Examine the door check. It is an inverted “T” shaped bracket bolted to the door that also holds the door cam. The crossbar of the T are metal tabs that check the door swing. Way too fragile IMO. On mine the refrigerator side was cracked and broke off when I removed it. Since the stops are the same right and left. I just swapped them when I replaced the hinges. Saved $22. Replacing the hinges without removing the doors. {Warning if this technique goes wrong you will be stuck with a loaded door you can’t open.} Remove the vent grill. Stack three 2x4’s along the bottom of both doors ( 26” is about right ). Shim the door(s) up to compensate for the cam wear. About 1/8”) Use a 5/16 socket to remove the hinge from the case. Pay attention to placement of the shims and spacers. Then remove the door cam and stop bracket. Install the new door cam. Leave the screws a little loose. Replace the lower hinge and tighten the screws. Do both sides. Then carefully remove the shims and 2x4’s. Finish tightening the door hinge screws. Check the door swing. I used this technique twice. One to replace the refrigerator side hinge, then again to replace the freezer side hinge and swap the door checks. There were no problems and I saved the hassle of unloading and removing the doors.

Remove contents of door , Remove top hinge cover - phillips screwdriver , remove top hinge screws ( 2 ) - socket wrench , lift door off lower hinge pin , lay door on edge , remove cam retention screw ( 1 ) - socket wrench , remove broken cam , install new cam , apply vasaline to cam and hinge pins , repeat above steps in reverse . Door now self closes .

I first rolled out the refrigerator, unplugged it, and emptied the freezer contents into a cooler.

Then removed the shelving (side by side freezer / refrigerator) and the four screws holding the back panel.

The coil and defrost heaters were covered with ice, so the paint heat gun made quick work of defrosting them.

The heaters were held in by two screws each, so replacing them with the new units took little time.

Then it was a matter of routing the wiring and thermostat to the top of the coil, and plugging them in.

Replaced the back panel and shelving, and plugged in the refrigerator.

Saw that everything was operating, so I rolled the refrigerator back in place, and replaced the freezer contents.

In a few hours everything stabilized in the refrigerator and we were back to normal.

It just unpluged and the new one plugged in. Simple. The part was reasonable and arrived very quickly. It sure is nice to have a light in the frig again.

put block of wood under the door, removed old hinge and installed the new one. about 15 minutes

replaced lights in refrigirator and freezer

Installing the part repaired the fridge and freezer immediately.

Fit perfectly, took 2 seconds to install.

installed 3 of 4 shipped parts. ended up with 2 upper right hand slide rails, even though ones package said upper left.

Turned off the breaker to the fridge because I couldn't reach the power plug to unplug it . Use small flat head screwdriver to pop out the piece, disconnected the rubber prong connectors, inserted the new piece into the rubber prongs snapped it back into place. Flipped the breaker back on and prayed it worked. It did and I saved myself $120 service call.

I knew that the compressor was cooling because the freezer was half-working. The back wall was frozen-up and found that the iced-up coils where blocking the air circulation. So even if the fan was running, there was no air circulation. Hence the deforst cycle was not working.

I watched the video online, followed the instructions and within minutes had the part installed. The frig light was working once again! I will say the original switch was very snug and I had to do some very minor scraping of the plastic to get the new part to slide in.

I took the glass plate off the top of the drawer, then removed the draw. I then removed the two screws holding the slide rail. I put the new slide rail in place, put the screws back in it, slide the drawer back in place and replaced the glass top. nothing to it.

The refrigerator was no longer cooling and it was suggested by my father that it could be our defrost timer as he has owned many Hotpoint refrigerators in his lifetime and he said the defrost timer was always the problem he had with them when they were not cooling properly. I removed the cover and unplugged the defrost timer, ordered a new timer through this website and installed it by plugging it where the old timer was, replaced the cover and plugged the refrigerator back in. The refrigerator is now cooling again and just in time for Christmas.

First I removed the top hinge of the refrigerator door and then lifted it off the bottom assembly. I had to turn the door on its side to work on the bottom where the broken part was located. I unscrewed the bottom assembly and replaced the broken part with the new door cam. Put it all back together and now the door closes but must be manually pushed to close. When the door was working properly it would shut automatically when released from any position. I think I need to install an additional part - maybe a shim? to make it close automatically. That will be another story.
This was a fairly simple jog to do but since I did not have the proper tools it did take me longer than usual to remove the bolts. I'm happy I did it myself and saved a big repair bill! Thanks to the people at PartSelect.com.