GCG21IEMHFWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

I knew almost as soon as I found the frozen milk that the air-flow diverter, whatever it's called, had broken. It's a plastic part that opens and closes to allow cold air from the freezer into the fridge side.

Step one: clear off the top two shelves and take them out.

Step two: remove the lower piece of the assembly. It pops straight out at the top and drops down after that. If you pull the bottom straight out, you may break the bits that holds it to the fridge wall.

Step three: remove screws holding in light, and then the screws holding in the AASM COVER FF INLET K (wish I had a better name for it).

Step Four: Unplug the unit from the fridge wall.

Installation, reverse, except maybe unplug the unit earlier.

I have unlock the black panel. With a screw driver I have removed 2 screws and removed 3 conectors from circuit board. So, I had access to solenoid set. From this point on was intuitive. Very easy.

I recomend these parts be replaced once time for each two years.

after finding the video describing the same problem, i gave it a shot. Major problem was figuring out how to take outside trim off of the ice/water dispenser. Everything i tried did not work like the videos i had seen. Looking thru some of the posted blogs i found another way to get behind the control panel without even taking off the trim piece. i pressed a 1/8th allen wrench into the two outer holes on the bottom of the control panel which released the panel to pull out from the bottom. after that it was simple to release the three plugs from the circuit board and remove the control panel. 4 phi lips screws later the ice chute comes straight out revealing the flapper door which is held in by 2 more screws. once that assembly is out the solenoid is held by three more screws. there was nothing difficult at all about this repair once the secret was out about the first step about the three holes (use only the outer two) in the bottom of the control panel

Noticed the problem in November 2009. Replaced Hi Limit Sesor for Defrost thinking it was the freezor temperature sensor. Did not fix the problem. Replaced Motherboard. Did not fix the problem. Called Sears Repair. They mis-diagnosed the problem and told me it was the sealed system. I doubted them and sent them home. Replaced the correct freezer temperature sensor that connects to the motherboard. FIXED.
Removed a panel, cut two wires, soldered and insulated two wries, reinstalled panel.

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

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.

After having replaced the main control board and three thermistors, the fridge was still having difficulting getting cold enough - it wouldn't get colder than 15F / 42 F. Uniform frost on the evaporator coil ruled out a sealed system leak, so the remaining culprits were the either the evaporator fan motor or the compressor.

I read that a failed control board is almost always the fault of a bad evaporator fan motor, so this item was the most likely suspect.

To get to the evaporator fan motor, I had to remove, in this order:

1) Icemaker
2) Auger motor and brackets
3) Icemaker bracket
4) Freezer lights and bulb sockets
5) Evaporator panel
6) Evaporator plenum cover
7) Evaporator fan motor bracket

The greatest difficulty lay in swapping the new fan motor harness. Two pins in the harness connector were used for the evaporator thermistor.

I had to carefully cut through the old connector (using a Dremel) to extract the crimped-on pins for the thermistor, then reuse them on the new connector.

The fridge is now maintaining -5 F / 35 F in the freezer / fresh food sections.

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!!!!!

Removed old bracket (2 screws), ordered new bracket and installed. Discovered that the bracket had been redesigned due to numerous failures as described above.

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!

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

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 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.