36359551990 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

This is a sibe-by-side refrigerator/freezer that needed a new lower hinge set for the fridge door.

First I removed everything from inside the fridge door, closed it, then loosened the top hinge bolts with an 8mm socket on a 1/4-inch ratchet. Using an 8mm nutdriver, I removed one bolt and loosed the other just far enough to be able to lift the hinge and swing it out of the way. (These bolts are long. The nutdriver is faster than the ratchet but you need a ratchet or a wrench to first break them loose.) Then I just lifted the door off the bottom hinge and set it aside.

The plastic lower front grill was covering the lower hinge but that grill is just held at the ends by spring clamps -- popped off easily so I could get to the hinge bolts. Again, 8mm bolts, just remove & replace hinge. I also had to replace the upper half of the door closer cam, which is screwed to the bottom of the door, being careful that the holes lined up: cam, shim, door holes.

Now the tricky part was lifitng the door back on the lower hinge. (It helps to have an assistant at the bottom to locate the hole for you.) Once the door was up, I swung the top hinge over, ran the two bolts in finger tight with my nutdriver, checked & adjusted the spacing* of the fridge door and tightened the bolts. This was all very easy! (*^_^*)

*On a side-by-side, you'll want the door to be straight up & down with a consistent gap top to bottom with the freezer door. The hinge has some slack for adjustment by positioning the door, then tightening the bolts. You'll see what I mean.

First pried off front panel, then removed 4 screws that hold dispensing unit in place, then rotated top of dispensing unit out, then pulled off electrical connector, then removed screw that holds switch in place and removed switch. Installed new switch by reversing above procedure. Only thing switch wasn't the problem. No ice problem was resolved later by replacing control printed circuit board which is located in the same area.

I removed the shelf, unscrewed the slide rails and replaced them with new ones. I replaced the shelf, put the food back in and I was done. Thanks, john bowers

New ice maker only used 2 screws and the old one had 3. This was no problem. The old ice maker had already been removed. Just loosen the 3 screws and unplug the cord to ice maker. Only problem with ice maker was with the cord, which I had to use the supplied adapter. It was too long and in the way when reinstalling the ice bin. The ice bin had a small notch area on the bottom left. I used a plastic tie to bundle the cord into the notch. Carefully placed ice bin and no problem. The first part I received was damaged and was replaced 2 days later by a brand new part. Customer service charged for the replacement part but said they would credit my charge card within 2 to 3 weeks for the damaged part. Its been a week and if they follow thru like the said I woild give Part Select 5 Stars for service and Parts.

Removed old bucket/auger assy from frig. Removed 4 + screws from front cover. Put front cover on new bucket/auger assy. Reinstalled in frig.....done. now have clean ice.

Replaced several things: evaporator fan motor, defrost heater element & defrost timer. The motor was the key problem but did the other repairs because they are common failures and are easy to replace and are not that expensive. Changing the motor was tedious because of tight access to it. Took about 2 hrs for me. Fan is working properly but not have a problem with water to ice maker not shutting off. I'm researching that problem. (I replace the water valve 2 hrs ago. That was a simple task - took 15 mins.)

First unplug the refrigerator!

Removed the top shelf of the refrigerator. Pulled off the knobs from the temp slider controls. Popped the cover off of the light and temp control section. This Hotpoint model has both
thermostat and defrost timer easily accessible in the refrigerator compartment. Used a socket set
driver to loosen the screws and remove the
temp control section and unplugged the wire connectors. This freed the whole temp control
section. On the workbench removed the old
thermostat by unscrewing the screws with a socket driver. Unplugged the wires from the old thermostat then put the new one in. Then put the
new one in the same holes, reconnected the
wires and reassembled the everything. Then
simply put this temp control box back in the
original place (and reconnect the wire plugs)
and put the screws back in . The hardest part is re-aligning the holes and the control levers, but this is not too bad.

Plugged it back in and so far it has been turning
on and off normally. (The old thermostat contacts
were oxidized so I think this was the problem).

1) I removed the icemaker and placed on work table.
2) I pried the front plastic cover from the control box to expose the front base.
3) I removed the three mounting screws from the base (it is not necessary to remove the screw in the plastic gear) and removed the front base. This exposed the back base
4) Using an ohmmeter, I was able to isolate a bad contact on one of the three microswitches in the control box (the one that was mounted to the back base). Replacing this microswitch solved the problem.

Poped out with screwdriver the old swithch and unplugged the two wires. Plugged in the wires to the new swithch and pushed it back in the hole where the old switch was before.

Got part overnight. Unscrewed cover plate at top of regerator compartment, disconnected old part, connected new part. Screwed back plate. Voila!

I saved a bunch of money!

bought an push in, in line connector and a new 5/16 plastic hose. I just replaces 2 feet of plastic hose from the selonid up an splices the hose using the connector. Worked perfect.

The comments from customers experiences gave me the confidence that the defrost timer was the problem since the compressor was still working and it went just as they all said, four 1/4' hex head screws and I had access to the old timer, unplugged the old ,plugged in the new and put the four screws back in. Nothing happened so after a while I looked a bit harder at the accessable part of the timer after intallation and saw what looked like a dial. I turned the dialclockwise and immediatly the compressor turned on. I have not found any information as to how much or little to turn this dial which obviously is an adjustable cycle setting so I just turned it all the way, so far everything is working alright.

Pulled off cracked grille and inserted new in grille holders

Followed previous instructions from a previous post. Inserted small screwdriver in the 2 outer holes up under the face plate to remove it then removed 4 screws holding the inner assembly which allowed access to the flapper assembly. Replaced it and reassembled everything. Problem solved

Condensor Fan not turning. I thought it would be an easy fix. I thought I could pull off the shroud and fan assy - no joy. Too many copper pipes and lots of tubing in the way. It took 90 minutes to remove and 30 minutes to install. The BIG hint here is to loosen the shoud, pull it back as far as you can and then remove the nut that holds the fan blade in place. THEN you can remove the motor. Get the new motor back into the shroud, get the blade back on and then tighten the shroud back up.