10644559401 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

DISCONNECT POWER. Removed all shelves/baskets.Popped upper panel off (just clips in) Removed 6 screws in lower back panel ( 3 each side) slid panel in place but down. You can then easily see the defrost thermostat/defrost termination switch. Cut the wire connectors (pink n brown wire) stripped back wire, attached new defrost thermostat. Thermostat clips on. New thermostat ohm's at 5.5, old one was "open". Slid cover back up meeting the upper cover grooves. Screwed lower panel in. Put shelves etc back in. Plugged in. Turns on, put a bottle of water in freezer. Checked a while later, frozen. has been frozen for a week.
-James

I have a side by side so in order to access the bi-metal switch I first had to empty out the freezer. The switch is clipped on to the top of the evaporator coil. I had to remove 8 screws to remove the back panel of the freezer compartment. The bi-metal switch was right there in plain view. There are two colored wires that come out of the switch. I tried pulling them out of the socket they were plugged into but gave up for fear of breaking something. I ended up cutting the wires and splicing them together. I used the plastic twist caps. I made sure when I closed everything back up that the open end of the caps were pointing down so no water can accumulate in them. It has been 3 days now and so far so good

Removed the old one. Removed the handle attachment and placed it on the new drawer and slid it in place. Just that easy.

Parts arrived at 2:30PM.

Read instructions, gathered tools, and went to work. I'd already watched an online video at your site on how to do the repair.

Removed the hinge cover covering the hinge top by using a nut driver to remove the single screw holding it in place. (The video described an older frige and it did not have a screw. I figured that out when I finally went and got a ladder. I had tried to pop it out like the video shows.) There are three screws holding the hinge top in place. I tried using the nut driver to remove the screws but they were pretty firmly in place. I resorted to using my ratchet wrench and that made it easy. (Keep track of your screws, one of mine rolled under a cereal box on top of the frige and I thought I would never find it.)

I had emptied out all the items on the door of the frige, removing the shelves. It was easy to lift the door off of the bottom hinge and lay it on its side against the ladder. At this point I had my son hold the door steady (its kind of unwieldy and 'slippery' when you are trying to remove a screw from the bottom of the door.)

I removed the screw that held the plastic Door Closer, Upper Cam using the nut driver. I used a straight bladed screw driver to pry the old part out of the door (it has an insert for the hinge pin and it had been in place a long time). I also cleaned off the bottom of the frige door (you would be surprised what gets stuck on there - obviously someone spilled oranged juice on the floor and it splashed up on the bottom of the door). The old part had a lot of particle dust that came off it when I removed it. The new part popped right into place and I screwed it back in. The video shows that the repairman had to use a drill and tap set to rethread a larger hole but I just put the old screw back and it held fine. The video also showed the repairman adjusting the Door Stop Bracket but I didn't have to do that, the new cam installation wasn't impeded by the bracket.

I moved to the frige cabinet (again, good to have a second pair of hands to keep track of the door and not let it get damaged while I turned my attention to the Door Closer, Lower Cam. I used the nut driver to remove the screw holdin it to the hinge bottom. It came off easily (it practically fell apart and turned to dust). I placed the new cam and screwed it in using the old screw. No problem.

You could put the door back on with one person but it helps to have two. One to manhandle the door and the other to place it on the lower hinge post.

I put the upper hinge back on and put in the three screws but I left them lose so that I could adjust the door. When I tighted the single screw closest to the door after positioning the door, we tested how it opened and it was hitting the side of the interior cabinet when it closed - you could feel it dragging and it made a clunk/swoosh sound. We readjusted the door using the outside upper corner as a guide and retightened the screw. This time there was no problem. We tighted the other two screws using the ratchet wrench and then put the plastic hinge cover back on with the single screw using the nut driver.

Took us about 25 minutes and made my wife very happy (biggest benefit). The door now 'locks' open and 'locks' closed just like when we bought it and the two doors are aligned (level accross the top) which should have been a dead giveaway that the door closing cams had worn down.

Done by 3:00PM.

Replaced the compressor with the new one I purchased from you. Installed new parts and recharged unit. The refrigerator / freezer is working better than new. Thanks for the great deal on the compressor. It was here in 3 days. All the parts fit exactly and had no difficulty in the installation or startup. The directions for the wiring were a great help also. Thanks again.

Please read stories that apply to you on this web page, cause it can help you save big bucks.
My fridge is about 2 yrs old and one morning it simply stopped cooling. I heard the clicking noise coming from the back bottom of the fridge as if condenser wanted to start up. Pulled the fridge out took the back cover off and heard that same noise coming from the little black box ( start-device) attached to condenser. Went on this same web page and found exact same device for $49 whereas if I did not know much about electronic repairs, traditionally the repair guy would have had charge me at least couple hundreds. So do it here first, it wont cost you much.
Replacing this part is so simple, pull the device out away from condenser by hand as if you were unplugging an extension cord and plug the new start-dev in. SIMPLE. Make sure to take pic with ur phone to wire it back properly. (ONLY 2 WIRES)

due to over filling and closing the drawers with the door and kicking, the plastic runners broke. Also, over filling the drawers did not help.
AS for the repair, the only difficulty was getting the right drawer in the right spot. Since I replaced both the veggie and meat drawer at the same time, I got them confused. On drawer is longer than the other. other than that, no problem.

I unscrewed the bottom of the back panel and heard a clicking noise from the compressor starter. it was held in by a clip, flipped it to the side pulled the starter off and disconnected the wire harness. pushed the new one in reconnected it . And it worked. I have very little experience and it was very easy.

Used a volt meter to determine if compressor was getting power. It was not. There were only two wires going to compressor so I partially unloaded frige and disassembled unit until I found the control circuit. I removed the control board and could not find any degraded connections so I thought it was most likely the relay installed on the board. I determined which connection was the normal power feed and decided that the relay should power one of two outgoing lines when it picked up. I jumpered from power to the most likely line and powered up the refrigerator and it worked. I cycled the breaker to maintain temperature until the new part arrived (about 2 days). I installed the new board in about 30 minutes and everything is working great. Looking forward to another 15 years with this refrigerator. It may be destined for the garage in a few years when we remodel the kitchen but it will make a fine shop frige!

Once I saw the replacement part I understood how to pry out the switch with a small screwdriver. Then just unplug the old one, plug in the new one and pop it into place.

The PartSelect site made it easy to correctly identify the correct part, it was inexpensive, and the shipping was fast.

I'm very pleased!

Removed food itmes on broken shelf. Removed old glass shelf cover. Removed broken shelf bracket. Installed new shelf bracket. Intalled new glass shelf cover. Replaced food items back on shelf

a simple replacement

The plastic lower door closing cam was worn down. Replacing it was very simple: remove the top door hinge by unscrewing three nuts; lift the door off the lower hinge; unscrew and remove the lower door hinge; screw the new plastic lower door closing cam on to the new door hinge; screw the new lower door hinge; lift the door back on to the lower door hinge; screw the top door hinge.

The design of this refrigerator door (it's a side-by-side) is somewhat unbelievable. The door is designed to hold things, yet when you do the weight of the door wears out the lower door cams. The cams are designed to "complete the door closing", i.e. when you gently push on the door the cam mechanism takes over. When the cams wear, the door fails to close. Note to others - you may mistakenly think that the failure of the door to close is related to the seal; it is not.

The repair is quite easy; remove the upper cover, using a not driver (socket), then remove the upper door bracket. Make sure you hold the door or have someone else hold it. After the fasteners are removed gently lift up on the door and remove it from the lower cam assembly. You will see two plastic cam pieces; one on the lower bracket and one on the door. Both need to be changed to effectively "renew" the door closing mechanism. Once the cams are replaced the door can be reassembled to the refrigerator.

Removed six screws from cover in the back of the freezer. Removed old fan . Removed power wires from old motor. Unclipped old motor from the mounting bracket. Replaced old motor and reversed the rest of the parts. Done