3638500582 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

I had to call for a appointment for repair with GE Appliance because I thought then it . .was something electrical. The technician came out & checked everything out, turned out it was not electrical, The technician went out to his truck got a light bulb from his truck, put it in & it worked. It cost me $121.00 for trip charge from GE appliance for a light bulb that worked, your light bulbs were defective twice. Very disappointed with your products, cost me alot of money for a good light bulb thru GE appliance

What can I tell you to help except if the 75+ year old Grandma can do it you can do it also. This site was great and the shipping was super fast.

Have put up with an ice maker that never automatically quit making ice for over a year. I just manually shut it off (remembered some of the time and was reminded by the error messages when overflowing at other times). I just didn't want to pay for a service call and all that involves for this item. Then the incoming waterline split and I had to make a decision and that was to DIY the repair after reading the info on this site. The ice maker was a breeze and you can read the details in other posts. Here I will say it takes removing two screws to loosen (mine wouldn't slip off unless screws were totally removed), (I shut off the water and unplugged refrigerator since I am neither an electrician nor an appliance repairman) unplugging the ice maker by removing one hex head, removing the control cover (bottom to top as described in other posts), remove 3 screws only in the metal plate that holds the inside of the ice maker together to get access to the "brains", replaced the Cam, reverse to reassemble (remembering to get the arm back into it's hole in the metal plate. End of that job.

After reading posts about the the water line tubing, I made sure that I had all of the parts of the correct size to replace all of the tubing that passes by the compressor. I did not, however, replace the full length of any of the tubing. I cut off the bad sections of the 1/4" to the middle of the back of the refrigerator and connected a new section with the 1/4" x 1/4" water tube unions.(I was able to buy 1/4" water line, 5/16" water line and 1/4" x 1/4" water tube unions locally but I could not find 5/16" x 5/16" water tube unions so I ordered them from PartSelect at the same time as I ordered the ice maker cam.)

Then I went to the inside of the refrigerator removed the cover from the water reservoir (behind the hydrator), cut out the old section of the water dispenser lines that pass by the compressor, threaded in (not as easy as the outside tubes but not difficult either) the new tubing and connected with the 5/16" x 5/16" water tube unions. You will get lots more details in other posts but this is to tell you that you CAN DO IT with help from this site! I fixed it all for less than $20 (versus cost of new refrigerator, or new ice maker, or service call).

remove lower back cover - disconnect wires to fan motor - place 6" fan to blow on condenser - fridge began cooling & freezing again - ordered part - part arrived - removed fan motor & bracket - cleaned brackets & fan blade - cleaned lint & dust from condenser compartment (took longer to clean than anything else) - replaced fan motor - replaced cover - was hero with wife ... :-)

as described, I used a thin screwdriver to wedge in and pull down existing, broken switch. I was able to pull it down about a 1/4 inch, but wasn't quit able to disegage it until I gripped it with pliers. I then pulled it out, unplugged the old switch, plugged in the new switch, and carefully tucked the wires back into the fridge and snapped the new switch into place.

10 minutes total.

First turn off the power, remove the ice tray, remove the two screws holding the ice maker to the side of the freezer, use the screw driver to gently open the electrical clip for the power cord inside the freezer, remove the complete unit from freezer, bend the old stripper from the holding pin- it is flexible- it will bend, replace the new stripper on the holding pin and bend into the slot to hold it firmly, no water will come out from the fill cup into the freezer, plug in the power cord, mount back to side of freezer, you are done.

removed 3 screws unplug and remove old unit. install two screws install new ice maker, tighten screws plug in and turn on. had ice in 20 min.

I ordered the part and it got here very quickly. Being a novice home repair person, it took me awhile to get the courage to start. It was practically uneventful, but it did take some time to figure it out exactly. I did have to bend the piece some, which is always a little nerve wracking. However, the part is working beautifully and I feel good about myself.

I weged a block of wood under the door to hold the weight then used a nutdriver to removed the two screws attaching the bottom hinge to the refrigerator. The plastic closing cam was broken and preventing the door from closing. I found some plastic washers in my junk drawer to install on the lower hinge as a temporary fix to keep the appliance operational until the correct replacement parts could be tracked down. I then called local appliance stores in search of the closing cam and learned that none of them had the part in stock. I then hit the internet and within minutes found a picture of exactly what I needed at PartsSelect.com and had it on order a couple minutes later. A couple days after that, the new hinge was delivered, Again, I proped up the door, removed the lower hinge and replaced it with the new the new one that included the new closing cam. I was very happy to have saved lots of time and money and my wife was even happier to have the refrigerator working properly again. :)

Changed the door stop and hinge assembly. Door works perfectly.

This is a relatively simple repair, but requires a bit of running around your house and sitting in a likely cramped space on the floor behind your refrigerator. These steps assume you have verified the valve is leaking and not the lines. 1. Locate where the water line to the fridge connects to the house plumbing. Close the next valve in the house plumbing upstream of this connection. Open some fixture (likely the cold on the kitchen sink) to relieve water pressure in this section of plumbing. Water should flow briefly, then dribble and stop on its own. 2. Unplug your fridge. There are moving parts (a fan) close to the valve that may injure you while you are working. 3. Pull your fridge away from the wall enough so you can scoot behind and sit behind. 4. Gather your tools and parts and squeeze behind the fridge. 5. Remove the felt paper dust cover. Carefully collect the screws. 6. Take a picture of the electrical connection to the valve or make a mental note. 7. Carefully unclip lines from the fridge and remove screws holding valve to fridge body. Slicing a line will create a new problem to fix. Carefully collect the screws. 8. Remove electrical connection. Grasp the connector and pull firmly. Do not yank the wires. 9. Over the bucket, disconnect old valve from lines. Some residual water will flow out. If the stream is steady, double check that Step 1 is completed correctly. Set old valve aside. 10. Examine new valve to determine water input and outlet. There may be an arrow indicating flow direction. 11. Seat the input line in the valve input firmly and connect. Mine was a nut I tightened with a small crescent wrench. 12. Seat the outlet line in the valve outlet firmly and connect. Mine was a push in quick connect. 14. Rest the valve over the bucket. Get up and turn the water back on. Verify your connections are not leaking. 15. Review your picture and reconnect the electrical connection. 16. Install the new valve onto the fridge body. Mine was a different geometry that required some gentle bending of the mounting bracket. Reclip lines to fridge. 17. While you're down there, vacuum underneath your fridge. 18. Reinstall felt paper dust cover. 19. Plug fridge back in. Clean up. 20. Monitor your ice maker, verify good operation. When satisfied, push fridge back. Recycle(?) old valve. 21. Success!

Removed screws that held crusher to metal plate, making note of how unit came apart. Replaced Ice bucket auger and front and rear helix. I had to also order bushing/nut that screws to end of auger as the threads on mine were stripped out . I used the parts view on PartSelect.com to help in reassembly of the ice crusher blades, without that view it would have been trial and error in their proper assembly as I had forgotten ( because from 1st parts reciept and second parts reciept being about a week) how they came out. After assembly, with no left over parts I might add, I installed unit in to freezer and it works like new.
Thanks, Louie D.

i put a new evaporator motor in and now it works fine

Bing , Bang, Boom.

This is a built-in unit. Remove the external bezel at the top of the unit. Reach through the unit and unplug the frig. On the compressor unit, you'll see a vertical metal panel. Remove the metal panel and the timer is right behind it. Remove one wire at a time and switch it to the new timer. Remove timer and replace with new one.

Just an added comment, GE Service wanted to put an "ice kit" into my unit. The full repairs would have cost $1,000. While I described how to replace the defrost timer, the problem was the tray heater. But that's another story.

The fan was the correct part. It arrived one day after my well trained son-in-law had left for Texas. I had to install the motor myself. He had trained me well; it was not hard. the most difficult was getting the two tabs on the fan housing to fit back into the frame of the refrigerator where they belonged. Thanks. the part & delivery were overpriced, but I needed seed and convenience. Thanks for getting it right the first time.
John Moragues