36358047890 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

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.

I had made a dry run at the repair after watching the instructional film provided by part select and it seemed easy enough.
The only problem was that i needed to use the electrical cord extender (provided) to adapt to my plug type. That presented a problm because it needed to be tucked up out of the way to allow the ice bin to clear. Just needed to be creative in how you wrapped the cord behind the ice maker unit before snugging the attachment screws.
Cranking out ice like crazy.

First I removed the electrical plug from the back of the freezer that plugs into the icemaker. I then removed the two hex head screws that hold the icemaker to the wall of the freezer and removed the icemaker. I removed the plastic cover, which incidentally protects the gears, by prying it off with a srewdriver. I removed three small nuts(7mm) which holds the internal cam in place. I removed the cam by pulling it off the shaft. Once I got the part from you folks I reversed the procedure that I just mentioned, and put the icemaker back together. It works great. The part with shipping was around $16.00. A new icemaker was roughly $159.00. If I would have called a technician it would have cost around $300.00 to repair.

Turned the wire protector to the side. Turned out the old bulb and replaced it with the new. Turned the wire protector back in place and I'm like new.

This one is a no brainer… One Phillips screw on top to pull top door hinge trim. Two nuts and the top hinge is free. Then pull the door… it helps if you unload all the crap in the door bins. Remove the remnants of the door cam and that leaves a pop rivet. Put some vise grips on the head and use a hacksaw to remove the lower part of the rivet. Then pop-rivet the new door cam in place. If you don’t own a pop-rivet tool, I guess you could use a 10/32” screw and nylock. Plop the door back on and you’re done. Took all of about 15 minutes.

I placed books under the door until I had enough to hold the door up about 1/2 inch higher then when it is closed. The books and the magnetic gasket will hold the door, JUST DON'T TRY TO OPEN IT TILL YOU'RE THROUGH. That's about how high the cams lift the door when opened. I removed the two screws holding the door stop. Then removed the two screws holding the lower hinge pin.

It takes two of the cams

and the bottom one is riveted to the hinge. I used a grinder to grind the rivet so I could tap the pin out holding the cam. Put the new cam on and put the pin back in. I didn't put a new rivet, just gravity should hold it. I put the second cam on the hinge pin and one of the screws on the door stop holds it in place after you slide the hinge pin back into the door and replace the screws in the bracket then the door stop.
Make sure your lower door gasket didn't get damaged while the cams weren't working because the door wasn't being lifted up when opened.

First i removed the lower cover below doors . Then placed a 4x4 under the door to be fixed to keep it in place. Removed screws from hinge support on unit to remove cam Removed outside screw on door and loosened other to allow other cam to be removed . Always buy two cams if one is broken the other cant be in very good shape .The door will work like new with two .

The repair went well could have completed the job in 20 minutes if I had a selection of small nuts and bolts to replace the rivet that had to be drilled out. Also buy 2 of the door closing cams Part # PS297995 one goes on the bottom hinge of the refrigerator door the other on the bottom of the refrigerator.

Read the how to's AFTER ordering the part. 2 things....1) I wish I had read the comments first and 2) it was much easier than the comments led me to believe.

Had I read the comments first, I would have known to order BOTH the upper and lower cam....though there not a problem with the operation of the door. It would just have been a tad better if I had both. I'm not wanting to have to pay shipping for an additional part when the door works satisfactorily as it is.

As to the comments on how to do it....I took none of them. I (instead) removed the top hinge, and lifted to door off. I did have to have assistance to get the hole in the door aligned with the post, but that was rather easily done.

Would I do it again.....in a heart beat. I feel that I've save on the repair man making a call at the house, and experience has had me charged $60-$100 for virtually the same amount of service. My cost...shipping and all was under $20.00

At first, I noticed the refrigerator door didn't close at the same level of the freezer door. I started to adjust the hinges and noticed a chewed up black 'washer' at the base of the door hinge. Ppartselect.com was awesome, in that I easily found the schematic of my fridge, and the part I needed. Ordering was a snap, and it came to the house pretty quickly.
Installation, first raise the door up as high as you can, then scotch it with wood blocks (closed door). This takes the pressure off the bottom hinge you must remove.
Taking the hinge off is a snap, but then the problem presented itself. The old door closing cam was riveted to the hinge. I couldn’t get the old one off! I ended up taking it to the garage and breaking out the Dremmel tool with the abrasive cutter (the one that will cut through nails. I ended up cutting off the rivet. This was a pain.
I then found a small nut/bolt and put the new piece on, then put it back into place and removed the blocks. Works good as new. The toughest part by far was getting the old cam off… but there may be some easier way to get the rivet out that I’m not aware of.
Good luck.

I aligned the back of the controller with the slot in the icebox and it popped right back on. No more frozen vegetables.

Had to defrost the freezer to melt off all the ice before servicing. Once that was done the icemaker replacement only took about 15-30 minutes to complete. The new icemaker came with many accessories and adaptors that were not needed and the instructions were based on replacing an older model and not really clear for my model. They mentioned not being able to use the new stripper but it was exactly the same as the old one so I left the new one in place. All in all it was easy and did the job.

Remove the one screw holding the unit in place, unplug it, slide in the replacement, plug and screw it in.

Same problems as already described .... door would not close, plastic bits on floor, angry, ready to throw-out 15 year old “dog” and blow at least $1,000 on a new appliance!

This repair is dead easy. Remove the two bolts holding the top hinge and lift off the entire door. Don’t be surprised if the original Riser Cam has virtually disintegrated, mine was a wreck. Remove two bolts that retain the old flat metal “shim” and fiber “gasket”.

Fit new Riser Cam and re-use old shim and gasket. Replace door on dome-shape bottom hinge mount and then re-fit top hinge.

If in any doubt order new shim and gasket along with the new cam riser. Or, do as I did, and “manufacture” either of these parts from scrap material found in the workshop ....

After reading the stories here, I purchased one door closing cam. After getting into the problem area, I realized I needed 2 cam, so I put the door back together and ordered another cam. If you have this problem, buy 2 cams.