3639452585 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

The plastic door closing cams had broken after 17 years of use. It was tricky figuring out how the new cams fit as the old ones had disintegrated. Also you need 2 cams - not one. I first ordered only one. A detailed parts diagram would have helped. First unscrew the top door mount cover and then the top door mount. The fridge door then lifts up and off the lower door mount. Next is the hardest part - drilling off the old pop rivet which held the lower cam. The lower door mount had to be removed to get at the underneath of the pop rivet, and a bench vise was handy to hold it as I drilled off the old rivet. Then you need small stainless steel nut and bolt and split washer or lock nut to replace the rivet. Next unscrew the old upper cam from the underneath of the fridge door and replace. The large hole in the cam goes through the door hinge pins. The two plastic cams should interlock in a way that makes the door swing close. Anyway, now the door works fine.

Removed door off hinge , remove bottom hinge, drill out rivet, lift off old cam & replace with new cam ,add new 1/4' BOLT(NOT SUPPLIED) to location where rivet was, reinstall bottom hinge & door ,check alignment, works perfect.

Thanks

Placed blocks under the refrigerator door to take weight off the lower hinge pin. Removed the hinge by removing two screws into the refrigerator and two screws into the bottom of the door itself. This allows the hinge to be removed so the old nylon "closer" pieces can be removed (the one attached to the refrigerator has a rivet holding it in place so that has to be drilled out and replaced with a 3/16 inch bolt and nut). After re-attaching the nylon "closer" to the refrigerator side of the hinge and placing all the shims back in place, I re-attached the hinge to the door first, then the half hinge to the refrigerator. Had to line up the holes, tighten the screws and presto, the door closes like it was new again.

The freezer door side is more difficult as there are wires and a water line to work around.

BUY TWO CAMS! Just like the others, both of the cams were shot. My husband & I did this ourselves & have NEVER attempted appliance repair before.
We propped the door up high enough to access the bottom hinge piece on the fridge & removed using socket. Removed the cover from the top hinge. Slid door down off the top hinge in able to get to the cam on bottom of door. Replaced this cam 1st in order to get door back on while worked to get the old cam off hinge. As others posted, this is rivited on. Used grinder to grind off rivit & hammer & punch to punch out. Attached new cam with bolt & nut found in our tin of leftovers. Inserted hinge into door & reattached to fridge. DONE! Not hard at all & didn't even argue the whole time.

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.

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.

1. Put all perishable food into ice chest. Empty door shelves.
2. Remove top hinge cover with Philips screwdriver.
3. Supporting door, remove top hinge attached by two hex screws.
4. Lift door off bottom hinge.
5. On bottom of door, unscrew the hex screw holding the broken plastic cam.
6. Loosen the second hex screw enough to free the broken cam.
7. Replace the cam and tighten the hex screws making sure the opening of the cam lines up with the hole under the door.
8. Snap off plastic grill at the bottom of the refrigerator.
9. Remove bottom of the two hex screws holding the bottom hinge tot eh refrigerator body.
10. Loosen the second screw enought to rotate the hinge upsidedown. Tighten the screw again.
11. Now the rivet bottom is exposed so as to facilitate drilling it out to remove the broken cam.
12. Loosen the hex screw again and turn it back rightside up. Reinstall the bottom screw and tighten both of them.
13. Using an appropriate size bolt, lockwasher and nut, install other new cam.
14. Reinstall door reversing steps 1 to 4.
15. Don't forget to return the food to the 'fridge, by the way!

Removed icemaker from freezer,
Removed 3 screws from cover plate, and removed screw securing main gear, removed gear.
Pulled back cover plate to expose switches and mechanism.
Removed screw holding switch to remove switch, and installed new switch.
I should have taken a pic of the cover plate, the interior mechanism and the wiring as I went along. It would have saved me 45 minutes in reassembly. Also, as luck would have it, I reversed the wiring on the switch. So off was on, and I had to remove it, switch wires and re-install.
But it works!

The old cam had broken and was on the floor. I ordered one new cam. I should have been told to order at least two, I did not know they worked in pairs. So I had to re-order, I ordersed four, I was able to see that the other (freezer door has cracked cams) door will soon need replacement of the cams. I had trouble installing the new part because the rivit also needed to ba replaced. I did a "Rube Goldgerg" to get the new part to sit properly. I drilled the hole open a little and forced the part into place. All is well. Thank you very much!

First a big thank you to PartSelect.com. I read the stories posted by others before ordering the parts and found out that I probably needed 2 of these cams. So I followed the advice of others and ordered 2 cams. I'm really glad I did because once I got the door off I discovered both were broken up real bad. Maybe you guys should think about offering them as a set?
Anyway the repair was fairly easy, except for the bottom cam which was revited to the bottom bracket. Again, thanks to the other stories about repairs with this part I was already expecting this. So the repair went like this. I removed the door by unscrewing the hinge on top(1 screw and 2 bolts). Took the door off and laid it on its side. Removed the bottom bracket( 2 bolts). Used a drill to drill out the rivit. Used a spare screw/nut that I had in a tool box to fasten the cam to the bracket. Put it all back together and I was done. The biggest challenge was figuring our if I needed 2 cams,so with the advice of others on your site, my repair was a snap.

I blocked the door up with one 2X4 Then removed the lower hinge, installed the closing cam. Then I found that I needed one more closing cam that I didn't order the first time. This other one mounts to the lower section of the door and both cams set together. Re-ordered another cam. When it came in I installed it. Between ordering both parts I had them both in three days. The best to Parts Select
I now know where to buy my parts if needed again.

Thanks
Bob
Sandusky, Ohio

Remove glass shelf, then remove drawer. Remove 2 screws holding old broken rail in place and replace using the same screws. Replace the drawer and glass shelf.

Removed four screws at bottom of door, while someone held the door in place replaced the upper cam (there are two) applied some silicone plumbers lube between the mating surfaces and tightened it up. Works like new bottom cam was only slightly worn. P.S. Remove everything from the door first.

My husband took out the old icemaker in about 5 minutes. The new icemaker was a perfect fit even though the refrigerator was >10yrs old. The only difficult part was the plug extension that was needed so that it would fit into an older appliance. The part was included, it just made the cord about 3 inches longer than it needed to. After working with it for about 20 minutes we were able to fit it on the back side of the icemaker. Now it works great!!

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 .