25369882991 Kenmore Refrigerator

My freezer would freeze up and not allow cold air to refrigerator side. First I took off bottom face plate, located the timer on left side bottom, removed the two screws and unpluged the timer. Replaced the timer with new one. Second I removed all food from freezer. Took of back of freezer wall with nut driver. Located the thermostat whic ... Read more h was very easy to remove. Just one clip holding thermostat. Unplugged the two wires from the old thermostat and plugged in new wires. Thanks to Partselect.com, the parts were an exact match. Very easy to do. Saved my tons of money. Freezer and refer works like new.

1. Removed the 7 nuts using the nut driver from the freezer back panel inside the freezer.
2. Remove the back panel. The evaporator motor and fan are located above the coils.
3. Unplug the wiring harness.
4. Remove the two gold mounting screws holding the motor and fan in place.
5. Remove the motor and fan including th ... Read more e brackets.
6. Install the new motor and fan onto the mounting bracket.
6a. Attach the green ground to the mounting bracket.
7. Screw the two gold screws back into the freezer.
8. Attach the new wiring harness. Note, the old harness had a mounting hole/space for it to connect to the wiring harness of the freezer. The new motor's harness was not long enough for this, so it is connected freely to the freezer harness.
9. Use the hair dryer to melt any ice that may have formed on the coils and hole where the fan goes.
10. Turn the freezer on to see if the fan turns on.
11. Reinstall the back panel.
All done!

First - I asked a person familiar in ref/freezer repair for assistance. This was the hardest issue - trying to find someone to offer "free" advise. He stated that when this problem occurs it is usually one of two things: 1) The defrost timer (underneath Refrigerator - Attached w/2 screws and plug-n connector) not functioning or 2) The de ... Read more frost sensor (clipped-on to the coolant line (2-press-on wires) above the main coolant coil in in rear of freezer section behind panel secured w/5 1/4" hex-head screws) not properly sensing need for defrosting. The Tech. also stated that the defrost/heat coil, which surrounds the large coolant coil in the back of the freezer hardly ever goes bad unless it is the glass/clear type coil which often crack. (Mine was the black filament type element like found in an electric oven). I check the element with an ohm meter - 27 ohms of resistance which indicated it was okay). I replaced both defrost timer & defrost sensor at the same time and that fixed the problem. Parts ordered were an exact match to originals (dispite model number changes/upgrades) and everything went very well. NOTE: It is good to have the part numbers off of each original item and know what they are called before placing your order. All fixed for less than $50.00. A service call alone would be more than this. Took about 2 hours to do, due to having to defost the iced-up freezer coil w/a hair blower. Don't use sharp objects to chip away ice, let the blower do the work - Patience and a couple of towels to absorb water is important here. Hope this helps the other do-it-yourselfers.