36358552891 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

Replaced flapper valve per website instructions. GE factory technician took two weeks to get here, charged over $100 for the call and told us we needed a new refrigerator door at a cost of over $500 to fix the problem. We sent him packing. After visiting the PartSelect website, the $5.88 PartSelect flapper valve fixed the problem. Amazing.

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.

Removed old ice bucket with auger. Unscrewed front plates that form the front of the ice bucket. Replaced the front plates on the new part (ice bucket and auger). Replaced new assemblage. It took about 20 minutes. Had to empty ice out and put in a temporary cooler for storage. Bigger problem than the repair was diagnosing what was wrong. Pushed disagnose button and it said ice maker was working normallly. Careful examination of the ice bucket removed from refrigerator showed spring out of place on long metal rod that protrudes from the back of the ice bucket and fits into a square hole in back of refrigerator. Examined other end of rod that engages with plastic parts that run the ice auger and ice crusher mechanism. A piece must have broken off. That was the problem. Refrigerator ice maker now works fine as originally designed. Push crudh the ice crusher engages and you get crused ice. Push cubes and the icemaker crusher slides out of the way and you get cubes.

Followed the online video. Unplugged refrigerator, removed trim piece, lifted control board cover, removed 4 screws retaining circuit control board and removed the 3 connectors from the control board. Located flapper and removed by using small flat tip to take tension off flapper connectors. Helper held flash light to illuminate flapper connectors. Reversed procedure. New flapper seals well and cured problems. Circuit board was a bit different than one in video, but still had the 3 connectors. Marked each connector with grease pencil at top edge to ensure correct reconnection. Should note how wires are threaded around circuit board to ensure they are tucked back in correctly in reassembly. Remove trim piece carefully. I broke 2 of the 8 plastic pins that hold trim on. May be due to age of unit as they were brittle. 6 pins still hold trim piece flush.

I simply removed 6 screws that held bucket to face and pit on new bucket and put it back in freezer works great

Part attaches to metal plate near crushing fingers which attaches to ice holding bin. Remove about 6 screws total on each side of plate. You must disassemble the auger & other parts so you can reassemble it in the proper order. Not many parts but i always take pics to cut down on time. New part is at the other end of the auger and acts as the holde of the auger shaft. Picture a crankshaft with a bearing on each end so the auger rotates between new part and the other end of auger shaft. That's it.

Part was perfect fit .Removed fan .three screws.replaced that s it

I removed the plate covering the water valve for the ice maker and water dispenser, removed the nut holding the 5/16" tubing to the valve and took off the tubing and nut. I did not need to turn off the water supply or unplug the unit. I removed the kick panel in the bottom front of the refrigerator, replaced the existing plastic fitting with a new push-on fitting, then spliced the tubing coming from the water chiller to the valve where the leak was thus bypassing the broken tubing with new tubing. I reassembled the valve using the original plastic compression nut, replaced the cover and ran the water dispenser while checking for leaks. The water dispanser works great with no leaks.

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!

Separately (from a different site) purchased new compressor fan and motor. I purchased the grommets here because the other site listed the grommets as temporarily out of stock. I did watch one of the videos on PartSelect about the grommet replacement. Repair was pretty simple, biggest challenge was getting to the screw on the far side of the motor. Removed the two screws holding the fan motor into place. Removed motor and blade. Reinstalled with new fan blade, new grommet and new motor.

Opened, discovered not flapper but more complicated

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!!

replaced the broken one with the new part

I just followed the instructions on the video and it was exactly as they said......no surprises.

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