RA186DCW2 Westinghouse Refrigerator - Instructions

I didn’t do the repair because the new motor had a female pigtail connector while the original motor has male connection. It came with wire clamps but didn’t want to cut wires to make repair. The pictures online show a male connection. Put the old motor back in and now it works fine.

1. Turned off the cooling cycle and unplugged the refrigerator.
2. Removed all of the shelving and bottom basket.
3. Removed rear covering in the freezer section.
4. If frosted over, manually defrost coils with hairdryer.
5. Located original thermostat and after marking the wire locations cut the wires and removed the Thermostat.
6. Connected matching wires using a lighter to melt the wires together. Wrapped repaired wires with electricians tape.
7. Unable to install the thermostat in the recommended location (freezer is a tight fit) the new part was installed at the original location.
8. Replaced the rear cover and shelves.
9. Plugged in the refrigerator and set the cycle back to cooling.
10. Monitored freezer coils couple of days/weeks depending on how fast they freeze over (slots at bottom of cover) to validate if problem solved.

Unplug fridge. Removed 2 nuts to get the vent plate off and two more nuts to get the motor mount off. Removed fan blade and then the fan motor. I put the new motor in and put everything back as it was. It was very easy. I had items in the freezer, so I didn't turn the fridge off other than to replace the part. It took about 6 hours for the fridge to reach optional temps because I didn't get to defrost and the fridge had to work it out on it's own. If you don't need the freezer then you should turn the refridgerator off for at least an hour and open the doors so the coils can defrost and any ice blockage between the freezer and fridge portion can melt away as well.

Followed video instruction and completed the replacement. I had to join the wires since the connector was a male plug to a make plug.

Followed the instructions provided in your video, took less than 15 minutes and works like new. Thank you for the parts and the advice.

My fridge side had warmed up to 70 degrees but the freezer side was still cold. The coils inside had iced up. After thawing with a hair dryer, it froze back after another week. I removed the old defrost thermostat and wired the heater strip directly and turned on the defrost timer. It began melting the ice so that ruled out the heater strip being bad. I couldn't get a reading with my ohm meter on the defrost thermostat so I took a chance and bought the part. Installation was a breeze and it fixed the problem.

Top freezer took off the panel in freezer and melted the ice around coils and found the defrost thermostat and replaced with the new one. Just followed the instructions from your video on line. Freezer works just fine now. Refrigerator is 38 years old.

Unplugged fridge, opened the door, used flat head screwdriver to pop off old switch, unplugged wires, plugged in new switch, popped it back in, and plugged the fridge back in. 2 minute fix.

Refrigerator started frosting up and running all the time.I'd defrost it and it would frost up again in about a week.The timer seems to be work so I just guest it mite be the Defrost Thermostat.I removed the duck in the center and back panel in the freezer compartment defrosted it and switched Thermostats and replaced panel and duck, going to lower compartment of the refrigerator.So far it seems to be working a little more time while tell.

take 1/4 hex screws out clean out dust ,remove old fan blade replace with new install bolts .

dismantled the top rear panel of the freezer and found I had the wrong part. Hand started the fan motor and it has been working fine since.

Removed screws that fastened bracket to fridge. Next, I replaced the motor and carefully lined the brackets up so the motor would rotate smoothly. Put the fan blade on the motor and screwed the brackets back on the fridge. Motor kept popping out of alignment while I was screwing the brackets back in but I kept snapping it back in till it stayed.

The repair was straightfoward. The evaporator motor I received from partselect was a different model with different wiring configurations. I cut the wires from the new motor per the instructions I received with the new motor and I did the same with the wires that connect to the fridge. Once I matched the wires and secured them with electrical caps I began to put the evaporator motor to the base and started screwing the screws the way I took them off. Once I connected the wire harness to the back of the freezer and turned it on I noticed a big difference in air flow. I was surprised at how easy it was to fix my refrigirator problem. It's been a few weeks now and the fridge is cold and working like it should. Don't be afraid of this task. it's very easy and will save you a ton of money. Thanks partselect.

First I replaced the defrost thermostat, then I realized that the evaporator fan would stop turning periodically. I could restart it by spinning the fan with my finger. The fan is behind a cover in the back of the freezer. If you remove the cover and check on the fan when you hear the condenser fan in the back running. (They seem to run at the same time.) It was easy to replace the fan and the new one is more powerful than the original. The refrigerator runs fine now. Thank you for this great site. Saved me a lot of $$.

there were three possible problems the timer, the thermostat, or the heating element.i replaced the timer first as that is the problem 65% of the time and that did not fix the problem, i replaced the thermostat and that did fix the problem. after watching the video on line from parts select i took the back off of the freezer from the inside, defrosted the coils with a hair blower and then swapped out the thermostat which pops right off and i spliced the old connectors to the new thermostat. the heat shrink tubing that came with the part was a little to big so i put a smaller peice on each side for water proofing. that is what the cigarette lighter is for to supply heat to the heat shrink tubing.now that i have fixed that problem i may tackle the ice maker next