Door Balance Spring

Replaced the door balance links and door balance springs by following directions from the PartSelect videos. Didn't know which thing was the problem until we pulled the dishwasher out, so we ordered both parts. Good thing--the door balance link cable was broken and spring no where to be found. There was enough play in the plumbing and wir ... Read more es that we did not have to unhook either to pull the dishwasher out.

We thought it was the springs that snapped. A friend told me about the web site and when my husband and I saw the instructions (wonderful demo with good camera work and close up views) we thought we could do the job. We were not sure if the spring had broken or if the pulley unit was damaged. We decided to buy both because it wasn't ve ... Read more ry expensive we didn't want to pull out the dishwasher twice. By following the instructions of removing the upper screws, then the lower face plate, loosening the leveling screws and then pulling the dishwasher out we were able to see that the pulley unit was the problem, but since they were the same age and we had already purchased them - we replaced both the springs and pulley systems. We did have to disconnect the water line because it was too short to pull the dishwasher all the way out. This was simple and my husband suggested we tie a string to the waterline just in case it fell through the small hole in the cabinet between the undersink area and dishwasher area. It didn't but it would have been very difficult to retrieve and fish back through that hole. If you try to do this without pulling the dishwasher all the way out it will be very difficult. Now we have two pieces of advice: 1) The spring is very strong and not easy to stretch while lying the floor. We used an awl to place in the notched metal piece next to the spring and that leverage to stretch the spring and hook it. 2) We recommend you place a towel inside the dishwasher when you open it to screw in the upper securing screws. We dropped one and luckily I had a long very thin magnetic wand to retrieve the screw otherwise we would have had a very big problem. Otherwise everything went wonderfully. We do suggest that you recheck the screws around the inside of the door. From not having the springs for a few months I'm sure the weight of the door put stress on the inside panel. When my husband checked one he found they were all loose. We were very excited to accomplish this as we're both 65 yr old and it turned out to be one of our easier projects. Go for it!!!

I unscrewed the two screws at the top of the machine and then was able to slide dishwasher out. Then i removed the springs and parts that needed to be replaced and changed out with new parts