Water Dispenser Actuator

watch the video on this sight made job very easy

First I pulled the fridge out and unplugged it. Then I removed the drip tray at the bottom of the water and ice dispenser. This exposed three screws that held the frame of the dispenser mechanism to the freezer door. I removed the three screws and lifted it up a little and I could pull it out and tip it to get at the inside of the dispenser mechanism. I could pull the whole mechanism out a bit, but I was afraid to pull it out too far for fear of unplugging something and tearing or breaking a wire. The water dispenser actuator piece has two round plastic "pins" on either side to allow the actuator to rock back and forth. These "pins" are held in place in a round channel by two metal plates which were in turn held in place by two screws. When I tried to take out these retaining plates, I dropped one of the screws in the dispenser mechanism. I had to fish it out with a magnet. By the way, the plates did not respond to a magnet, so when I dropped one of these, I had to use needle-nosed pliers to fish it out. It took a while, but I finally got the old actuator out and out the new one in and carefully re-attached the retaining plate with their respective screws and re-attached the little spring to the actuator. Before I put it back together, I cleaned off the little door to the ice dispenser. It looked a little crudded up and I just wiped it off with some damp Q-tips. I then put the dispenser mechanism back on to the freezer door, put the screws back, slid the drip tray back, plugged it in and it (surprisingly) works fine.

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