Dryer shutting itself off -- curious.

[RogerT]

I have a Frigidaire electric clothes dryer (Model GLER341AS0) that needed a rear bearing assembly to be replaced. It was making a loud clunking noise and a friend and I were able to determine that the rear bearing assembly was bad and the "grounding ball" had come loose and was causing the clunking noise when the drum was spinning.

Neither my friend nor I know much about dryers, and ordinarily I would just buy a new dryer when something like this happened to an old dryer. But, we found the following website which contains an excellent video on how to replace the rear bearing assembly, so we decided to try it:

We bought the parts -- about $30 -- and went at it. It all went pretty well, and it was fun to try this repair.

However, after the repair was done, when we turned the dryer on, it ran okay (no noise etc.) but two new symptoms appeared. One is that after the dryer is on for just a few minutes, it shuts off and cannot be restarted. After unplugging it for a while, it can be restarted and then does the same thing. The second new symptom is that when the door is opened while the dryer is running, it stays on and the drum continues to turn. It should shut off when the door is open, but it doesn't, and this was a new symptom immediately following the repair we did.

When doing the repair, we did have to take the front off which meant unplugging the wires to the door switch and plugging them back in to put the front back on. We actually had to do that a couple of times. So, maybe something happened to the door switch during the repair process. We did carefully mark the door switch wires and we are sure we put them back the way they were originally.

We also cleaned out a ton of lint from everywhere, including in the ducts. So, the dryer now has no blockages and pumps out tons of hot air.

The question now is, why is the dryer shutting itself off, and why is the drum still spinning whether the door is open or closed?

One thought is the thermal limiter -- meaning maybe the dryer is overheating for some reason and it shuts itself off as a safety feature. But that doesn't seem like it would explain why the drum still turns with the door open.

Also, when taking the dryer apart, we noticed that the foam-like ring around the front of the drum was worn down, and two of three plastic "glides"(?) that are on the foam-like ring are broken off. So, "maybe" the drum is having a harder time turning without the two glides due to more friction. And, maybe that overloads the motor and sets off some other kind of shutoff sensor or mechanism.

At this point, we are about to just bail out on this one and get a new dryer. But, we're still wondering what the problem may be? Tomorrow, (mostly out of curiosity) we are going to replace the door switch and see what happens.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post here in case anyone has any other ideas about what might be going on or what is causing the shutoff, drum spin with the door open, etc.

[hrhofmann]

If you try to start it with the door open, and it does start, you have screwed up on the wiring since it should not start with the door open. Set the dryer to run on "no heat - air dry" and see if it still shuts down. if it doesn't, then the high temperature limit swich may be shutting things down. You get A for effort on at least trying to fix it, but sounds like a D+ on the results so far, but don't give up. Have you tried to replace those plastic pads for the front of the drum? Does the inside light go out as you close the door? When you say it won't restart unless yhou unplug it, have you unplugged it and immediately tried to restart it? If it doesn't restart immediately, let it sit an hour, plugged in, and then try to restart. Tell us more.

[RogerT]

Thanks. We'll try that tomorow.

No. The two broken off plastic pieces are worn down and broke in two. To try to replace them would mean either trying to find some type of high temperature glue and glue them back on. Or, more likely, would require buying the whole new "foam-like" ring and replacing the old one. I'm not sure we would know how to do that, plus if it required that it would probably be time for a new dryer instead.

The light wasn't working for a long time, long before the bearing symptoms came up. The bulb is probably broken. This is in a property where I do not live -- another family lives there. So, I didn't find out about the bulb having been out for a long time until we were doing this repair.

Yes. That didn't work. It had to be unplugged for a while, like maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

That works. Just letting it sit for a while without it being unplugged first didn't seem to work. We're not completely sure about that, but that what seemed to be happening. I had the sense that it needed to "reboot", but I don't know of any electrinics in the dryer that would require a power down and reboot.

[WW]

The problem of shutting off and needing to wait quite awhile is most likely the Klixon thermostat that is in the motor. They open on overheating and reset after motor cools down. So did you blow out the lint in the motor? Also this Klixon will respond to load (dragging drum friction.) problem due to the need of the plastic parts that are glides for the front of the drum. On some brands the glides and the sealing ring come as a kit including the glue. Look up

. They have breakdown of all parts if you search for your make and model #. Very nice people to deal with. WW

[RogerT]

Interesting. Thanks.

It looks like we should have bought these -- Drum Bearing, Felt Seals, Pulley, Belt, Item #1261075 (OEM Part), $29.15 --

Then we could have also replaced the felt seals, pulley, belt etc. while doing the rear bearing replacement.

When we went to buy the rear bearing assembly kit (about $30), the guy also showed us a separate pulley, belt replacement package (about another $30) and said we may want to go ahead and replace those at the same time. I didn't notice if that package had the felt seals included. Since we hadn't even taken the dryer apart yet, I didn't even know there were felt seals.

My hunch is that you are correct -- it is the motor overheating due to the felt seals and friction problem. So, we may just go for the gusto and try replacing the felt seals, pulley, belt, etc.

I am not sure how that would explain the fact that the drum keeps turning with the door open, but maybe there is also a bad door switch.

[RogerT]

Oops, I forgot to add that yes, we did clean out all of the lint in the motor and everywhere else.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, remove belt and turn the motor by hand. Is it turning free? Is the drum likewise?

[RogerT]

We didn't try turning the motor, but we know it turns when operated because the drum turns. The drum does turn by hand, both with and without the belt in place.

[hrhofmann]

What about trying to start the dryer with the door open? That would tell you a lot about the health of the dooor switch, as I mentioned several posts back.

[RogerT]

We did that yesterday. At first, it did start with the door open, and the drum turned etc. with the door open. Then, it seemed like it was trying to start with the door open, but the drum was having a hard time turning and then it would konk out like before and wouldn't restart. That makes me think it's about the drum not turning correctly and the motor shutting off. But I don't know why it would even start at all with the door open unless the switch is bad. So, again, amybe two problems? -- the switch, and the drum friction causing the motor to stop?

[RogerT]

I have one of those, but not the other.

[RogerT]

Here is the latest.

As of today, it looks like the dryer is a goner as far as we are concerned.

We went to buy a new door switch but they didn't have one in stock and they orderd it. But, I doubt that the door switch is the problem anyway.

We tried setting the dryer to "Air Only/No Heat" and then turning it on. Same problem -- it cuts off after a few minutes or less and won't restart until it sits for about 10 minutes or so. To us, that means it is not the thermal limiter that is shutting things down because there is no heat being produced.

We replaced the upper drum glide, lower drum glide, idler arm assembly and pulley, and drum belt. The drum turns much easier and turns faster. But, it still shuts off after just a few minutes or less.

The motor started sounding like it is struggling, and there is now a faint smell of maybe something burning.

I think the motor may be going bad, which makes it a goner for us at this point.

Thanks for all of the suggestions and ideas.