I have an ice maker in my side by side Whirlpool fridge. It will drop a load of ice about once every two weeks. Other than that, it just makes noise. It's like a grinding noise. I believe it's the motor because I can feel the vibration when I put my hand on the large gear that the motor runs. Besides, what else could be making noise? An icicle slowly grows from the cub tray downward. With the fridge unplugged, I read 72 ohms from a digital multimeter between the "L" and "H" test points. This is exactly what my fix-it-yourself book says it should be so I think the heater element is good. Between "L" and "M" I read a very low ohm value, not zero though. This reading was read with a cheapo analog meter because the 9v in the digital died. Here are my guesses at possible problems:
1) Although the heater element is good, something is wrong with the controls to turn it on and off. It's not cycling correctly and not melting the ice enough for the motor to turn.2) Something mechancical is jamming the motor. Motor doesn't have enough torque to drop the ice. Either a faulty motor or something down the line is physically jammed.
3) A stripped gear. This is hard to see because of the cover over the motor gear. Maybe I can remove the motor and inspect the gear. As I re-read this email this seems like the most likely, almost obviously so, culprit. As soon as I get home today, I will check this first.If anybody has any wisdom to share, I would sure appreciate it. These things are cheap enough that I should just replace it but our budget is so tight right now I could only afford to buy some new cube molds.
Thanks in advance, Poor but handy, Chris