Replacing A Drum Support Roller On Kenmore Electric Dryer ?

[Robert11]

Hello:

Have the fairly typical Sears Kenmore electric dryer whic is close to ten years old by now. Model is 110.68089 11

One of the drum support rollers has gone bad, and thought I would replace it myself, as the roller part is relatively cheap.

Question: Even though there's probably enough room for me to reach the roller which is at the rear of the unit thru the kick-plate door from the front, I was wondering what happens when I remove the roller ?

e.g., Will the drum fall down ?

Should I block up the drum with some wood prior to removing this roller ?

How is this kind of repair normally handled; any caveats or "gotchas" to be aware of ?

Thanks, B.

[Doug Kanter]

What should take an hour might take three. This is the age-old curse of home repairs. But, you shouldn't have any major problems with this job. Yes, you should have some chunks of wood handy for supporting the drum. I needed to do that with a much older GE dryer.

Do you have access to a large library system? If so, you might want to check & see if they carry repair manuals. That's where I found one for my dryer, and later, for the washer. Appliance parts places sometimes carry them, too. Like the comany that seems to have a monopoly on automobile manuals, there's a firm that also owns much of the appliance book biz.

[nospamtodd]

More power to you if you can do it in any way less than what a servicer would do. And this is it...

Unglug the unit. Remove lint screen and 2 screws there. Reach your hand around the control panel and give forward pressure while lifting the front edge of the top, releasing it from the front. Rotate the top up on its hinges. Remove kick plate. Remove door springs, remembering placement. Loosen 5/16" screws at lower left and right of front panel. Remove screws at top left and right of inside of front panel. Remove wires from door switch. Look inside to see how drum is oriented on the felt glide of the front panel. Remove front panel by lifting it off the loosened bottom screws and away from drum. Some older front panels have a long screw at the hinges that has to be removed. If the front panel doesn't come away easily, open the door, look at the hinges, and remove one of the 3 screws at each hinge. I think it is the middle one, but not sure. Removing the wrong one won't damage anything; just replace and move on. Once the the front panel is out of the way, you will have easy access to drum. Note how belt wraps around drum, through idler pulley, and around motor pulley. Draw a picture if you need to. Hold idler pulley to remove spring tension, then remove belt from motor pulley. Stand up and use belt as a holder and lift the whole drum out of the cabinet. Replace one or both rollers as needed. All the parts will come with each new roller. Clean the shaft with a solvent or rust buster if gummy. Put a touch of turbine oil on then load the roller.

To replace the drum, move the right roller foward on its shaft. Lift drum into place and turn drum by hand so that the rear seal flares outward, allowing top of drum about an inch of clearance from rear bulkhead so that there is room for the rear seal to move back into place. It will probably do this naturally. Load belt through idler and onto motor pulley. Put front panel on using above instructions in reverse, reaching inside to pull up on the drum and onto felt glide on the front panel. You can also open the door and pull drum onto the felt glide if necessary.

[Robert11]

Hello Sir:

Thank you very much for such an excellent reply, and taking all the time to write it and help me out. Appreciate it very much.

Bob