85371 Amana Refrigerator - Instructions

Removed pin holding the wheel along with leveling screw. Put new wheel in place, replace pin and screw. Done...very easy.

First I removed the ice catcher bucket to give myself a little room and lifed the ice maker lever to make sure it wouldn't try to produce ice while I was replacing it.

I removed the bottom screw and loosened the top two with a nut driver. The ice maker lifted right out and allowed me to disconnect the electrical plug; just squeeze the little plastic levers on both sides of the plug and pull.

I plugged in the electrical connection from the new ice maker. Making sure the water spout was in place, I dropped the new unit over the two loosened top screws. I then replaced the bottom screw and tightened all three. I replaced the ice catcher bucket and made myself a martini as a reward for not spending the $75.00 to $100.00 for a service call.

Within a couple of hours it was again making batches of ice for more martinis; it was a day or so before there was enough for frozen Margueritas.

I never even unplugged the refrigerator or shut off the water supply, although I suppose it would be prudent but not necessary. Some people like me just like to tempt fate.

The repair was so quick I didn't even worry about emptying the freezer. It was so easy even a girl could do it ... no offense intended. At the equivalent of $300.00 to $400.00 per hour I wish I could do it all day. Maybe I should be a "refrigerator repairman".

Seriously, the only thing that could hamper you is a lack of confidence which will quickly be overcome in 10 to 15 minutes by a huge ego. That time frame includes locating the tools and taking a few deep breaths. Don't hesitate to give it a shot. If you can't do it you really don't deserve to have ice. It really is that simple and easy.

Followed the directions in the package. Turned off the power, removed two screws following the directions and replaced the entire unit. So easy even a Cave Man can do it. No kidding, and the best part was the fact that our local distributed wanted almost $20.00 more for the same part and I'd have to drive over a hour 40 miles to get it.

Removed the 3 screws that hold the ice maker in place and remove the cover and level wire. Put the cover and wire on new part and install the 3 screws. Had ice within 1 hour. A very easy job for the do it yourselfer. Suspect the heat coil that melts the cubes was not working in the old unit and cubes stayed in the tray.

First I removed the two screws that held the top of the handle in place. Then popped off the bottom holder. Replaced the broken handle with the new one, replaced the screws and snap on section and now have a nice looking refirigerator with a handle that works.

Pretty simple really after reading online some other owners' experiences. This is a bottom freezer unit. Remove the ice maker, the tray slides, and the back cover of the freezer box. In my case I had to thaw it out with a hair dryer as the cover was frozen in place. I checked the old 'stat and found it was bad; I temporarily wired the leads together until the new 'stat arrived. It does allow the refrigerator to warm up during a defrost cycle but it beats de-icing it twice.The defrost 'stat is clipped over the refrigerant line in the upper right corner of the box. Resistance was 65k ohms and wouldn't close on low temp (tested by clipping it to an exposed refrigerant line in another upright freezer) but there was no obvious damage. The one lead on the replacement 'stat has the wrong connector so you have to cut off the original lead from the old unit and splice it on the wrong lead on the new one. I used an epoxy sealed heat shrink type butt splice. Reassemble and let it run. One word of warning: be careful tightening any screws as they will strip easily

This was the third icemaker replaced since January 1999. Improvement need to be made in the design of the icemaker so that more than 2-3 years of life is available.
The most difficult part was disconnecting the power plug in the back of the icemaker. You must squeeze the upper and lower tabs together and pull out at the same time to disconnect. Once this is done, take out one nut head screw, lift up on the icemaker and remove from the hanger. Be careful that you don't break the plastic tabs on the hangers. Replace new icemaker in reverse, feed water supply where it must go in the back, resnap onto hangers, replace the nut head screw and snap in the power plug. It took about 2 hours before the icemaker began making ice. It has been working fine ever since. PS. I saved about $200.00 over having a repairman come in and replace the unit.

first thing i thought was the condenser was plugged so pulled out and cleaned with shop vacum backwards so it became a blower not a vacum cleaned it good and put together. wife noticed cracking noise inside freezer. took all freezer food and shelfs out. took 1/4 inch hex nut screws out and found complete condenser solid ice. did some research on internet and found parts select stories. i buy passed thermostate and hooked heating coils direct which then thawed condenser. checked timer by turning of and it worked fine until i got part and installed.

turn off water and unplug fridge. remove ice maker bottom mounting screw. just loosen the 2 top mounting screws. unplug wire harness from back of fridge. remove old icemaker from freezer compartment. once removed, salvage square endcover and reinstall on new maker. unfasten wire harness from old maker and reinsatll on new one. reinsert thermal wire in new ice maker holding bracket. remove second wiring bracket and reinstall on new maker to hold remaining wires (not mentioned on "how to-" video). remove old ice maker on/off bale and reinstall on new one. remount new maker to top mounting screws, reinsert harness plug into fridge. replace bottom screw,

After checking the water valves ordered new ice maker. received the part three days after ordering! Clearing out food, removing the old one and installing the new unit took under 15 minutes. Everything went fine.

I removed the old ice maker and during the short disassembly noticed a burned out connection to the heater element that allows the ice to be broken free of the tray and dumped into the bin. Part Select had a new unit to me next day! I had watched their short install video, and read some of the user comments, already. Re-installing the new unit was a snap, and just as the video had described except for the mount bracket. The only thing that concerned me was that the new unit did not immediately do anything. I began to investigate and found that the flexible water "chute" connection had ice in it! I unplugged the refer, unscrewed the water filter and drained it. I disconnected the water feed on the outside back of the unit as well to make sure water could flow easily to the ice maker port. I filled the water filter with boiling hot water and replaced it, I plugged in the refer, and reprogrammed the date and time. Several hours later I checked the ice maker and it was -- making ice!

Part received was what I needed. There was one issue--the 'feed' opening to receive water and direct it into the ice tray was a side feed and what I needed was a back feed. That means I had to do some exchanging of parts to make it work. That exercise took more time that the actual installation.

After removing the old ice maker, I pulled off the wiring harness and plugged it into the new unit. The new unit went in place of the old with 3 screws. This was the only repairs needed. It started talking to the frig and we had our first batch of ice in minutes.

Order the part from the Internet on Sunday, it mailed out on Monday and I received it on Tuesday. I unplugged the fan then undone 3 screws that held the fan bracket to the refrigerator pulled it out unscrewed 3 more nuts and replaced the fan on the bracket and I cut the old wire plug off the old fan and with 2 wire nuts put it on my new fan. Replaced the fan and bracket back on the refrigerator plugged it in and it works like a new refrigerator.

After unplugging the appliance I needed to thaw a large ice buildup off the evaporator cover panel before I could even remove the panel. The freezer being on the lower part of the appliance has the evaporator mounted vertically and it was 100% encapsulated in rock hard ice. It took over an hour to thaw the ice and collect all the water with a shop vacuum, since the condensate pan began to overflow.
One thawed, I checked all wiring for good connection, checked heater, defrost thermostat, timer unit with multimeter. The defrost thermostat checked out fine after putting it into another freezer for a 15 minute cooldown, but I noticed a crack in the seal and suspected internal moisture and decided to replace that part. A simple plug in of two leads to the new part after clipping it to the evaporator, replacement of the panel, and the appliance was up and running problem free.
A workbench disection of the old part confirmed my assessment, it had internal rust and water and had failed causing the defrost cycle failure.