ALE643RAW (PALE643RAW) Amana Dryer - Instructions

I replaced the two drum support rollers, the idler pulley wheel, and the belt. Replacing support rollers and pulley wheel requires snap ring pliers, to spread apart the tiny retainer ring that holds the wheels onto the shafts. Get a good quality one! The $23 pliers at Home Depot works great. The one I got for $3.99 online was garbage, and caused me to break one of the retainer rings. I'd recommend buying an extra retainer ring before beginning this repair, and practicing using the pliers with it. It's a very delicate operation and you have to have a steady hand. RE the Idler pulley wheel - this was the most likely cause of the squeaking noise. The old one had a deep groove worn into it by the belt, which may have caused it to spin off-balance on the shaft, resulting in the squeaking noise. RE replacing the belt: at first this task looks impossible, because you can't see exactly how the belt is threaded until you fully remove the drum, but you can't remove the drum until you've removed the belt! Put your hands behind and try to feel how it's threaded, before removing the belt. I drew a diagram to help me visualize how the belt is positioned: looking at the drum from the front, imagine the belt running clockwise around the drum, and after it goes across the top of the drum to the right, it threads UNDER the idler pulley wheel, then clockwise around and under the motor shaft, then back under the drum and around (I hope this helps, it's hard to describe in words). To replace the belt you need to first remove the two screws that secure the top panel of the dryer, and lift the top panel up (like the hood on a car). Then the sequence of steps to replace the belt is: 1) slide the belt off the drum, toward the back of the dryer. 2) remove the drum from the machine 3) if belt is still threaded, make a note of how it's positioned 4) Remove the belt completely 5) thread the new belt under the pulley wheel and around the motor shaft as described above, and 6) keeping the belt fairly taught, place the drum back in position and slide the new belt around the drum in the reverse direction, from back toward front. 7) test the belt by rotating the drum a little to ensure the belt and motor are rotating smoothly together. IMPORTANT: the ribbed-rubber inner side of the belt must be in contact with the drum and with the motor shaft. The belt may twist as you're putting it on, so feel it all the way around to make sure it's flat, and untwist it if necessary. Hope this helps -- it will make more sense when you're actually doing it. Though this may all seem complicated, it's actually a fairly simple machine with only a few moving parts, so it's not as hard as I am making it sound. Courage, and good luck!

Took apart front and top panels. Eight screws in total. Removed belt from pulley then drum. Removed both support rollers, idler pulley. Installed new items. Five wires that must be removed and reinstalled. I made diagram of wiring. Drum glides remove easy. Install new ones. It is best to install the belt on drum, then on the pulley. Install all panels.

I researched the online how to video and when the parts came went at like a pro!

for a while the dryer was really loud when on. i took the front cover, and could pin point it to the idler pulley wheel. i would squirt some wd 40 on the wheel just to get by. one day the dryer stopped turning so i thought the belt broke. after following the instructions on this site on now to take off the front panel, and tub holder (the panel that has the lint trap in it, i was able to take out the tub and find that the pulley wheel had broke apart. i ordered the new part and got a new belt at the same time. why not replace while i had it apart. i didnt have snap ring pliers to remove the snap ring so i got 2 small finishing nails that would fit in the holes and was able to pull apart the ring and get it off. i slid on the new wheel, and put the snap ring back on. ii watch the video on how to replace the belt and it was a sinch. the dryer was already apart and to fix it, took about 15 min. for $18 in parts, the dryer has never sounded better.parts select saves me money everytime.

I followed the instructions provided by Partselect. The video and information were very clear and accurate. I have never taken a dryer apart, but have some tools and the cost savings plus the reward of fixing it myself were enough to inspire me to try. I was so happy with this experience I recently diagnosed and fixed a friends dryer with the helpful information from Partselect.

I recently found your site and was pleasantly pleased with your troubleshooting suggestions and repair videos. My dryer was sounding like there was a pair of gym shoes inside bouncing around and your suggestion of the drum support rollers was right on the money. My dryer cabinet came apart a little differently then what the video showed but was workable.
I would like to suggest sending the washers that go in front of and behind the drum support roller with the drum rollers. The washers on my dryer were completely ground down to powder so I drilled out some stainless steel washers I had in my supply of extra parts. These washers are hard to find in a hardware store due to being so thin.
I would suggest to anyone changing these drum rollers to go ahead and order/replace the drum belt and front guides as long as you have the machine apart and had to take these off to get to drum rollers. I have had my dryer maintenance free for 17 years and figured they were probably close to being worn out as well. My front guides were paper thin and the drum belt had lots of cracks.
Total cost of bringing dryer back up to par was only $45.00. Saved at least $180.00 doing myself.

Looked on your wonderful site and found two parts that were listed as 80% the problem. Took a chance and ordered both parts. Husband replaced both parts. And, yeah. . . . . . . . . We had heat. So not sure which one it needed. . . . But, the price of your parts beat the costs of any repair man. Thank you so much. We're drying clothes again!!! Lk

took dryer apart and replaced the drum support rollers. This did not work and problem is still there. The videos at the part select did not help since they seemed to be for a different dryer and nothing in them helped in any way to work on my unit. I did get a repair man out and was told that he had not seen one built like this one before.

The front of the dryer disassemled a bit differently than the video, but once I came to the conclusion I was going to rip it apart, I figured out how it needed to be done. That added about 5 min. to the repair. The main culprit was the idler pulley, it was nearly completely frozen, but I had ordered all the most likely components, so I also changed out the rear support rollers & front glides. The belt was actually in pretty good shape, but I swapped it out also so I wouldn't have to do it in the (near) future. I had to take a 2nd look at the video for belt routing on reassembly. Without tension on the belt it doesn't look like it would work, but once the tension is added the the belt separates so it's not rubbing on itself, like it would appear to do before being tensioned. All and all it was a fairly easy fix and for $47 incl. shipping, much cheaper than a new dryer or even a service call... Thanx

The only difference is that I took apart the front frame, that is the white plastic plenum. The videos were of a clean machine, mine was not. I decided to wash the plenum so I took it off the frame. Had it not been the middle of winter in St. Louis, I could have hosed it clean outside, but not this winter. Disassembly allowed me to clean the plenum in the sink.I was extremely impressed with the service and videos. I will be doing business with you in the future and am telling all my DIY family and friends.

I just followed the intructions from the video on the website. That made the replacement easy.

Pulled the front, loosened the top, released the belt, pulled the tub, pulled the motor, and replaced the idler pulley lever and shaft and the idler pulley wheel, and the belt.

Replaced glides, belt, and rollers, but problem still existed. Next, I purchased a new motor and problem solved! Repairing my dryer was easier than I had previously thought it would be.

I had two repairs, a few days apart while waiting for diagnosis and parts. I watched the videos and followed the steps, simple as that. I was able to replace the rear roller wheels without taking the drum all the way out. I tried the dryer with this 1st fix, some sounds went away but the worst one remained. Took the drum all the way out and replaced the idler pulley wheel just as the video shows. Everything went back together just fine- no extra parts and the dryer is soooooo quiet. My wife thinks I'm a stud for doing this, thank you partselect.com. A caveat, the e rings that hold the wheels on are a big pain to remove and reapply. The snap ring pliers needed to get these off don't always fit in the little openings to remove the ring.Get the smallest size tips if you buy the pliers. My pliers got an "A" for effort, a "D" for results. I used a pair of slotted screwdrivers to manipulate the rings off. Your mileage may vary.

The problem was easy to troubleshoot using the PartsSelect diagnostics on the website. After viewing the instructional videos for the parts I suspected I placed the order. When the parts arrived I reviewed the videos prior to attempting the repair. The problem was a drum support roller. I began by removing the top and front panels. The model I have was older than the video and the only trouble I had was that the top panel was screwed in place instead of clips. Once that was figured out the repair was pretty easy. I removed the drum, belt and replaced the Drum Support Rollers and Drum Glides, installed a new belt and reassembled. The parts for this type of repair are so reasonable that some of the parts I replaced were to insure longer life but actually were not in bad shape. Overall this was a very cost effective and relatively easy repair.