DE16CT Amana Dryer - Instructions

Since the heating coil is right behind the front door I had to remove all panels starting with the back one to get to it. The back has a lot of tech screws that I removed with the nut driver. The side panels were removed with a phillips screwdriver. The top is held in place with the other panels. The base was shifted away from the front and I released the heating coil case with 4 screws in the front and was able to pull it out of the top to replace it. I cut the old one out with wire cutters and snaked the new one through the ceramic insulators. I was careful not to touch the new one without gloves because the oil from your hands can burn them out more quickly. I screwed the new ones to the contact points while trying not to stretch it too much. I vacuumed the whole dryer out before putting it back together.

Put blocks under the washer where the leveling leg was needed and screwed the part into the washer. Then it was just a matter of moving the washer into place and leveling. Pretty easy.

Took off back cover, thermostat was easily identified because of photos I've seen on website. Took 2 connectors off, removed 2 screws and removed old thermostat. That was pretty much it!

NOTE: Replacement thermostat 694674 has an adjustable temperature range setting that MUST be manually set prior to installing! You need to use the enclosed chart to find your original part# and make sure the setting is matched. My original part# 341146 had a "D" setting so I had to change but very easy to do.

The dishrack came in one box I opened the box snapped on the rollers and the bumpers and put it in the dishwasher, could not have been easier Thank you partselect

In retrospect, this repair was not diffcult, but it took a long time because I could not find any directions or advice on the internet. The first puzzle was getting inside. The back panel comes off very easily with removal of a handful of panel screws. This exposes the motor, belts, drive pulleys, etc., and while I could rotate the drum by hand, I could not diagnose the grinding noise or why it turned with difficulty.

To go further, I had to remove the cabinet, which is easy - once you know what to do. Take out three screws along each side, near the bottom (of course, don't lose or mix up these screws with the ones from the back panel). You'll also have to detach four colored wires from the motor - the connectors are color coded, so there shouldn't be a mix up when you reattach them later. There are also two wires (B & W) that connect to the back of the drum that nneed to be detached - I marked B and W on the metal with a sharpie so as to remember which goes where. I didn't bother to check, but they must be the wires that connect to the door-open switch. After that, the whole cabinet (sides, front panel and door, top and control panel as one unit) can be tilted forward and lifted off to be set aside.

It turns out the grinding was from all the crap that fell through the gap at the front edge of the drum over the years - handfuls of paper clips, hair clips, wadded wrappers, earrings and $3.60 in change.

It mostly landed in the flange, or sheet metal shield, surrounding the coil heating element, which encircles the front of the drum ("Halo of Heat"). I cleaned all the lint and crud off the heater flange, and from the whole cabinet. Be very careful not to break the heating coil wire or the ceramic insulatots that hold itin a circle - they are somewhat fragile. If you ever need to replace the heating coil element, this is how you get there. It's a fairly simple matter of threading the new wire could through the ceramic insulators and making the obvious electrical connections at either end.

But my issues were still with the frame and exposed drum, belts etc. The drum is suspended from bearings at the back; nothing holds it at the front. There are two belts. One runs from a small pulley on an idler wheel (tensioned by a spring) to a large pulley on the back of the drum. The other is the motor belt, which is the longer of the two, that runs from the motor shaft to a small pulley on the back of the drum (inside the large pulley mentioned above), then over to the large pulley portion of the idler wheel (inside the small pulley mentioned above).

I wondered if any of the bearings on any of the parts was going bad, so I took off the belts. I don't remember which belt should come off first to make it any easier, but you'll manage either way Pull the idler wheel to slightly loosen a little tension on the belts and rotate one belt off a small pulley, then the other one. If you're new to this, take a picture, or make a sketch where the belts go - don't trust yourself to remember it later.

The idler wheel is attached to a bar that slides in a bit of a track or bracket. By lifting the wheel (stretching the spring) and moving it to the R side just a little, the bar can drop down the track and take all the tension off the spring. The spring is hooked into the cabinet at the biottom, and fits on the idler wheel shaft at the top, so you can take it off with no problem. Once you do that, you can pull the idler wheel/pulleys right off toward you. I took the bar out of the bracket and washed it off and polished it with steel wool to get rid of rust. similarly, I cleaned the frame bracket it slides in. I lubricated both parts with a litte petro jelly before reassembling. All the parts were covered with lint, and I took the time to clean everything off, especially the motor. We're talking forty years' worth.

I also went inside the drum and took out the lint filter and a plastic guard, and used a little brush and a vacuum to clean out the caked

I pulled off the old clips and easily replaced them with the new clips and popped on the wheels.
I replaced 8 clips and 8 wheels in less than 15mins

The lint filter was torn in a couple of places. This let lint go into the dryer vent pipe over a period of years. I ordered a new lint filter and replaced it. I also pulled out the plastic piece the filter sits against and cleaned out behind it. The vent went to the roof. I pulled off the rain shield and found that the vent pipe was almost completely packed with lint. I pulled out all I could reach and nailed a 2x2 inch and 1x2 inch together and used it to scrape out the vent pipe. I placed a flashlight in the bottom and checked to see it was clean. I replaced the rain shield and carefully reconnected the dryer to the vent. Now the dryer runs cool as it should.

There were no instructions with the part, but looking at the old rack it was simple to see how the parts should be assembled. Took the center part from the old rack, twisted off, and applied it to the center of the new rack. Snapped on the wheels and was done. Very simple assembly.

Turn off gas valve, unplug electrical cord; take back cover off. Take spring off the drive pulley; slip the drive belt on; put tension spring back on and put back cover back. The spring tension is strong so there is a little trouble to put it back.

Took off the lower front panel, removed duct piece from filter to blower fan, removed two screws and two wires to thermostat in exhaust ducting, then replaced thermostat with new one. Very easy job and everything worked like new when I reassembled it.

This is the second time I have replaced a rack. You just pop on the new rollers and you're good to go!

First, I checked the ripped box for damage to the dishrack. Fortunately, there was none. Then I looked for the instruction booklet. Unfortunately, there was none. And the parts bag was ripped and I did not know what was supposed to be in it. So, I rechecked the photo of the dishrack on the website and found that either parts were missing or the dishrack was different than illistrated. After a few moments of thought, I realized the latter was the case. I then figured I would have to use some deep thought to do the installation since neither the missing instruction booklet nor the unzoomable photo would help. So, I pulled out the tall thin thingamabob from the old dishrack and put it in the new one though it did not secure as tightly. Then I put the wheel units on just like the old one. What I could not immediately figure out was where the collapsible rack row was mounted. I eventually realized that the rod went into a hole in the wheel units and the latch mounted above one unit. I still have no idea where the two other tan clips go. Though the dishrack is different and thus requires different science to fill it, it appears to do the job.

Thanks for asking.

By the way, it was not blue.

We took the rollers off the old one (new ones came with the dishrack also) and put them on the dishrack (they snapped on). There was also an extra piece that we figured out how to put on. Then slid it in place and it was fine.

Unscrewed back plate, and replaced bulb

Using a flat-head screw driver, I removed the 1 screw from the small "door" on the back, upper right corner. Once the screw was removed, it allowed the door plate to "pop" open; exposing the old bulb. I removed the old bulb; replaced it with the new one. DONE!