Water Dispenser Actuator

If you think you probably can't do this, you're like me... but you just had to try because you needed the part anyway right? This really was quite simple, a lot easier than it sounds from the description and saved me probably $75 I'd have had to pay a tech to do it. Just unplug fridge, yank that water spill tray out, yes yank, it's a bit hard to do that if you've not done it before. After that remove the 3 phillips head screws you just gained access to. Lift panel frame up then out. Disconnect wire harness plug and set that frame aside. Take out next screws exposed to free the unit. Tilt unit out and remove the two little screws and shims holding actuator in place. Remove broken one. Put new one in. Reverse all actions taken thus far. Plug fridge back in and have a drink of water like nothing ever happened. : ) You can do this!

Very easy. I at first misunderstood the instructions. the fridge door remains closed. You pull out the water catch tray "outside" the door. someone said ice tray, thats why i thought i had to open the door to fix it. there are 3 screws that the water catch hides. once removed the control panel comes off which unplugs from bottom easily. then there are screws behind the control panel just removed. after those are unscrewed the rest tilts enough that u can uncrew the little metal bands that hold the arm. replace arm & reverse your efforts & your done. took less then 10 minutes.

Remover 3 screws from bottom of panel,unplugged elrc. connector,removed 2 "small" screws from the pivot axel of the broken actuator.Cleaned everything. Reversed the process to reinstall.

I followed a gentleman's directions on your website, very useful I might add. It helped me replace all the broken parts with ease. I am a 33 year old mom of two. Anyone could do these repairs that I did. Thank you.

At first glance I didn't see the screws that would permit me to get to the actuator but I lifted the small tray at the bottom and there were two screws. Everything went easily.

Easy repair, except the re-install of the entire water/ice part back into the door. The original plastic water line too short to fit back into the small opening. Hint: Go buy 10 inch of new water line and a small connector. Run the new line up through the small opening, and connect to the original water line with the small connector. This made it easy to replace and test, and then cut of the excess water line.
Thanks.

The repair was easy for me as I am very mechanically inclined. I did have a problem with the water actuator being a different shape then the original so I had ordered the ice actuator to replace also so they would match. The ice actuator matched the original so was unable to get the paddles to match in my door. It works fine but I don't like the look of two different style paddles in my door.

I unplugged the fridge and removed the dispenser's drip plate. There are 3 screws holding the front fascia. I carefully slid the fascia up to removed it. I unplugged it from what looks like a circuit board from the dispenser. Remove 3 more screws that held the board exposing the ice dispenser's hole and the water actuator. To give myself a little more room to work, I disconnected the board from the fridge. Attempted to removed the water hose but i couldn't, but found out didn't need to. I used a longer philip's screwdriver to unscrew two very small plates that were holding the actuator in place. Need a magnitized screwdriver for this, my hands are too big to reach in there. It took about 15 minutes. NO extra parts or additional parts to order.

I slid out the tray in the ice/water area and exposed the 3 screws to remove the unit/panel. I then had to unplug the electrical connection and work the panel around to where I could get to the 2 screws that hold the actuator in place. The water tube holds the panel tight making it difficult to access these two screws but I was able to complete the job in about 15 minutes.

I followed instructions given by Jonathan from Universal City TX. I wasn't able to disconnect the panel frame wiring harness, so I just let the frame hang. I also had a bit of trouble snapping the actuator into place. Once I did, however, the rest was easy. Thanks Jonathan for the instructions!

Followed others instructions on here. As others have said you do need a magnetized screwdriver or pick-up stick as it's easy to drop screws. A second person is useful to hold a flashlight and hold things steady.

it's very simple......take off the bottom plastic grate that catches the overspilled water, unscrew the 3 bottom screws, take off the black plate ( just lift up slightly), take out three more screws, then get the flashlight out. ......on top of the actuator, you will see 2 small silver-colored screws with very small silver-colored plates ( maybe 1/4 inch long), they hold the actuator into the unit. unscrew those and pull out the old actuator unit. You'll need to use your flashlight and pull the entire unit out to get access for replacment. Reverse the process for replacement, put in the actuator, screw in the 2 small silver-colored screws and there little plates, push the entire unti back into place, then screw in the remaining two sets of 3 screws......replace the faceplate and water grate and you're done.

Removed water tray, removed 3 screws (a little rusted), took off cover, removed 3 more screws, unpluged wiring, removed screws holding in actuator, removed broken part, installed new part making sure spring was in the right place. Put back together.

Unplug refrigerator first. Remove 4 screws on front and lift off cover. Unplug unit small plug with around 6 wire on it on the top. Unscrew inside scres that hold the lever in place. Put the new one in slots and put in screws to hold in slot. Put cover back on. Make sure ice dispenser is still working seemed to disengage the unit during the repairs.

The first thing I did was unplug the refrigerator for safety's sake. Then I made a mistake. I peeled off the module cover label. All I needed to do was pry the drip tray off to reveal the screw that holds the Module Cover in place. I used my fingernails to get under the botton edge of the tray then lifted it gently off. Then I unscrewed the Module Cover pulled it away from the freezer door and unplugged the electrical connection so I could set the Module Cover out of the way. I removed the broken piece of the original Acutator by unscrewing two tiny bolts from two tiny plates. That's where the tweezers came in. As soon as I took those little bolts out, the plates fell into a place where I could barely see them, let alone get into with my fingers. Once all the tiny pieces had been retrieved and put somewhere safe, I inserted the new Actuator up through the opening. The Actuator has an arm that sticks up and pushes against a spring to open the water flow. You'll want to make sure that arm is in front of the spring. The tricky task of screwing those two tiny plates back in took a while and a little swearing, since they now had pressure against them from the spring, but I was able to get it done with the help of a magnetized screwdriver. Then it was just a matter of plugging the electric cord back into the Module Cover and screwing the cover back into place, replacing the drip tray and sticking the label back on. The repair wasn't difficult it was just an extremely small space in which to work. The Drawer Support Rail and Refrigerator Door Shelf Bin popped in in about 30 seconds.