Retaining Ring

I researched on this site as well as a few other sites for the possible cause of the problem as I am not experienced in appliance repairs nor very experienced in being a handy man. Someone told me dryers out of all appliances are the easiest ones to repair. I agree now. I recommend taking a look at your rollers first as it is easy to get to prior to ordering all your parts so that you can get all your parts at once.

I first removed the front lower panel (4 screws), carefully removed the plastic vent from lint screen to outside venting which is just held in place, then removed upper front panel which included the door (4 screws/hex), removed 4 screws/hex holding top panel on and just lifted it up and proped it up and then I pulled out drum. I was able to see the two rollers at the bottom at this point. My left roller which was over the gas heat exchanger was so badly worn I could just pull it off. Here is where if I had inspected it before ordering the parts, I would have found the roller arm needed to be replaced too.

Replacing the rollers you need to pull the retaining rings off which requires the retaining ring pliers. Slide the retaining rings off and then pull off the old rollers. I replaced the rollers and thrust washers on both sides, replaced the retaining rings and vacuumed out the entire dryer underneath then replaced everything in reversed order. Twenty minutes to replace these and we now have a quite dryer and I have a very happy wife. Well, I'm very happy that I only spent $30 to fix a dryer instead of probably over $100 for a repair man to do.

First of all I would not have done this if it wasn't for
your website. Using the schematics to figure out
the right parts was easy. It was also helpful in the
actual repair process. I have added your website
to my favorites in my browser. The parts arrived in 3 days and I live in Reno. Great Website.

M.B.

Disconnect power. First, remove the lower front panel, then the upper front panel (disconnect door switch wiring). Remove two screws holding the top panel to the left and right side panels. Remove wiring connections to light and humidity sensor. Remove four screws to front drum support assembly, lift up to disengage tangs, and remove assembly. Reach in and find the idler assembly for the drum drive belt, and unwrap the belt to loosen it, also removing the belt from the motor pulley.. Slide the drum out the front of the dryer along with the drive belt. Remove the snap ring (using snap ring pliers) and washer holding the idler pulley on to the idler assembly. Remove the idler pulley. Polish the shaft with fine steel wool to get rid of dirt. Clean thoroughly, leaving no steel wool residue. Install replacement pulley, washer, and snap ring. Reinstall drum, taking care to feed belt back into place as the drum is reinstalled. Reach in and wrap the belt around the motor pulley and the idler pulley. Reinstall the front drum support by lifting the drum slightly to allow the support to engage with the drum, and then drop it down to re-engage the tabs into the left and right side panels while reseating it into the blower intake. Install the four screws to hold it in place, and reinstall the wiring for the light and the humidity sensor. Attach the top panel to the left and right side panels with one screw for each side. Reinstall the upper front panel, including reattaching the wiring to the door switch, with two screws. Finally, reinstall the lower front panel. Reconnect to the power source, and you should be good to go.

Unplug Dryer. Remove lower and upper front panels [remove wires from upper right door switch]. Lift up on belt idle pulley and take belt off pulley/motor.Remove Front Bulkhead and dryer lint/vent ducting. Note position on drum and remove belt. Unbolt top panel front 2 screws to allow room to remove drum.Remove drum. Take lock rings off Drum support rollers and remove old rollers. Clean roller shafts and apply hi-temp grease [I used ultra hi temp brake grease-ceramic based-small packet can be purchase fm auto parts store]. Re-install new support rollers and lock rings. Re-install drum and slide belt back into position. Remove and replace felt pads and glides into inside of Front Bulkhead. Reinstall Front Bulkhead and top panel [connect door switch wires].Install belt around idle tension pulley. Re-install lower panel.All parts fit perfectly and delivered quickly.Belt had just been replaced previously.

Unplugged dryer removed the front, removed & marked the wires. Removed the drum & drive belt. Removed the snap ring on front of roller with a pgtai awl.Removed the wheel & worn washers, removed the nut on the back of the roller shaft. reppaced it all in reversed proceedure. Other than a few little scrapes on the knuckles it was Quite easy.

Took the dryer apart, replace parts....put back together....all is well...until I tried to put the belt back on and broke the belt tensioner. Had to put a rush on that order

I pretty much followed a lot of the earlier postings on partselect.com that provided encouragement to pursue replacing this part on my 17 year old dryer (sorry, money is tight these days and I prefer repair to $800 replacement).

I'd like to add that I borrowed a pair of snap-ring pliers from work which made removal and later securing of roller onto shaft much easier and probably avoided a lot of knuckle bruising and cursing.

I erred though in a couple of places during the replacement. Disassembly took about 20 minutes. However, when I re-assembled I had mistakenly already put the roller onto the shaft before trying to put the drum back in. That isn't possible so I had to remove (an initial groan but only a few extra minutes in the end) the roller from the shaft, then reposition the drum and then the roller back on the shaft.

I also decided to replace the belt while I was in there and I should have taken a picture or made a drawing of the belt route before I took it off since I was later left pondering how the heck to snake the belt onto the shaft and also the tensioner. A quick trip to the internet though showed me a similar route and reminded me how to route it.

I'd also like to add to be cognizant of the wires on the door and front panel when disassembling.

Anyone with any sense of mechanical ability and a little common sense ought to be able to do this repiar.

Thanks Part Select!

Downloaded an Amana service manual and followed directions. Easy...and was able to clean out built up lint not to mention a couple of dollars in change!

Removed front panels and swiveled lid upwards. Loosened tensioner, removing belt and then carefully extracting the drum. Replaced 2 drum glides on underside of front panel. Next 2 rollers, which appear to unscrew, but do not do so. You must remove the retaining ring (surprise! ...and 2 screw drivers later). This was the longest and most frustrating part of the whole ordeal. Then just reverse the process for reassembly. This was my first electric dryer repair and it really wasn't too bad. Online docs I found were somewhat helpful, but really luck and perseverance. I did save probably $300 in replacement costs, which is quite satisfying. .

Identified Problem by using silicone spray on drum bearing wheels, when noise stopped I knew bearings were bad. Removed drum per PartsSelect diagram of my dryer then removed wheels, and bearing shaft.
Will need a snap ring pliers with small holes to remove snap rings. I ordered new shafts, washers,snap rings,drum wheels, and belt. Installing belt use two hands and make sure tension bar is correct review belt locations before repair. Also cleaned and vacumned inside of Dryer. Remember to unplug, I did not and when door was removed I caused a short that blew fuse, lucky that I did not damage dryer in process. Working well now with no nose.

Unscrew front, detach electrical, tilt back top, remove drum. remove retaining ring and glide, replace ring and guide remove old felt seal, adhere new felt seal with contact cement, remove what was left of felt pads, replace pads and new glides, reassemble.

Removed the front dryer panels (lower & upper), front drum support and drum. This gave me easy access to the idler pulley and tension spring. I also took the opportunity to vacuum all of the lent that had collected over the years. After installing the new parts and aligning the belt, I reassembled the panels, plug it in and it worked like a champ! Locating the parts on your website was fast and easy. I appreciate it and thank you.

i took the dryer apart to research the squeak. could tell the issue was coming from the idler pulley (the pulley the belt goes around. but since i was taking the whole thing apart i got two new rollers and slides and a spare retaining ring in case i broke the old one during install. in most cases i would purchase a new belt also, but mine still looked new.always unplug the dryer first. then use a flat balde screwdriver and put in between dryer top and dryer body a couple of inches from either side of the dryer, do one side at a time and slightly rotate screwdiver this will disconnect clips holding top of dryer on. once the clips are free lift dryer top like a car hood and let lid rest back against a wall behind dryer. draw a diagram of wire connections as you go this will make reassembly easy. disconnect the two wires attached to the door latch, then on the right side and left side of the dryer about two inches from the top there is a self tapping bolt that needs to be removed. once the bolts are out you will be able to lift and pullback on the front of the dryer to remove. three philips screws hold the lint trap assembly to the door assembly i took these out and vacuumed everywhere i could. there is a plastic assembly on the front of the heater unit, three small bolts will remove this. draw a diagram of the wires attached to the blower unit and disconnect. reach behind the blower unit release the tension on the belt by pulling the tensioner puilley forward, you will then with the other hand be able to remove the belt. with the belt removed, 4 bolts around the frame of the drum will enable you to remove the drum making all the repairs very easy. you will see both black rollers in the back bottom of the machine, remove with a set of snap ring pliers and replace the same way-make sure the side that says "front" is facing you when you install. the tensioner pulley with bearing is also replaced with a single snap ring, all three can be replaced in minutes. the slides are plastic pieces that are mounted on the inside of the front panel of the dryer that the drum rolls on. the old ones just slide out and the new ones slide in as long as the brackets are still good, no tools required. put everything together in reverse order, getting the drum back in and the belt back on my require an extra set of hands, but is not hard. dryer sounds new, saved myself hundredss of dollars, i'm sure and once i diagnosed the problem and had the parts, repairs were made inside of an hour.

when i first heard the noise i thought it was the belt. after changing that i still heard the noise but louder.
so i took off the bottom face plate took off the door and the bracket holding the tumbler then took out the tumbler to see what was wrong.
being a 6' 4" 250lbs it was hard for me to see what was behind the motor. i finally saw that the idler wheel had come half way off of the lever.
I changed the pulley lever, pulley wheel and all the washers. it was fairly simple. and when done the noise was gone. it only costed me about $15 which made me happy cheap fix.

Disconnect the dryer from the electrical source. Using a nut driver, first remove the 2 screws of the lower panel and release the panel. Next remove 4 screws of the door panel and then remove the electrical connections to the door (6 wires). Remember to mark the wires prior to removing so you will remember were it plugs back in on reassembly. Remove the door panel. Then remove the 2 screws holding the top of the dryer and tilt the top open about 90 degrees to access the tumbler. Remove the belt by sliding off the tumbler. Remove the tumbler. You will then access the pulley. Using a pair of pliers, remove the retaining ring by pulling upwards. Then remove the washer and the pulley. Replace the parts with the new pulley, washer and retaining ring. This time would be a good time to replace the belt too. Thread the belt through the pulley and over the tumbler. Place the top back and screw in place. Reassemble the door wiring and reattach the door with the 4 screws. Reassemble the lower panel and plug the dryer back into the outlet and test. There should be no more noise if the noise is coming from the pulley and loose belt.