36271W Amana Refrigerator - Instructions

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

Shut off the water supply at the wall then using a 1/4" nut driver I removed the steel and cardboard backing plates from the rear of the refrigerator. Disconnect the main water supply hose and then the two water lines for the chilled water dispenser and ice maker. Remove the two screws on a support bracket which holds the valve in place.
Reassembly in reverse order.
The process was very easy and took no longer than 15 minutes and works just like new. This is a good time to do some thorough cleaning around the fan and coils to keep them working properly as well.

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.

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 I turned the water off behind the refrigerator....took the ice maker inlet valve off, put on the new one. As simple as that & it is working beautifully....not only am I a woman but 55 yrs. young too!
With the right part & right tools NOTHING is impossible & I saved myself a repair persons fee!!!

Tried to repair existing valve which I have succesfully done many times by cleaning and removing grit from internal neoprene parts until new parts received. Was not successful. New valve worked perfectly. this is only 2nd repair needed on this ref. since new. 1st was defrost timer. Ice maker hasn't missed a lick since new.

pulled cover off back of refrigerater at the water line,shut water off removed water line,check for pressure at the line by puting the line into a 5 gallon bucket it was ok.took the dispencer lines off that goes up to dispencer,hit dispencer switch could hear buzzing at the dispencer unit but no pressure.so i replace water inlet valve

For the icemaker, I removed the ice tray and loosesned the two attaching screws(1/4"). I removed the lower bracket and then removed the ice dispenser motor cover below the ice maker. This made it easier to remove the wiring harness. After removing the icemaker from the refrigerator, I swapped out the wiring harness and ice detector bracket (wire bail that swings). Hooked things back up and went on to the water valve. All in all about 15 minutes and pretty easy.
For the ice valve, you must turn off the water supply, disconnect the power plug and move the refrigerator away from the wall. (Now's a good time to clean out under and behind the unit!) Remove the valve from the base with the 1/4" nut driver. Remove the inlet line(standard hose fitting).Have a sponge handy. Remove and replace the new valve in the bracket by popping the clip off and on the new one. Replace one outlet line and electrical connection at a time (easier to keep track of). Replace unit on base and check for leaks before replacing refrigerator. Other than cleaning, the task took about 20 min. and was simple. The cleaning, on the other hand...

Super easy - emptied door of all food, unscrewed bracket from top of door, lifted door off and set aside. Broken cam removed, new one screwed in, and lubed with some Vaseline. Set door back in new cam, screwed bracket into the top, and good to go. I was kinda worried about shopping from PartSelect since I had never heard about them, but the part was here in less than 2 days. Pretty awesome little company.

Pulled out the fridge fro the wall, unpluged it, turned off the water supply to the house, disconnected the water line to the part, installed new part and re-attached the wires and ground, turned on the water - no leaks, plugged in the fridge - ice maker begand to fill and has continued to work.

Easy as pie. Will contact you again if I have other appliance problems.

Paul M, Seattle WA

Remove two screws from top door hinge.
Remove door from unit
Remove old broken plastic cam 1 screw
Replace new door cam tighten 1 screw
Reinstall door and top hinge screws.

First of all I want to thank Michael from Carlisle,PA and this site for publishing Michael's info on the wiring specifics on the new 3 connector Start Relay ( WP2262185 ). The original relay only has 2 connectors The 2 orange wires which are combined to one female connector need to be clipped and separated each to its own connector. Refer to Michael's blog as to which wire goes to which connector on the Start Relay. I replaced the Run Capacitor, Start Relay and Overload just to be safe. The Start Relay was the actual culprit.Thank you for an excellent website!

0. Tools required: small Phillips screw driver and a normal length 3/16th inch Nut Driver. Some duct tape would be handy as well - for securing the wiring housing out of the way.

1. Unplug the refrigerator or trip the controlling circuit breaker to remove the possibility of an unpleasant surprises such as electrical shock, electrical arc, further damage to the refrigerator, burns to yourself, or death.

3. Remove the two small Philips-head screws located on the under side of the bezel surrounding the ice and water dispenser.

3. Carefully lift, pull, and remove the bezel.

4. Note the locations and relative positions of all the components behind the bezel. A digital photograph (or three) from various angles for future reference when reassembling the dispenser would be a good idea - if a camera is available.

3. Remove the two screws that hold the plastic housing and metal shroud containing wiring and switches. Tape the shroud and housing together and tie or tape it out of the way. If you ignored step #1, make sure you tape both the plastic tray and the metal shroud together as they were installed so that you cover any exposed wires or connectors inside the plastic housing. All the switches will still be "hot" and can cause the dispensers to activate at unexpected and mostly inconvenient times.

4. Slip the ice door damper spring (wire loop) off the ice door mechanism. Do not abruptly push or pull on the damper spring loop when it is disconnected from the door mechanism - you may damage it.

5. Remove the two screws that hold the retaining tabs in place for the water dispenser activator; the two screws that hold the retaining tabs in place for the ice dispenser activator; and the two screws that hold the spring-loaded ice door-closing mechanism in place. That is a total of six screws: four retaining tab screws for the activators and the two screws retaining the spring-loaded ice door mechanism.

6. Slip the water dispenser activator arm down, off the water feed tube, and put it aside.

7. Remove the ice dispenser activator arm and spring-loaded ice door- closing mechanism as a unit and note how it is fitted together. Then remove and put aside the ice door and closing mechanism. Save the spring-loaded ice door closing mechanism for reinstallation with the new dispenser

8. Reinstall the new water dispenser activator arm over the water feed tube and reinstall the metal tabs and tab retaining screws.

9. Assemble the new ice dispenser arm and the existing spring-loaded ice door- closing mechanism as you noted it to be during the disassembly process.

10. Reinstall the new ice dispenser activator arm and spring-loaded ice door closing mechanism. It seemed easier to secure the dispenser activator with the screws and metal tabs first and then the spring-loaded ice door closing mechanism.

11. Reinstall the plastic housing containing the electrical components and the metal shroud and secure in place with the two screws that were removed in Step #3. Restore electrical power to the system.

12. Test both the water dispenser and ice dispenser for proper operation. If both dispensers appear to operate correctly, reinstall the bezel with the two small Philips screws and you are done.

13. If either of the dispensers does not work, you will have to trouble shoot the problem. A common problem seemed to be that the activator arm was not making contact with the switch in the plastic housing. You will have to go back and ensure that all the components are properly installed - there are no other adjustments and simply pushing harder on the actuator may break the newly installed part.

All the screws and components are easily accessible, so I think that the entire repair process should take about 30 to 45 minutes unless Step 12 fails and Step 13 is required. Then it may take a couple hours to figure out and get things set right.

change light bulbs

We came home from a long vacation to discover a warm refrigerator with its contents in various stages of decay.

Turning the freezer thermostat to its warmest setting then back to cold generated clicks, and after a few tries the compressor started and cooled the refrigerator to its normal cold temperatures. But… later the compressor again failed to start, and everything warmed back up again. With persistence and turning the thermostat up and down several times a day, we could keep the fridge cold.

It was time to order parts. We needed a new start relay and capacitor for the compressor. For our Amana ARB2214CW a start relay (WP12555902) and capacitor (WP65889-4) were listed on the first page of the Partselect parts list for my refrigerator. I ordered them, received them, removed the old capacitor and start relay (which rattled when shaken). and prepared to install my new parts. The new start relay did not match the old. The old start relay fit my wiring which had a single plug with two small female spade connectors in the plug. The new start relay required wiring with two separate female spade connectors; one the normal size and one larger. Phone calls to Partselect and to Westinghouse shed no light on the discrepancy. On the second page of the Partselect parts list was a combination of a start relay and a capacitor (W10613606) that matched my electrical connector. I could see the connection in the photograph. I ordered it and it fit. Easy peazy. That fixed the compressor start problem. Every time the freezer thermostat clicked on, the compressor started. Success.

But… from our troubleshooting we now had a thermometer the freezer, and it was obvious that the temperature difference between the cold point where the thermostat turned the compressor off and the warm point where the thermostat restarted the compressor was much too wide. In addition, the knob was hard to turn and was sticky as it turned. Oiling it fixed the sticky knob problem but not the wide temperature difference problem. I ordered a new freezer thermostat (WP67003000), received it, installed it, and all is now fine with my refrigerator. The new thermostat was physically a little different from the original, but it fit and worked.

I returned the first compressor start relay and capacitor and received a refund including the shipping charge.