GC2228GEHB Maytag Refrigerator - Instructions

I removed the ice maker from the refrigerator, by removing one screw on the underside bracket and loosening the two screws at the top side, then lifting the ice maker off the loosened screws. I then unplugged the electrical harness that supplies power from the refrigerator to the ice maker. I then disassembled the ice maker by removing the front cover which is snapped in place, then removing two recessed screws at the front. I removed the broken part, I then reassembled the ice maker with the new part. I replaced the two recessed screws at the front and snapped on the cover. Then I reinstalled the ice maker in the refrigator by plugging in the harness, slipping the ice maker over the loosened screws in the refrigerator and replacing the screw that was removed from the underside bracket. Tightening all the screws completed the project.

Turn counter clockwise, following the remove arrow on the filter, until it stops. Wiggle and pull down on the filter until it comes off. Put date sticker on new filter to remember when it was replaced. Align the lines on the filter and push it up where the old one was and turn it clockwise until it stops, following the install arrow. Close the door and push both the light and lock button together to reset the replace filter light. Run the water through the door for a couple minutes to get all of the air out of the system. Very easy and quick. Most time spent flushing out the air.

The easiest thing to do was pull the ice make off. After taking the 3 screws out of the wall of the freezer, take a screwdriver (flathead) and push on the tab for the electrical plug and wiggle the cord out. Then you can take 3 screws out for the main cover and another 2 screws on the next cover. There's the part, pop it out and replace holding pins and start the process of putting back together the opposite way you took it apart.

I used a flat screwdriver and released the lock tab on the bottom of the light switch, and pried the switch out, being careful to not damage the plastic around the mounting place of the switch, unplugged wiring from old switch, plugged in the new one and pushed the new switch into place. Job finished light switch now working.

First I removed to ice-bucket and noticed the plastic that holds the motor with a head of what I would call a two-prong fork had broken off the plastic (enclosure). Thus it lost contact to the ice bucket's screw that pushes the ice forward when the dispense button is pressed. After ordering a new enclosure I had to remove one screw nut and pull the wire plug (to the motor) out carefully. Then I had to remove eight screws holding the motor and related parts to the old enclosure and attached it to the new enclosure. The only tricky part was taking that fork off. It screws off, but in the opposite way. Also, I had to get a pair of pliers to hold the turn shaft from turning when taking the fork off.

The ice maker was not getting water. I hotwired the water valve by switching the connectors for the water dispenser and ice maker water valves and water flowed into the icemaker when the water dispenser lever was pushed. I wronly assumed the water valve was good. I removed the icemaker and determined that the gear motor was not getting power in the position the icemaker had stopped.In this position, the thermostat determines when the motor gets power so I replaced the thermostat. The icemaker still would not get water! As it turns out, the water solenoid was sticking due to a deteriorated rubber washer which let the solenoid plunger get too far out of the magnetic field. I replaced the water solenoid assy and all is well. Don't get fooled by hotwiring the valve. If it isn't getting water, the solenoid probably is the culprit.

Shut off power, removed the torx screws that hold the dispenser assembly to the freezer door, disconnected "ribbon cable" from keypad and removed the dispenser assembly to counter. Unhooked sides and removed rubber actuator pad, unscrewed limit switch, removed and disconnected 2 wires. Reversed the above with new actuator pad and limit switch. Total time about 20 minutes.

The motor had broken loose from the plastic enclosure, so I first unplugged the motor from the power supply in the rear of the freezer compartment in order to remove it from the freezer. I then removed the four screws which held the motor against the plastic enclosure. I also removed the screws which hold the plastic enclosure to the freezer compartment.

The most difficult part of the repair was removing the 2 pronged fork from the shaft of the motor as it was reversed threaded on the motor. I held the motor in place on while using two pair of pliers to remove the fork from the end of the motor shaft. I used one pair of pliers to hold the shaft in place while using the other pair of pliers to turn the fitting in the opposite direction.

Once this was off, it took only 5 minutes to reattach the motor to the new enclosure and place it back into the freezer. Total repair time was about 30 minutes because I had to figure out how to get the fork off of the motor shaft. Everything else went very smooth. The new part fit perfectly.

Perhaps a helpful hint:

When aI received the hose adapter/connector, I inserted the 2 hose ends only to have water drip from the connection.
I used a utility knife to remove an inch from each side, then reinserted the hoses. That made the differnce. Dry as a bone.

LG

The tiny piece of plastic that holds the wire that shuts off the icemaker, broke early on with our fridge (after just a few months.) We superglued it, but last week it bit the dust for good.

Once I got this part, I removed the freezer door and trays, and pulled the icemaker out by removing 3 flathead screws and unplugging the cables. Laying in the freezer on the floor was a bit unconfortable, but not too bad.

Then I inspected the icemaker. There was no obvious way to remove the part without disassembling the front of the unit (where the motor is) to release the spindle and free the part, so I did that - 3 or 4 nuts was all that held it together. Once that was out, I removed the spindle, swapped out the part, and put it all back together and back in the freezer. Plugged it in and waited.

It took a while to start making ice. Like 5 hours. Now it's going pretty slow (much slower than before.) Haven't had time to look into it, but my suspicion is the rubber hose that feeds water into the icemaker is blocked with ice or kinked. In any case, we have ice now (but not a lot), and the unit shuts itself off properly. However, we went from having too much ice (thing never shut off) to too little (thing makes ice too slow), so I need to shoot for somewhere in the middle ;)

First I removed the screws from the front of the ice bin which freed up the drive mechanism. I then removed the drice ring and replaced it with the part from Parts Select and then replaced the screws on the front. A very simple procedure.
The chill department door was an easy snap in replacement..

I would like to add that I was very pleased with Parts Select. Locating the parts I needed was very easy and I received them the next day. When The door first broke I was told I would have to replace
the whole assembly which I was not willing to do
at a quoted price of about $350.00. Needless to say I was very happy to locate Parts Select and was very pleased with everything. I have since told family and friends about Parts Select.

We have a Reverse Osmosis water filter supplying the fridge, so the internal water filter only served to reduce the water pressure inside the unit. I installed the bypass plug by simply twisting and removing the internal water filter and then twisting the plug up into the same hole. Done in 5 min.
Longest part of this was clearing the top shelf to reach back there... Oh, and figuring out that this part exists and that it could help with the problems we were having with the unit. The water filter is relatively new, less than six months, but it still contributed to the problem enough to cause the failure.
[Thank you Partselect.com for having this web database set up that gets EXACTLY the right part!].

Now about the hollow cubes: Do a web search and you'll find a lot of discussion about it. This is specific to the Whirlpool (Maytag, and others) newer style front to back icemakers that create "half moon" shaped icecubes. For a Shop Manual to a web search for 4316835.pdf for this series.
No doubt my old unit's icemaker solenoid valve on the back isn't passing as much pressure as it did new, but by itself it isn't fatal just yet. You can tell if you are vulnerable to this if the water spigot on the front only delivers a very slow trickle of water; if it takes a l o n g t i m e to fill a glass.

But here is the rest of the story: There is a fundamental design flaw in the way the icemaker unit was created that makes it malfuntion if the water pressure is too low - they chose to put the thermocouple (TC) that senses the temperature of the freezing cube on the opposite end (front) of the water tray from the water fill tube which fills from the rear. This was probably a manufacturing trade off for simplicity of assembly and it saved them half a cent's worth of copper wiring and a couple of screws. And maybe a safty concern about wiring under an open water channel, but that is a lousy excuse; there are other solutions, and the power "harness" goes right by there within a couple of inches anyway...

There are a number of reasons for low pressure:
- Bad supply inlet valve, or not open all the way, crimped tubing
- Bad Frige icemaker solenoid valve
- Clogged internal water filter (even just a little)
- Frozen ice plug in the fill tube, in the very back top of the unit against the back (use a hair dryer to defrost)
- Etc. Do some more web research for more details.
Of course the icemaker timers do fail as well, so this discussion assumes the icemaker is still functioning as "normally" as it can, given its design limitations.

The interaction with water pressure (design flaw!) is this: if the unit doesn't get enough water due to low pressure, then the final cube position to fill doesn't get any water in it (the front one by the motor). This is the one that the TC is next to as well, so it cools of really quickly and the TC thinks the tray is completely frozen, when in fact it isn't. The TC fires the cycling motor which turns on the heater and then spins the ejector shaft which has tabs that push the half moon shaped cubes around and out. However, since the cubes weren't fully frozen, only their outer shell gets pushed out - the water in the middle drains out leaving a hollow cube set. That liquid water hits the cold ejector bars and some of it immediately freezes, making little stalactite fingers that catch on the tabs and side of the tray, thus jamming the ejector shaft and pausing the cycle in place indefinitely.
The net is that you get a few hollow cubes and then no more ice until you reach in and crack off the ice fingers so shaft tabs can pass and the motor can finsh the cycle and properly stop in its home position. You can also tell by checking whether the front cube location has water in it just after it fills by reaching around and dipping your finger in it. If it comes up dry, then you have this problem.
So, in my case, putting the bypass plug in increased my flow t

I noticed that the thin plastic flap was missing. I squeezed the housing, unsnapped and pulled. INstalling the new part was just the reverse. No more frozen vegetables.

1. Removed ice bin.
2. Removed vertical panel next to ice bin by sliding two top supports off of support posts and pulling the panel out and up.
3. Removed screw on left side holding ice enclosure in place.
4. Pull ice enclosure out about six inches and tip back end down exposing electrical connector.
5. Detach the electrical connector by pressing the release tabs on the top and bottom of the connector.
6. Removed ice eclosure by pulling it up and out.
7. Detached motor (4 screws) and relay (4 screws) from plastic enclosure. Make sure to keep track of screw positions since they are not all the same size. Use same positions to reassemble.
8. Hold shaft of motor with needle nose vise grips and remove the "U" shaped end piece by turning it clockwise. A sharp rap with a screwdriver handle breaks it loose. Pay attention to the orientation of the washer under the "U" shaped piece (the raised inner edge next to the shaft goes against the "U" shaped piece.
9. Attach the motor and relay to the new ice enclosure paying attention to the screw position.
10. Put the washer on the motor shaft (raised side up) and screw on "U" shaped piece (counter-clockwise).
11. The rest of the installation is a reversal of the removal process.

Pull out fridge and unplug
Remove drip tray from dispenseer
Unscrew face plate (star bit) 2 screws
Carefully disconnect wire strap from faceplate controls
Unscrew dispenser from chute - 3 screws and one is hddend next to actuator.
Carefully disconnect another wire strap to remove unit.
Remove actuator pad
Remove limit switch (i small philips screw)
Replace switch & pad
Re-assemble

Neither the actuator pad nor the limit switch appeared broken or worn but it appears to have solved the problem.

Not a terribly complicaed repair but you need to take care not to damage anything as you take apart. More work than just changing a filter or bulb.