GTA18AW Refrigerator - Instructions

This was an easy repair just simply removed a handful of screws to remove the back and top panels making the fan motor accessible. The whole job took about 30 minutes.

My Son who is not an appliance repairman did it for me. He had some difficulty getting the nuts and bolts loose mainly. Sorry I'm not much help other than that! I would like to compliment you on your fast service, first time ordering from you and it was for an older model refrigerator that my repairman said he couldn't find. It's working fine now and I'm a satisfied customer!

opened box,read directions,took out bad motor,installed new one.PRESTO CHANGO way to go.

I folded in half twice! and took the back off the fridge(cardboard) and took one brace off and just took the screws off the fan from the other two braces. Turned the fan enough to get at the wires for the fan and cut them off an inch from the old fan, stripped the insulation and wire nutted them to new fan. Make sure they don't interfere with the new fan and put the new fan in place put the screws in and we're making ice and cold fridge again.

Moved fridge out from wall, unplugged power cord. Laid on floor, removed 6 screws from cover. Removed one threaded bolt to allow assembly to slide out. Removed special nut, and took fan off. Removed 3 motor mounting bolts. Unscrewed 2 wire nuts, and untwisted wires. (option 1, no ground) Vacuumed entire area around motor. Used 3 bolts to mount motor to holder assembly, and special nut to install fan. Stripped wires back about 3/4 inch. Twisted two wires together CW, and installed new wire nuts. Slid motor assembly back into slot,(keep wires away from blades) and used one threaded bolt to secure assembly. Reinstalled cover plate with 6 screws. Plugged power cord in to test air flow (out through cover vents). Moved fridge back into place. The loud whirring noise did not stop for a day; then quiet!

Removed the old fan; cut the wire and spliced in the new fan and reassembled. A little over one hour. Refrig is working perfectly now with lower settings. It is definitely off much more than on now.

just had to remove the fan motor the hard thing is getting down to it

The video of the repair is a helpful guide, but my refrigerator has the compressor very close to the condenser fan motor. With the compressor comes the copper tubing that is all in the way. I had to carefully bend them now and then to allow me to get my hands in position. The how to is easy, but the working with tools in cramped quarters was difficult. I think my Maytag side by side model makes for this job to be difficult, maybe yours may not be so bad. I took a couple of hours to complete. After the first hour, I covered the bare wires, and plugged the frig back in so it could do some cooling. I placed a small in front on the condenser to blow across it. Had a little break, then finished the job.

You don't need to remove the door. I loosened the top row screws and removed all the other screws down the sides and on the bottom of the door. The old gasket slipped out easily. The new one came in a box and was bent in two. It needs to warm up to some degree. I began at the top and slipped the gasket in the cover. You need to tighten the corner screws to set the gasket. Then work your way down the sides and tighten the screws in the middle and the corners. The bottom screws were the easiest to with the gasket. You will need to use a hair dryer to help form the gasket and it works great. I would suggest when you feel you have the gasket in where you want it, the gasket will have a few "ripples" in it down the side or on top. I closed the fridge to find the ripples and then used a screw driver to push the gasket against the fridge and then used the dryer to apply heat to soften the gasket to mold it to the fridge body. It sealed up two or three ripples very quickly and the job was done. It was a relatively easy job but there are about 40 screws you have to be concerned with along with aligning the gasket correctly. Hope this helps.

Finally after much time exploring the issue, I took the entire plastic shelving panel off. The nuts holding the panel on are exposed by simply lifting the lip of the gasket. There were about 20 nuts and I used a nut driver. This can be done without taking the door off. I stretched the gasket over the 4 corners first and then tucked the rest of the gasket over the lip. Note there is a little channel on the inside ring of the panel for the gasket to slip into. When replacing the hexnuts, have another person hold the gasket in place at each hexnut or the gasket will slip out. It would have been easy to install had I had the info above. Also, it helps to have a smart and willing spouse to help.

I have an Amana freeze and I followed the procedure in the video. Which is very good! However on the Amana Model there two slight differences in the procedure that I felt I needed to do. The first one is, the condenser fan bracket is attached to the Freezer chassis with 4 screws, not three. The removal and installation of the back screw by the fan is a bear. I removed the other three and it allowed me to rotate the fan slightly to get more access to the fourth and did same on installation by just starting the 4th screw and then tightening it later. The second issue was my new fan hit the housing when I spun the fan. When I looked at the old one. It had a phenolic washer, between the fan and motor which spaces the fan out about a washer thickness from the motor. When I tried to remove the old one it broke in four pieces due to age. So, I made my own with a washer that I super glued to the motor housing after carefully centering it on and clearing the motor shaft . Seemed to work with out any more noise or balance issues...Thanks, your delivery was blindly fast and video was great!

Taking off the gaskets was easy. The new gaskets, from Parts Select, were not as thick as the originals, but they might be just as well as they were easier to put on. Fortunately there were two of us working. It would be almost impossible to get the corners on properly and screwed tight with just one person. Ignore the pretty pictures of women easily putting on the gaskets you see on some fix it web sites. We needed strength and 4 hands. Do follow the advice to put a thin skin of petroleum jelly on the gasket once it is installed. And you may have to "fluff" out the gasket to get a good seal all the way around

Grind rivet head off , install rivet tap end

First, watched video on Part Select Website. Very good. Pulled Appliance out from wall, Pulled the power plug, and removed the back shield covering the working parts of the unit. Found the fan and it was almost the same setup as on the video except that I could not get to one of the screws holding the motor in place so had to remove the entire bracket with the fan. Not too hard. Cleaned away dust and gunk around the site and noticed that the fan pulled air through a tunnel-like condenser coil that was packed with gunky lint...this is what probably killed the motor. I cleaned out the tunnel with the bottle brushes and vacuum and installed the new motor / bracket assembly. Then replaced the shielding around the fan and the back cover .panel. This is important because these form the channel that guides air flow throughout the condenser coils. This particular refrigerator has a barrier underneath which guides air flow from the front left to the condenser, through the fan, over the evaporator drip pan and out the right front. I cleaned all the lint and gunk from this area as well. I also made an air filter (cut from a furnace filter) and wedged it in front of the air entry section. This should keep the condenser coil cleaner over time but you have to remember to change the filter once a year. Probably should clean the condenser coil every 5 years as well. This unit has been very reliable over 20 years and may well go for another 20. Good luck with your repair.

Viewed the viedo - it showed what to do