GZ2727GEHB 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.

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.

Removed Enclosure, removed solenoid, removed yoke from motor, installed motor and installed solenoid. Then re installed enclosure.

The difficulty was removing yoke from motor shaft, left hand threads that were hard to identify. No place to hold shaft so it turned when trying to remove yoke.

Some minor difficulty re attaching electrical harness for motor and solenoid as I had to do it by feel. Removal was easy as the motor was just hanging and I removed the solenoid before removing the enclosure.

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 ;)

I won't repeat the removale process, straight forward. The issue is removing the U shaped driver on the motor. You have to trun it clockwise (looking at it from the front) to remove it from the drive shaft in order to install the motor on the new shelf. The problem is the motor wants to turn as well. I used skinny plyers to hold the shaft but still could not get enought presure to stop the shaft from truning. Finally decided to have my wife hold the plyers and I tapped the auger blade with a small hammer. Success. Reinstallation was simple enought.
One important key: You are not done. Once it is all reinstalled, be sure empty out the ice bin, dry all the parts as best you can, and activate the dispenser every 15 min or so for the first hour. Otherwise it will freeze up and you will think it is broken again.

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

Found the problem to be a broken plastic housing supporting the auger motor — which also acts as the ice bucket shelf

I purchased a new housing/shelf and went about changing it out.

1. Lift the arm that shuts the ice-maker off.

2. Remove the ice bin. I transferred the ice to a pan
and sat it in the lower areas of the freezer.

3. Remove the screw that secures the shelf to the
left side ot the freezer. It's located on the bottom
left side of the shelf. I used a socket driver for
this.

4. Simultaneously from both the back and front of
the shelf, lift the shelf up to clear the round
supports on both sides of the freezer
compartment and then begin to pull it towards
the front of the freezer. When the back of the
shelf clears the rear round supports, let the rear
part of the shelf drop down.

5. Reach to the back left and squeeze the top and
bottom of the wiring clip, which releases it from
the back refrigerator wall. Pull it towards you as
you do this. The shelf is now totally clear to pull
out the front of the freezer.

6. Close the freezer door to protect the contents.

7. Remove the auger yoke from the motor shaft at
the front of the housing enclosure. If you have
any problems, this is the place. To begin with,
you need to know that the yoke is left-hand
threaded. Personally, I found it very difficult to
remove. I pursued another path that was not at
all helpful, so I will omit it here, but forget about
anything involving disassembly of the motor.
What you have going for you is that the motor
does not turn well from this end of the device
because of gearing. Use something long (for
leverage) screwdriver or similar item that you
can pass between the forks of the yoke and pry
it off moving it in a clockwise direction (when
viewed from the front).

8. From the rear of the housing, make note of the
configuration of the electrical connections before
proceeding. Then remove the 4 screws holding
the motor. I used a cordless drill with a phillips-
head bit in it. I left 2 screws almost loose, but not
quite, so I could remove them by hand and hold
the motor and housing at the same time.

9. ) In a similar manner remove the 4 screws
holding the solenoid and the 3 parts that it
operates. Note closely the arrangement of the
parts before removal.

10. Reinstall the motor and solenoid items in a new
shelf/housing combo and reinstall by following
these instructions in reverse order.

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.

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.

I unplugged the fridge. Loosened the 2 top screws on the ice maker and removed the lower screw. I disconnected the wiring harness and removed the Ice maker. I removed the plastic timer cover in front. I then loosened the screws on the face of the ice maker and removed the broken ice stripper and replaced it with a new one. Re-tightened the screws on the face, installed the timer cover, plugged in the wiring harness, re-attached the ice maker. Plugged the fridge back in and walla, it was making ice in 30 minutes!

I called the local Amana repair man, wanted $150 for a new ice maker because they could not get the part I needed. Found Partsselect.com and the part cost $17 with shipping. They saved me over $100. The repair was very easy too, just removed a couple of screws.

Thanks,
Matt