JSD2388AEA Jenn-Air Refrigerator - Instructions

Well first of all, I was afraid that the compressor was shot and I'd need a whole new refrigerator (ack $1000!!!). After googling/reading, I figured out that the starter relay mounted on the compressor was burned out. (loud click as thermal cutout shuts down compressor.) So, I ordered a replacement part, overnight shipping. Unfortunately, this was on a Friday night, so I had to figure out how to keep the fridge cold all weekend (til Tuesday). I'd already moved frozen stuff to a chest freezer, but the inside of the fridge compartment was now nearly warm at this point, so I got 10 lb of dry ice. That got things cooled down initially. Well, turns out that with a short piece of wire, you can momentarily jump across the terminals of the relay and kick start the compressor. It then runs until either the defrost cycle stops it or the thermostat kicks it off. Anyway, all weekend, every six hours or so, I turned off the fridge for a minute to cool down the overheated, stalled compressor, then turned it on and jumped the terminals to start it up. Kind of a pain, but saved lots of food. Overall, the $30+$30 (shipping) for the part saved me from having to get a new refrigerator, so I'm quite pleased. I've used Part Select many times now. Very fast service and shipping, great website/database. I shop around and every time end up buying from them again.

First I removed the 14.3 tons of freezer contents, closed the water valve, shut off the juice, and removed the freezer bins, the freezer door and the three screws that held the element in place. After bringing in 397 hand tools from my garage inventory, I loosened the unit and, after extensive evaluation, I finally disconnected the wiring connector from its freezer rear wall connector counterpart. You ain't gonna believe the rest of my story--of total ineptitude by an experienced fix-it-yourself dummy.

I searched the internet for a replacement ice maker and found it at partselect.com. I called Sears to ask if I could add my refrigerator to my existing appliance repair account. Sears said sure--it would cost me only one arm, three toes and one grandchild. I abruptly declined their magnanimous offer—I don’t give up my arms and toes so easily.

I visited the local Maytag repair parts and service retailer, who advised they didn't do parts anymore. Expecting their repair price would be greater than Sears, I resorted to partselect.com. I called them to be assured what I was buying was not mistakenly a 747 Landing Gear. On the afternoon (West Coast) of 4/28/10, I ordered (via internet) one PS21215123 Ice Maker Assy. Much to my pleasant surprise, it arrived via FedEX on 4/30/10 (no freight charges to me).

My repair/replacement efforts were hampered by the effects of my right rotator cuff surgery a few months before and major left wrist surgery two months ago to remove fractured bones and torn ligaments.

Undaunted by my physical handicaps, I forged forward. After re-installing the unit, I turned the water supply and electricity back on. It was graveyard dead. I wisely then bought two bags of ice as an interim solution to the severe needs of my wife and me for our daily chilled evening cocktails. I removed the unit, checked it out and re-installed it. I bought two more bags of ice. All the while, I turned the water and electricity off and on as required by reasonable safety standards. High tediousness!

Several more home maintenance tasks then arose for Sergeant Super Fixer, but I returned to the ice maker problem on 4/8/10. Last chance--remove the device and insure there was no frozen ice in the inlet tube--or call the local partsless repairman. No ice found, but I did learn the wiring connector to the unit was awry--no contact! While explaining that to my wife, I realized the two upper mounting screws were intended to be partially installed into the freezer wall to accommodate the unit's slotted mounting holes! Then, tighten the screws. Oh my God! During my 143 installations and removals, I had installed those screws blindly--using the (handicapped) skills of my right and left hands without any benefit of direct eyesight.

I returned to my challenging project this morning (4/9/10), fully utilizing all the expertise I had gained yesterday. Fifteen minutes of amusing effort! Turn on the juice! Turn on the water!Two hours later, ice cubes were dropping into the bin like rhinoceros bisquits in the jungle.

Hallelujah! I now am free for the next challenge!

HINT: Put a bed pillow (an old one, or your wife's) in the freezer compartment to soften the harshness of its cold metal on your back, if you use the "crawl in on your back" approach.

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.

open ice maker door, use mirror to view slot in front of ice maker, slip piece in place and done

Very simple repair. First Remove ice tray. Next remove enclosure. Believe there were 3 screws to remove enclosure (1 bottom, 2 top). Slide enclosure out slowly to gain access to power connector mounted on back wall. removed components from enclosure (motor and solenoid). Take extra care removing solenoid with spring/rod as it is 3 separate pieces (spring, rod, and coil). Easy to figure out reassemble but easier if you take note during disassembly. Took me a while to get yoke off from motor assmbly. noticed they were reverse threads (lefty). So to remove yoke from shaft had to turn CW vs CCW on regular threads. Once had yoke off, rest of assembly was easy. Mounted motor, reinstalled yoke. Put entire re-assembled enclosure back in fridge. Slide in part way, to give yourself plenty of room to plug power connector in. Reattach assembly with 3 screws. Works like a champ.

Wasn't sure which switch was bad so I ordered all three. Thought maybe compressor was bad, but it was the overload. I removed plastic cover on compressor, unplugged wires and slid overload off of prongs (pins) attached to the compressor. Same with the second switch, both are attached to the compressor. Saved buying a new fridge for $1400. 00. Easy , cheap job!

rmv panel (5min) rmv fan/motor 3 screws (10 m) cut wire 2in from motor, re route remainder of wire to front so can strip for wire nuts. ( 10m) attach old fan to new motor, place in old opening ,3 screws, a little fussy to align, ( 15m ) route and strip wire from new motor , zip ties work well, wire nuts , plug in fridge vola, no noise, close up, reverse panel. ( 20m). i also took time to clean grilles with small vac and damp rag, ( looks and sounds like new) bob Wi.

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 first dropped the Cover Assy, which covers lites and controls, this was done by pulling it forward and it drops down, did not remove top shelf so It was a bit difficult to tilt cover assy. for removal. There is a srew located close to filter assy. in back use nut driver 1/4"located to remove this screw, there are then 2 screws located to the rear and side of light holders, both phillips head, the one on the left side is a bit tricky to remove but I use a thin bladed scredriver, Next there are 2 screws located on both ends od the slides that control temp, both again removed witn1/4 " nut driver, the whole upper assy drops down and forward the Adeptive Defrost assy is located in the back right corner of this assy, unplug the wires and unit snaps out, I foud it easier to pop off top cover of new unit so I could see connector assy when I reattached the wires, then replaced the top assy and snapped new unit it place, Reassymbly was reverse of removal, before placing cover assy back in place I replaced both lamps as 1 was out .

Remove the back hardboard cover screws for access to the condenser fan. I opted to tip the fridge over on its side for even better access to the fan mounts and wire. Replaced the fan assy (reused the fan). Splice the wire and it's done.

My husband replaced the condenser fan. It took awhile and a few choice words but he got it replaced. The fan seemed to work fine, but it still wasn't cooling. I noticed that when we had the fridge unplugged that water started draining out the dials at the top of the fridge under the freezer. And there was absolutely no water at all in the drip pan under the fridge. So I took the doors off and totally took the inside of the freezer apart. I discovered that the styrofoam on the floor of the freezer had become inudated with fluid and the under the foam the coils were all frozen solid with ice. Hence not allowing any drainage. I put a lamp in the freezer area and defrosted all the ice. In searching the internet i discovered that they no longer produce the foam so i went to home depot and got a piece of foam and aluminum foil and cut it to replace the ruined foam. I put the fridge all back together said a prayer and crossed my fingers and lo and behold it works perfectly now!!!!

First I removed the Ice bin, I then loosened the ice bin rail under the ice maker and removed the screw that attached the bottom of the ice maker to the side of the fridge. I unplugged the power to Ice Maker from the back of the fridge and unscreewed the two screws that secured the ice maker to the fridge. This allowed the Ice Maker to be removed from the fridge. To replace the new ice maker I simply repeated the steps in reverse.

I saw on a partselect web site that these symptoms could be caused by a failed condensor fan motor. After removing the cardboard panel in back of the refrigerator I noticed the fan was not running when the rfigerator was. The fan was held in place by three brackets. I unscrewed the screws holding the fan motor to the brackets and also unscrewed one of the brackets to make room to pull the motor out. I cut the wires close to the motor. I removed the fan blade and secured it to the new motor. I had to reroute the old wires in order to have enough slack to use wire nuts to attach them to the leads on the new motor. I then re-attached the motor to the two brackets remaining in place and then re-attacehed the third bracket I had removed to get the motor out.. The most difficult part was working in a very confined space.

The adaptive defrost assembly is located in the refrig compartment. This requires removing the panel which covers the temp controls and interior lighting. In the back right hand corner is the adaptive defrost circuit board. It has a six wire connector and is retained by two screws.

Remove the two screws and grip the connector making sure to disengage the locking tab with holds the connector in place.

Replace with the new assembly by plugging in the connector, replacing the two screws and then reinstalling the compartment cover.

Set the temperature lower than you normally would temporarily to make sure that the system is working properly (takes 30 - 45 minutes).

Once the unit begins to cool again, you can gradually readjust the temperature to it normal range in both the freezer and refrig compartments.

I used a flashlight and a mirror to check the coil in the freezer compartment for a couple of days to make sure that the defrost function was working correctly by looking up into the louvers and observing if there was any ice accumulation.

Easy repair and Partselect provided great on-line information. Also, I probably saved a bundle.