RTCA176AAM Admiral Refrigerator - Instructions

I removed 7 screws hold the heavy cardboard cover on the rear of the fridge. The dificult part was taking the screws that hold the 3 fan motor braces on the fan out. After that it was a matter of making the wire conections and putting it back in. I did not have enough room to laydown to do the work, If i had it would have been a lot easier to see the screws that had to be removed. All in all an easy job, and the part was a perfect fit.

removed old and instaslled new. biggest problem was getting to one of the screws.

Unplug fridge, unpluged fan motor from plug socket, removed bracket screws, removed fan retainer clip from shaft. removed screws holding fan to bracket

The firt hard thing was waiting for the part to arrive, but that went quick. The second hardest part was opening the box. Shucks I got a paper cut, should have used a razor but while wife wont let me have sharp objects. Oh, yeah I had to find the hachsaw. I fooled everyone I knew where that was too. Be sure to measure properly, because if you cut too short then you have to stretch the bar. I havn't found any type of bar stretcher that works. It's best if you clamp the metal bar to a 2 X 4 piece of wood in order to steady the metal bar while you cut. You can't cut to well trying to hold the metal bar in your hand. The best part was completeing the job by installing the bars. Finally I have more room in my freezer to store food in the doors. This is my story and I am sticking to it. Have fun.

Our refrigerator was no longer emitting cold air and clicking every 5 minutes in what sounded like a "starter" click and then a few minutes later an ending/"shutoff" click. Nothing else would happen between the clicks and we could still hear the freezer fan running in the freezer.

Frequent clicks meant that the starter relay was broken and that the condenser was not failing to start thus failing to cool.

I found very useful videos showing this process on Youtube but here are instructions:

Unplug the refrigerator and open up the back panel on the bottom. The condenser is a black round metal sphere in the center. To the right is the condenser coil which is a flat coil. Attached on the left side of the condenser is a plastic casing with wires coming out from the bottom, that is the relay housing.

Pull the plastic casing off, it is held by a metal clamp. Underneath the plastic casing is the relay. it is attached to the condenser with a straight long pin.

Pull the relay straight out, away from the condenser. You may use a flathead for leverage but I used some elbow grease and slowly wiggled it out.

Look at the relay. For my Admiral, the relay has a little headpiece that sits on the relay and connects to the pin. Otherwise you will have pulled out the relay piece and there will be wires connecting to terminals on the relay.

Remove the wires connecting to the terminals, noting which wires connect to which terminals. Take a picture on your phone if you need to. You may want to use pliers to maintain the terminal connectors on the wires and it may take some elbow grease.

Once all the wires are disconnected from the old relay, discard the old relay. You will know if it's faulty if you shake it and it sounds like it's full of broken glass. A new relay will not make that sound.

Connect the wire connectors to the new relay in the correct terminals.

Reconnect the new relay to the condenser by pushing it back onto the pin all the way.

Replace the plastic cover with the metal clamp.

Clean the dust off the condenser coils while you have the chance.

Replace the back panel and plug in the refrigerator. You should not hear any more clicking and you should feel the air from the freezer become cooler pretty quickly.

Unplug refrigerator.
Pry switch out with putty knife
Remove two wires from switch
Attach wires to new switch
Push new switch into slot

We looked up the problem online with the model number of the refrigerator. We ordered the part and followed the video installation that was sent with the order and was found online prior to purchasing

Tuned up the ends of the bracket with a needle-nosed pliers then installed new retainer clips into bracket. I then laid on floor and lined up two holes in door and bracket (one end at a time) and pushed retainer clips into door's existing holes. Door was open for less than 30 seconds. Bracket is now solid and holding. Note: Do not jam products in bottom or any shelf thus putting pressure on bracket. Find a new home for the product!!

1. Inserted the plastic bracket into the channels on the side of the front metal piece with the hole plugs facing outward.
2. Lined up the plastic piece with the plugs with the holes on the shelf door.
3. Slid the plastic piece (in its channel) towards the door and into the holes.

Easy to replace refrigerator bar retaining clip. Just pop it off with flat tip screwdriver, put the new clip in the bar, slide bar in place till the studs on the clip line up with the holes in the door and pop the clip in place.

figured out the condenser fan was kaput. Tried WD, worked for several days then gave out completely. Took off back of fridge and trained small fan on compressor while I ordered new condenser fan. The swap was easy, undid the housing bolts, stripped off the connector, reconnected and voila! works perfect.

I removed the nuts that held the motor mount, then removed fan blade, cut the wires, and slid the motor pass the mounts and the coil shroud, Installed motor in reverse order. worked out ok.

fast and easy. I got the right parts from the begining.

removed lower back cover. diconnected fan ass'y electrical connection, removed fan housing (3 screws). removed fan motor from housing. cut old connector from fan and installed on new fan with wire nuts included. re-installed new fan to housing and re-installed housing to frame.

I had to cut the bar to the right length with a hacksaw. The most difficult part was getting on the plastic supports/pins on either end. I'm not sure a hacksaw is the best way to cut a retainer bar, but it worked.