TFE22RNA General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

The fan was the correct part. It arrived one day after my well trained son-in-law had left for Texas. I had to install the motor myself. He had trained me well; it was not hard. the most difficult was getting the two tabs on the fan housing to fit back into the frame of the refrigerator where they belonged. Thanks. the part & delivery were overpriced, but I needed seed and convenience. Thanks for getting it right the first time.
John Moragues

Unplugged refrigerator. Removed cardboard cover, vacuumed lint from coils and equipment area. Removed dual valves and labeled the four electrical leads with masking tape. Cut off the end of water lines to dispenser and ice maker to remove threaded connections (New are simply push on). The water leads are of different diameters, so there is no confusion.
Decided to replace water line at the same time so bought a plastic replacement for less than $10, removed old copper line and replaced it with new. (Original plumber used a custom made line with a smaller diameter and this may have contributed to the low flow).
Connected all lines and wires (had to use adapter supplied with valve for two of the leads which are of different connector widths than original) and secured valve and back panel. Had to bedn the valve mounting plate somewhat to allow it to fit (this is also a little different from the original).
After installation, it takes a little time to refill the lines until proper flow is established both at the dispenser and the icemaker.
Replacing the Helix took completely disassembling the ice drawer, Take your tiime in doing this as there are many parts that fit in only one precise way. This helix replacement took about 20 minutes total.

I stacked three 2x4's that were approximately as wide as the door in length. This required lifting the door about 1/4" but it also got the weight of the door off the cam so the bracket assembly that the cam was attached to could be removed. I drilled out the rivet that held the old cam in place and like previous DIY's had to use a small bolt and nut to secure the new cam in place. Reattached the bracket with the new cam and that was it. The only problem was that the head of the bolt I used was not flat enough to allow proper clearance for the door to swing freely without feeling some drag and the wife noticed that immediately. I told her to wait until the weekend and I would again remove the door and file down the head of the bolt to allow the required clearance. After a few days of use, the door itself ground enough material off the head of the bolt so that the door began to open and close properly. So now she's happy, I'm happy and the dog is happy.

I first tested to make sure the solenoid was receiving power. Every time the arm on the ice maker cycled, the meter would go up to 120v for about 10-15 seconds, and then back to almost 0, so I knew the electical control and timer was working as it should.

The valve was easy to change - took about 20 minutes total (including pulling the fridge out and pushing it back in). I just turned the water off, removed the valve assembly from the fridge, and took all of the lines off of the old one. I then hooked up the supply line to the new valve assembly. The lines to the water and ice had compression fittings on them, but the new vavle has a "push-in" connector. So, I cut the old water and ice lines squarely, just past the fitting, then pushed them in firmly. Plugged the connectors in, re-attached the vavle assembly to the fridge, turned the water back on, and viola - I had ice in about an hour! Gravy! :)

took out 4 screws - lowered timer cover - replaced timer- put it back together

The door closing cam on the refrigerator door was a snap to replace. However, I'm still baffled on how to replace the freezer door side. The condensation tube from the door runs through the door pivot and joins to a compression fitting behind the bottom trim piece. The compression ring is behind a formed lip on the tube and won't slide off. I could cut the tube but I really didn't want to do that. If anyone has done this and knows the trick to replace it, I would appreciate it.

Ed. Please post your question at our repair forums, forums.partselect.com.

Door cam disintegrated after 20 years. This was a terrific site for suggested repairs. My problem was not paying attention to how the door shim, cam and spacer were placed on the hinge. Most of the site's instructions did not forewarn the obvious...pay attention when doing repairs!!

Instructions from others were generally pretty good but as adept as I am at D-I-Y I still did not pay attention to how I took something apart so it could be assembled properly.

I don't think that ordering an entire door hinge set is necessary. It does not appear that shims and/or spacer come with the hinge assembly. Door cam was all that was needed. I thought about replacing the cam on the freezer side but won't do it until absolutely necessary.

This is a very good website and my thanks to all of the posts for the instructions!!

I had to call for a appointment for repair with GE Appliance because I thought then it . .was something electrical. The technician came out & checked everything out, turned out it was not electrical, The technician went out to his truck got a light bulb from his truck, put it in & it worked. It cost me $121.00 for trip charge from GE appliance for a light bulb that worked, your light bulbs were defective twice. Very disappointed with your products, cost me alot of money for a good light bulb thru GE appliance

disconnect the power to the unit. remove the retainer sctrews on the mounting bracket. remove fan motor from unit. using the rerquired tools remove the fan from the old motor and install on the new one. torque the nut until all slack is out then 1/4 turn. reinstall motor assy. and reconnect power. test the system .

I removed the shield over the timer and the part that supported the timer. Just unpluged it and pluged in new timer and put back shield. I had already replaced the defrost heaters which had totally burned up. I also replaced the thermostat while I was making the repairs although the old one was still o.k. All the information that I needed to make the repairs I obtained through your website. After looking at several websites to compare prices-etc, I found yours to be the best overall. Thanks-a-million your website is worth it's weight in Cold Food !

Was able to pull the door up to the normal position, then blocked in place with 2 2x4's. Easily removed the hinge assemble and the door closing cam, which had broken in two.
bolted on the replacement parts in 10 mionutes and the door was a good as new: peice of cake!!!

From instructions found on the site I was directed to the defrost timer part being bad. And from the information others posted that have had the same problem I was able to replace that part by removing the bottom grill just below the door and on the left side was the part. Removing one screw to remove the bracket from the frame and then another screw to remove the part from the bracket. I found it easier to remove the part from the bracket before I pulled the part out so I would have more room to unplug the connector. Just reverse the steps to replace the new part. It took about a day or so for the refrigerator to get to the proper temp.

There is no access to the inside of the door to replace the water line. I was able to insert a 1/4" drip line barbed connector into the old line at the base of the door and then connect that to a piece of the plastic tubing which I then connected back to the original water supply tubing with the 5/16" union. It took three attempts to get the tubing through the bottom hinge without a crimp in it. It's best to have a second person to hold the door while you "fish" the tubing through the hinge.

Shut off water and disconnected at factory joint at bottom hinge. Unplugged the electrical at the top hinge. Removed the door and installed new bottom hinge and cam assembly. Reinstalled the door and hooked water and electric back up. Part worked fine.

This part (plastic tubing) does not show up under my model of refrig...so I had to look thru the various water lines and pick the one that "looked" right. Luckily, this is the exact replacement part and works perfectly. I removed the lower back panel from the fridge, removed the bracket holding the water line connectors and pressed the outer ring of the coupler up until it released the old water line. I pushed in the new line, made sure it was snug with a gentle pull and ran the line under the fridge up to the existing coupler. I removed the old line from the existing coupler under the front left of the freezer door, and pushed in the new line. I did not need to use the new coupler. If my old line would not have been so brittle and cracked in several places, I could have just cut out the leaking portion and popped the new couple in to mend the line back together. Easy job and we can stop buying bottled water at the store now!