ZIF361NPRAII General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

I decided to replace motor and fan, having previously altered/trimmed the fan which stopped the howling but caused a vibration. Unplug from mains. Clear out two top shelves in freezer. Remove light cover. Remove two screws(1/4 driver)at top of steel panel in rear of compartment and let it drop. Remove two screws above light. Pry up section above light/fan housing to access two screws retaining the light/fan assembly, loosen screws sufficiently so that assembly can be lifted and removed. Disconnect wiring plug by pinching in the sides of the plug and pulling out. Pull fan off motor shaft. Remove two screws clamping motor. Cut cable tie and molded wiring grommet to free wiring. The existing light wires can be removed from the old plug by carefully cutting around the old plug to free the pins and then pushing the pins into the new plug. Reverse procedure to assemble.

replace sensor in refriger.

Remove the shelves then remove the back by removing the two screws at the top of the panel. Locate the temperature sensor on top of the coil. Cut the wires and replace with the new one. Use wire nuts and electrical tape to reconnect the wires.

The problem began when freezer thawed and could not keep food frozen. Initially, I thought the issue was the defrost heater (because I had seen similar symptoms previously and resolved the issue with a new defrost heater)and I replaced that part with a spare that I had puchased previously. The issue was still unresolved and I noticed the evaporator fan was not running in the freezer because it would not turn on when I closed the door. I checked to make sure I could hear the compressor working (and it was)and concluded that the evaporator fan motor was not running. I ordered the part and found a YouTube DIY video on how to replace it. While I was at work, my fiancee took it upon herself to watch the installation video and install the new evaporator fan motor and all is well.

I ordered 3 temperature Sensors Part#PS304103 and viewed the video. Got there, opened the frig. and it looked totally different and no place in any part of this frig. that took these sensors as viewed on the video. Totally baffled why these parts were listed for this frig. there was no place in this frig that would access for these parts. Serial # was HR443071.Maybe this model is out of date for these parts. Trying to find someone who can repair it. Any ideas???Purchased this GE in 2008. Model #is GSS25WSTFSS Thanks, for your help. JIM

What an awesome site! After putting in my model number and finding the problem I was having, I simply picked the 2 parts that were most likely to solve the problem. I bought a defrost thermostat, and defrost heater. To a high certainty, they would solve my problem. They didn't however! I ended up having to buy a temperature sensor on another order a few weeks later when the problem resurfaced! My own fault. I should have bought it the first time. As others have written: the longest part of the job is defrosting the ice from the coil. One thing I did that I didn't see suggested: plug the drain hole below the coil. I put a couple towels in the bottom of the freezer and ran the hair dryer. Didn't take long. I read that the amount of water created will overflow the pan under the refrigerator, so I plugged the drain hole. Once you clean that mess up, the repair is pretty straight forward. Great site. Even through I had to make two separate purchases, I still saved a lot of money. Thanks!

followed part select video instructions

took out shelves and removed the back plate my removing 2 screws with a nutdriver.removed the old defrost timer and defrost heater which was really easy.then installed the new ones.the video i watched on the website was really helpfull.

Parts were perfect. Shipment great. It took a bit of time to get back to the Evaporator fan, so i basically had to take the entire freezer apart. Not a problem. The one issue i ran into was my unit had 2 white wires which connected to a silver bullet thing, that were not included in the wiring harness. Maybe I could have ordered that part (thinking out loud) I had to cut the old one apart, and adapt them into the new one, which had 2 holes to spare for this purpose. I guess i could have spliced every wire, but didn't. The freezer now SOUNDS LIKE A FREEZER. Thanks,

First, I had to remove the freezer drawer front. This is 8 large phillips head screws. then remove the plastic cover over the drawer slides. to do this, remove the white center screw from the slide near where it attaches to the drawer front. then the plastic cover will slide off pushing to the rear of the slide. take off the slides from the freezer walls by removing the phillips screws and pulling them towards you. They have tabs/slots in the rear. remove the center tray support and support bars, too. the icemaker has to come out, that is just 2 phillips screws but you also have to disconnect the electrical connector. just squeeze the locking wings and rock/pull. a screw in the top center of the back panel comes out. Lift and pull the back panel out. The evaporator coil appears. The thermocouple is attached to the coil in the upper right. Cut that one's wires and take it out. Just cut back about an inch from the back of the thermocouple, there is not much slack. Seperate and strip the wires back about 3/8 inch. Do the same for the new thermocouple. I twisted the wires together and used a solder sleeve to join the wires. The sleeve is just a little plastic tube that has a ring of solder in it that melts with heat gun heat. You can join the wires using butt connectors or whatever method appeals to you. I just wound the extra wire and put a cable tie around it, there is plenty of hiding space in that area. Make sure the new thermocouple is contacting the coil firmly.At this point, for a test, I left everything apart, propped the drawer against the opening and plugged the fridge in. Note that the evaporator fan will not start spinning immediately! It will just sit there making little bumps like it wants to go. The temp in the coil has to get settled before the electronics in the refridge will tell the fan to spin. It takes maybe 20 minutes. Reassemble. Fridge and freezer work great. It does take several hours for all to get cold again.

Followed the video instructions with the help of a young man who worked on trailer hitches before and knew how to splice wires. Beware of splicing the wrong fan motor back into the assembly. . . . That happened here and we had to start the splicing all over again with the correct fan motor.

I followed the video provided by PartSelect, very helpful. I had to cut and splice 4 wires. The repair was successful. The replacement part was an exact duplicate of the original. I still notice the same sound but one tenth the volume. I hope the problem does not return. Many thanks to PartSelect for information to identify the problem and prompt shipping of the repair part.

Watched Partselect video. My unit was different. Took out all shelves. Removed ice pan. Removed unit which turns auger in ice pan and metal side supports. Removed plastic side tracks which support ice pan. Removed ice maker. Removed light sheild and bulbs. Removed lower coil cover.(4screws) Removed remaining cover which covers fan. Removed bottom fan support bracket(one side only) Removed fan blade by holding shaft, twist blade off. Push cover up out of the way. Cut four motor wires on old and new motors, leave enough lenght to splice with but conectors on wires, wrap four conectors with elect tape, install two new motor support grommets, fan blade, and everything else in reverse.

about an hour to figure out what was causing the vibration and noise and about an hour to put it back together and 5 min. to order a new fan blade thank you.It started making noise during thanksgiving dinner so we toke it apart after dinner and I cut the other 2 blade to match the broken one so to cut down on the noise and vibration semi put it back together and 7 days later the part arrived.

1. Removed and tested defrost heater, tests good. 2. Reinstalled defrost heater. 3. Removed and tested defrost over-temperature sensor, tests good. 4. Reinstalled over-temperature sensor using soldering iron, dielectric silicone grease, and heat-shrink tubing. 5. Removed the control printed circuit board and checked for blown fuse's, fuse's are all good. 6. Removed the defrost relay from the printed circuit board using soldering iron, bench tested the relay, it is good. 7. Soldered defrost relay back onto the circuit board, and reinstalled control board. 8. Removed and bench tested evaporator thermistor, the resistance is out of specification, ordered new thermister. 9. Installed new thermistor using soldering iron, dielectric silicone grease, and heat-shrink tubing. 10. Re-assembled refrigerator. 11. Installed temperature monitoring and recording instrumentation for 72 hour test. The defrost cycle is running correctly with a defrost termination temperature of around 90 deg-f. The defrost cycle ran twice while running the 72 hour test. 11. Removed test instrumentation and Put the unit back into service, The thermistor was the culprit. I bought the right part on the first shot, nice.