Idler Pulley Assembly

Dryer would not start but electronics were working.

Pulled top of dryer off; noticed the belt was loose but not broken.
Went in through the back (1 screw and removed the exhaust pipe/plate); noticed the wheel was broken and thus the belt had fallen off.

Ordered replacement wheel/arm.
One screw to remove old one, one screw to install new one...tentioned the belt. Dryer was good as new.

Watched a video on utube, how to repair my 16 month old steam dryer. The hardest part was laying on my belly holding the spring loaded tensioner and slipping the belt on around the blower housing. Only cost me $23. Winning!

I removed the dryer top and saw that the belt was intact. (I had suspected the belt or something stuck in the exhaust fan or somewhere.) I watched a few youtube videos and took off the rest of the top plates and front door and inner structure that held the barrel. After i inspected and cleaned out the fan blades and exhaust areas, I looked at the pulley rollers (motor and idler rollers). The idler roller looked a little melted and chewed up. I replaced it with the new assembly. Also replaced the belt. Putting the barrel and new belt back on was harder for me than the videos indicated because the spring was very tight and the area to put my hands was small and didn't give me enough leverage. I eventually got someone to give me the third hand pulling the idling roller a little further over and the belt was back on. It didn't take me long to put the whole dryer back together. It is running fine now.

These are not instructions as much as warning that although it is a one-person job, the idler pulley assembly is not as easily manipulated with the barrel there. Doing the fix was straightforward: one screw holds it in place. The men in the videos seemed to have no problem with easily replacing the belt, but I needed help with the tight spring. Perhaps now that I've done it once, I could figure out how to reach around the barrel and yank the roller enough to replace the belt, but with the extra hand it took seconds and was super easy.

I removed the dryer vent and cover to take a look at the inside of unit. Then I saw that wheel on the pulley was damaged and belt was tangled up. I simply replaced the pulley and placed the belt back. Samsung advised that I replace the unit, but myself $800+ on a new unit.

After viewing many instructions on how to replace a broken drum drive belt on UTUBE and the video you sent me the project was completed with no problems and with ease.

However, I did discover large amounts of lint caked to the bottom of the lint screen housing just beyond the filter screen. There was minimal lint on the lint exhaust fan blades and no lint in the exhaust ducts.

I didn't recall seeing any video instructions drawing attention to potential lint issues, it just made good sense to clean the entire system while it was apart . At first I saw no major lint problem.

However, after removing the lint screen and placing a vacuum cleaner wand to the bottom of the lint screen housing (the bottom is not easy to see) my vacuum cleaner hose became clogged three times. I realized there was a major lint issue isolated to this area.

Many of the on line complaints focused on parts not properly fitting their dryer. they had to modify the parts in some way to fit or operate or they had to return them for other parts. Just think of the time wasted and the lack of use of their dryer.

I called and talked to a tech. Gave them my model number and the tech located the correct OEM parts for my dryer. I paid the extra money for OEM parts because I wanted my dryer fixed and restored to service in the least amount of time.

Outside the discovery of the not so obvious lint issue, the repair project was easy and the dryer was restored to full service with minimal down time.

Thanks for all your help and fast delivery service.

Followed video and YouTube most was easy.... put the hooking up the belt took time