Ice Bucket Auger

I used a digital camera and photographed the assembled unit and the metal blades before I started the repair. Then, I removed the top screw on the clear shield. Flip over ice tray and removed two Phillips screws on bottom. Exterior plastic white cover comes off next. The cover sides have hard push-in white plastic tabs. Push them in; pry up top cover with small flathead screwdriver. Slide white top cover up and you will now see the metal blades and assembly. Auger is held in place with a metal c-clip and washer on the end. Use flat head screwdriver to pry off c-clip. Then you will see a nylon round slotted nut. The threads are reverse, use pliers and loosen nut. It is not that tight but pliers are needed. Then it all is loose and ready for removal. I slid all the blades off at one time and kept them stacked together. Slide out auger and clear flat shield cover. Install new auger, clear shield, and metal blade stack. When you put it all back together take a look at the long metal J-hook on the bottom make sure it is in the slot before you make everything tight. Failing to do this will prevent cubed ice from dispensing.
It is not that hard to do the repair it just takes some patience and paying attention to details.

The ice dispenser would not dispense cubes. It only dispensed crushed ice. Also the plastic auger was partially broken and it took forever for ice to be dispensed. The auger was easy to figure out that it was broken. The dispenser issue took some time. I removed the ice bin and removed the panel behind it. There was a solenoid that burnt and melted and this did not allow the dispenser door to be controlled. I ordered the parts on a Thursday and they arrived on a Friday. Pretty simple to fix once I knew what the problem was. I could have gotten the parts cheaper from Searsparts.com but their description of parts and their pictures did not match and I wanted to make sure I got the right parts the first time. To be on the safe side I ordered a couple of pins and used one of them. The pin was a little hard to remove from the existing assemble so I put it in a vice and used a small pick and hammered out the old pin.

Remove Ice maker bin from the refrigerator and empty. Unscrew the three Phillips head screws that secure the front plate to the bin and gently lift and pull the tab that secures the interior portion of the plate until it clears the bin. Once you remove the front plate, it will expose two side tabs on the front of the bin which must be depressed so that the plastic insert that hold the auger in place can be removed. Isolate the auger with the from the unit by rotating the parts off the shaft. The ice crushing blades are attached to the auger and can easily be removed by twisting the plastic nut off with pliers. The cutting blades will now slip off the end (make sure you study the orientation of the blades as each piece will come off separately and make the job unpleasant when you go to put it back together). Now that the auger is out, just reverse the process and you have a "new" ice dispenser. Works like a charm. The diagram furnished by PartSelect was very helpful and accurate if you get a bit lost, especially when putting the crushing blades back together.

Removed the ice bucket assembly and attempted to dismantle and re-assemble it the same as new
after replacing the auger. I wish the part was shipped with replacement instructions because a simple job turned into a major headache for me because of the following:
1) I did not realize that the the nylon nut at the end of the auger rod assembly has a reverse thread. By the time I had it removed using vice-grip pliers and a bench vice.....the nut threads were stripped.
2) When removing the nylon washers, spacers, metal cutters from the old auger rod, I grabbed the entire grouping hoping to drop them on the new auger rod as a group. While doing so, the pieces slipped out of my hand and It was very difficult to find the correct order of configuration even with the on-line parts photo. I would recommend that you number each part before removing them from the rod because there is only 1 way all of these pieces can be re-assembled to work as designed.

I removed the ice drawer,dumped out the ice and found the front end of the clear plastic auger and the crusher housing cover were broken. To dissassemble the auger system, I removed the phillips head screws that hold the crusher-dispenser onto the drawer, took off the washer and extrernal snap-ring from the auger shaft end. After removing the auger assebly, I pressed in on two plastic catches (on the dispenser housing) and gently pried the dispenser from the drawer with a small flat screwdriver. Then I removed the plastic nut from the end of the auger. Ass'y was much easier once the parts arrived. This repair would probably be too much for the average homeowner.

My teenage daughter and myself (2 women!)completed this task with little issue! I first made sure to read others stories as not to repeat any issues they had. Just member the threads are backwards with taking the washer end off and everything will go easy. We are both kinda handy with repair items so if that describes you than you should be fine.

Remove and empty ice maker from freezer . Remove two screws from bottom to remove the front panel (cover bucket). Remove one screw which holds the deflector on top of the bucket.(tray which holds the ice curbs). Remove one screw that holds the clip that holds the wire actuator rod.

To remove the the ice crusher/dispenser mechanism from the bucket I used two table knives Spread one side of the bucket with one knofe and pry up with the other to get the retainer wedge free from the bucket side. Repeat on the other side. Once the retainer wedges are free the ice crusher/dispenser with the auger attached can be lifted free from the bucket.

With a spanner wrench remove the nylon nut from the shaft. NOTE: THIS IS A LEFT HAND NUT. Note the orientation and relationship of the crusher blades. They must be replaced properly for the system to crush ice and dispense cubes correctly. Remove blades and spacers from Auger.

Reassemble in reverse order. Be sure to get the actuator rod in place in the cam for the dispensor cover before sliding the crusher/dispenser mechanism totally in place. If not in the cam correctly the crusher/dispenser may have to be removed again.

Although a little difficult the first time the project is easily done by an adventourous handy person.

This was so easy even a caveman could have done it. (sorry to all you cavemen out there.) Order the parts and they arrived promptly a couple days later. Even with limited mechanical abilities this was an easy project. Only a few screws to remove and a lock nut to take off. Just to be sure your on the right track there is an excellent video to follow on this exact repair on this site.

I watched the "how-to" video on the website and decided that I needed to disassemble the icemaker first (before ordering parts) so that I could make sure I was ordering all the parts necessary for a complete repair. Good thing I did. I didn't notice the cracked cover and chipped nut until I had the icemaker all apart. I then ordered the necessary parts. When they arrived 2 days later, I set up a table near my computer so I could re-assemble the unit as I watched the repair video...pausing the video as necessary. It all went without a hitch and worked perfectly when re-installed in the freezer. **Note: I left the old parts out of the ice bucket while I was waiting for the new ones to arrive...taped up the gaping holes in the ice bucket with blue painter's masking tape and re-installed the bucket in the freezer with the icemaker on...so I could still manually retrieve ice out of the bucket. I left the switch on the front of the freezer door in the "water" position to remind me that I couldn't dispense ice. Water dispensing worked fine. The video is the key. Impossible to make a mistake if you pay attention.

I was able to order the correct parts . Needed my son in law (who in an engineer) to put it together. It was sort of a challenge forhim too. W the persons that I spoke to were very helpful and very nice and the parts came quickly. Thank heavens for the internet. The part that was broken was inside the freezer part of my frig.