Clothes dryer drum not turning, need quik tips

[Fred Miller]

OK, I am a darn good woodworker and furniture maker, but repairing a home appliance gives me immediate angst. :mad: In the case of my Whirlpool Dryer tonight in the middle of a medium sized load I checked the dryer to give the clothes a mid-run toss, and found the clothes weren't nearly half dry--really quite wet still. I removed the clothes, pressed the door switch and the motor began to run, but the drum wouldn't turn. I even dropped in some coins and closed the door properly, hit the switch, and only heard the sound of the motor--not the coins This indicates to me that the drive belt is broken or loose. SO, I'll be removing the back first thing in the morning to see what I have to work with.:confused:

I even checked the Whirlpool site and got the number for the most likely belt I'll need....drum roll here..........and now I need feedback and comments from The Creekers who have completed repairs of this type. All the tips about getting the old belt off and getting the new belt on and positioned and tensioned correctly. Yeah! That's what I need, before I open up the backside of this beast. I need the golden words of those who know.:)

Any helpful comments would be mighty appreciated!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Fred,

I've had to repair two of our former dryers. One time the belt had just come off. There was an idler pulley with a spring on it that was supposed to tension the drive belt. Apparently the spring just came of the idler pulley. I was able to put the belt back in it's proper place; reattach the spring to the idler pulley and away it went.

The other time the belt had broken and I had to replace it.


Good luck. I think you are on your way to finding the problem.

BTW...on mine I had to remove the front not the back IIRC.

[Fred Miller]

Ken Fitz, that's exactly the kind of response I am looking for. Something simple, and technically non-threatening. This will help me sleep tonight.
Thanks!!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Bill,

I checked a book I bought years ago. The dryers in those days....You had to remove a couple of screws under the top mounted filter lid and removed the top using a putty knife to "pop" it up and off. You removed a lower panel "popping" it off and removed the 2 door springs. Then a couple of screws that connected the front to the sides were removed. Then you could remove the front panel to gain access to the drum, drum drive assemble and the belt. The belt was tensioned by an idler pulley that had a spring on it. If you have to replace the belt, you already have the front off; place it around the drive pulley and drum taking care to get it in the right place on both and then they used a wrench as a lever to manipulate the idler pulley with the spring attach so that the idler pulley tensioned the belt properly. It was pretty straight forward procedure once you got the front off.

Of course that book is 20 years old.....YMMV

Good luck!

[Jude Kingery]

Fred, Ken's got you straight on to repair - if it is the belt, the idler pulley is a bit of an odd thing. It tensions in a way you don't quite see once the belt's broken, it tensions like opposite of what you might think. We puzzled over ours, thought well, the pulley should weigh it down, but no, the belt on ours ran on the inside and the pulley was spring loaded - not the back side and weight driven. We thought oh well uh duh, ok, then it worked fine! Did for another 15 years before it finally crumped and we bought a new one. Good luck and best wishes! Jude

[Mike Cutler]

Fred.

Get the dryer out where you can get at everything. On my old, and new dryer the front and top come off to replace the belt. The backplane has a bearing housing that supports the drum.
The first time I did the belt it took about 4 hours, by the time we ditched the old dryer, I could do a belt replacement in about a half hour.
Take your time and try to find an exploded parts diagram of the dryer.

[Rich Stewart]

go to fixitnow.com. They show how to fix lots of appliances. I have been able to fix my washer twice using it. Go to FAQ's and find your appliance.

[Al Willits]

Or give me the model and I can prob get the manual for it.
If its the belt, replace the idler pully too.
Not usually to bad to repair.

Al

[Alex Berkovsky]

go to fixitnow.com.Rich,
Thanks for the link; I bookmarked it just in case.

[Stuart Johnson]

My favorite how to repair anything site: here is a link to dryer belt.
http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/appliance/dryer/edryer/check/belt.php

[Greg Peterson]

While you have the dryer partly disassembled, it may be a good time to clean out the exhaust ducting inside the dryer.

I had to repair ours at one point, and while I had it apart I cleaned out all the lint that had accumulated over the years inside the ducting. I pulled out gobbs of the stuff and the efficiency of the unit was improved. Not to mention lint is a fire hazard.

[Al Willits]

Might as well replace drum rollers if the dryer has some time on it, whole thing is less than a 1/2hr for us techs, figure a hour for diy's :D

Al