After lots of internet exploring and diagnosis, the icemaker comes right out, and with three screws out and in, the job is all but done. Don't pay anyone for this repair!!!!!
Looking at the ice maker it is pretty cut & dried as to how to remove the unit. I took out the ice tray and just started removing all the mounting screws. The same for the mold ice tray & heating element. I was just sad that you did not have just the heating element separate from the mold ice tray.
The ice mold has a coating on it. Over time the coating deteriorates. If your ice maker leaks water into the ice reservoir inspect the mold to see if the coating is compromised. If so, replace with new.
Remove the ice maker assembly. 3 small hex screws. Unplug power cord. Disassemble ice maker assembly. Remove ice mold/heater. Replace with new. Reassemble.
Being too lazy to pull out the refrigerator out and unplug it, I turned it off at the fuse box. Opened the freezer door and unscrewed the three screws holding the sensor. Pulled the sensor out and unscrewed the board then unpluged it and removed it. Plugged in new board, screwed it in then replaced the three screws. Repeat on the other side. The most difficult part was getting to one of three screws on each side; it almost required a third hand to hold the flap door between the ice maker and the bin, while removing said screw. I must at say that this product is definitely over engineered.
I found a repair guide online to check the resistance of the motor, thermostat, and heater mold. The resistance of the motor and heater mold were both a little off from their recommendations. I had an assumption that it was the motor but I decided to just buy the whole assembly basically for spare parts and I didn't feel like messing around with it any more. The new icemaker was not just a drop in replacement as part select told me because the Icemaker Bearing and Cup Assembly was larger than the original one. Thus, I had to switch it with the old one really quick so instead of a 3 min job it was 20 or so.....
removed the drive shaft (6 sided) with seals and replaced it. They last for about 5 years and have to be rotated (flipped over) to continue to use. The shaft metal is a little softer than the drive socket on the motor which, over time will cause the six-sided (12 inch) shaft to round the edges due to torque and pressure on the mixing shaft inside the ice bucket the the door of the freezer.
1. Unplugged refrigerator. 2. Emptied Freezer. 3. Removed Ice Maker. 4. Waited a few hours for ice to melt around back panel & nuts. 5. Removed back panel and the cover over fan and fan motor. 6. Waited many more hours for ice to thaw over fins, wiring, etc. 7. Easily replaced the bi-mental defrost thermostat. 8. Replaced panel, fan cover, ice maker. 9. Plugged in refrigerator and waited a bit.
This worked! Yahoo.
p.s. I am a 65+ year old mechanically minded woman. :-)
I removed the two screws holding the cover door, then the three on the uder side of the icemaker assembly. I carefully worked the old unit out; it was a tight fit. The most difficult step involved disconnecting the power assembly. Due to the space, it was hard to get hold of each side of the clip to pull it out. After the old unit was out, just reversed the steps and had the first batch of ice in less than an hour. (I washed the new unit with warm water and soup as it had grease/lubricant on it when taken out of the package).
I just unscrewed the plate that locks in the light switch (screwdriver) and unplugged the old faulty part and plugged in the new switch, screwed the cover back on and I was done!
Everything worked perfectly---thanks to the suggestion of your call center agent. She suggested that since the replacement door handles were no longer available, I should consider repainting them--it worked like a charm. Please tell her she was a life saver. We rent that house in Fl and my returning tenants had complained about the discoloring refer handles. Thank you
Door Chute Mechanism broke / air flow into ice maker
Have not installed yet as I'm on a quick TX-FL-TX turnaround. Bought and received the part in 24 hours...great. Order contained no instructions. I could probably figure it out myself just have not attempted yet.
The lining of the ice mold (Whirlpool) started flecking off (black flecks in the ice cubes), so I decided to replace the mold. Loosen the two 1/4 inch upper nuts and remove the lower nut to remove the ice maker from the freezer. The hardest part was getting it unplugged. I used a small blade screwdriver to release the catch on the connector and pull it out. Remove the ice maker front cover. If you have a skinny enough phillips screw driver, there are two deep set screws through two holes on the lower portion of the control module (otherwise, remove the three screws on the controller, unlatch the shut-off arm from the control module, and separate the controller to access the mold screws). Unhook the shut-off wire from the end of the tray. Unscrew the two screws holding the mold and remove the mold. Remove the plastic hardware from the old mold and install on the new mold. Attach the new mold on to the control module. WARNING WARNING WARNING!!! The mold I bought already had the alumilastic on it for the contact point to the thermostat. When I installed it and tightened the screws, the alumilastic was dried out, didn't squash down, and dented the bi-metal thermostat on the controller, ruining it. I had to buy a new thermostat. Be sure to check that the alumilastic is pliable. If not, take it off and buy some fresh to put on there. Re-install the ice maker. It took a while to get the first batch of ice because the ice maker was at room temperature and I had the freezer door open for several minutes. So the freezer had to get cold and the ice maker had to chill down. Once everything got cold, it started making ice again.