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Refrigerator was running 24/7 and not cooling
I knew that the compressor was cooling because the freezer was half-working. The back wall was frozen-up and found that the iced-up coils where blocking the air circulation. So even if the fan was running, there was no air circulation. Hence the deforst cycle was not working.
I removed the drawer and glass shelf, removed 2 screws and replaced with new drawer slide in reverse order. I removed the contents of the door, the top hinge, and then laid the door down. On the bottom of the door, I replaced the pivot piece (provided) and then I replaced the hinge on the lower right side of the refrigerator box (2 screws with a nut driver bit). I now reversed the order to re-assemble the door and finally re-aligned the top hinge to adjust the door fit. Less than 30 minutes total. EASY!
It seems my refrigerator was old enough [1987] that the spacing on the holes for the bracket were different than the part that is currently sold. The holes on the new bracket were 30 mm apart on center, but on the old bracket they were 20 mm apart on center.
Clamped the old and new brackets together in a vise to use the old bracket for spacing and drilled a new hole through the 4mm of steel.
After which it was a snap installing the new hinge assembly.
The food compartment door would not close completely.The botom door cams were worn.
I removed the door from the bottom hinge assembly by removing the top hinge assembly. 1. Installed the cam to the bottom of the door. 2. Installed hinge and bottom pin & cam to the refrigerator. 3. Reinstalled door and adjusted front roller height to make door close better.
The fresh food side of my refrigerator had started to drop because of a broken cam riser.
First I pulled the door up to the top hinge and propped it up with phone books. Secondly I used a nutdriver with an 8mm attachment and removed the bottom hinge. Thirdly, I removed one screw from the bottom of the door with a socket and 8mm attachment and removed the broken cam riser. Being careful as to take note of how the cam was positioned. I then attached the new cam riser to the bottom of the door, attached the bottom hinge to the refrigerator, making sure the pieces (cam riser and plastic on bottom hinge) matched up and after everything was tight, removed the phone books. Remember to first remove the vent on the bottom of the refrigerator and it is much easier to maneuver the door if you empty the contents on the inside. Very easy, I am not very mechanically inclined and this is the first job that I finished in the amount of time as stated. Also, do not chance just the riser as both pieces will be worn. Hinge assembly comes with all you will need.
First I placed a 2x4 under the frig door to keep it in place while I removed the hinge on the bottom of the door. I removed two screws holding the hinge and one screw holding the washer in place. I also loosened a screw adjacent to the washer so that I could more easily remove and replace the washer. The parts went in easily. The repair took much less time than I anticipated.
I removed the top hinge by removing three screws, I then lifted the door off the bottem hinge and set it aside. I then removed the two screws holding the bottom hinge,removed it and installed the new part. I removed the broken part from the door by removing one screw-installed the new part and set the door in place and reinstalled the top hinge. The door is now properly aligned and working like new. I spent as much time writing this as I did on the repair
Freezer doesn't work well. Starts to leak water & Frost buildup
I had this problem before and called a repair guy. He told me about the little freezer heater (WTF?) and showed me that it's basically a light bulb that wears out. He took off the back panel and showed me the metal plates with the tubes under neath. But he only had one bulb to replace with, so he only fixed one of the two. Total cost to "change a light bulb": $229 This time I ordered the part and did the work myself. It was totally easy, but that is because I knew what I was doing. The hardest part is squishing into the freezer to unscrew things. Before I took it all apart, I used my cellphone camera to take a picture of how it was (which wires went where), just in case after taking the old one off, I couldn't remember how to put the new one on. No problem. The actual part swap took ~5 min (unhooking and rehooking the temp gauge and the power connector). Most of the time was just unscrewing and screwing in the screws.
First I removed the drawers. Then I removed the 2 screws from each side. Then replaced the 2 pieces in the same manner using the same screws. It took about 15-20 min. Very easy. Drawers work perfectly now. Glad I found this site.
Refrigerator would not cool, freezer side froze up.
First I removed the two screws that hold the element in place. I then tried to pull the element out but the wires were hung behind the coils. My sholders are too wide to get into the freezer in order to use two hands to pull the connector apart and I could not seprate the connector with one hand. My skinny wife came to the rescue. She climbed right in and took the connector apart and plugged in the new one (and she is a blond too). I put it all back together in reverse of taking it apart. Being able to use only one hand was the my challenge, but the job was easy.
First I removed glass shelf on top of rail. I then removed the two screws holding rail to refrigerator side. Next I installed new rail using same two screws. Finally I replaced glass shelf on top of rail.
Removed 8 rear panel screws Removed sensor and heating elements Replaced above parts, and panel That was it. I am waiting to make sure the timer is working else I will replace that too.
After easily finding the lower hinge here through Google, I paid about $30 w/shipping and had the part in 2 days. My Hotpoint fridge was made in 1987, but it still runs well...why not fix the door?
Part repair couldn't be easier. No instructions needed...just empty the fridge door of food, remove top hinge, replace bottom hinge and plastic bushing, and reverse order to button everything up.
PartSelect.com did a great job supplying a high-quality replacement hinge for my old fridge, and it's got a new lease on life now!