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Well, I pulled the IM unit from the freezer last night. It comes out pretty easy if you know where the screws are (two in the frig wall behind the unit). It would have been even easier if I had known the IM has slots in it because then I would not have even taken the 2 screws out completely. There's a screw on the bottom that only appears necessary to be removed but it doesn't need to be. The wiring harness is connected to a plug/clip that could probably withstand and 25.0 richter scale earthquake if there was such a thing. It's a little difficult to get off to say the least! Reminds me of working on a car too much!
And here's the "big problem" I noticed: The little phillips screw head (broken) I originally found sitting in the cover apparently came from one of only two screws holding the motor in. So the "motor mount" if you will, was only one screw! The other is just a blank shaft sticking up with no head to hold it's side down. This is not good but I'm not sure if this is what caused the unit to fail. I have to admit, even with all my optimism about this being the problem, that it may have had nothing at all to do with it. The unit stopped against one of the limit switches and there was still ice in the tray which is contrary to what I originally said (it's a lot easier to tell when the unit is out obviously).
I found an old screw to replace the broken one and it worked fine even though not identical. I plugged the unit back in and let it sit overnight to cool down. It still had not moved this morning. Now I'm thinking to give it a fair fighting chance I need to hook the water back up and reinstall the dual water valve that is currently removed. If it doesn't work then I'll probably just order a new unit. Nothing appears to be wrong inside the IM unit but it's a complicated unit that's difficult to test all components like the motor (even if I can buy these individually??) and switches - takes a lot of my time and since I'm not studying to be a refrigerator repairman I'd rather just fork over the 75-100 bucks and be done with it! The good thing about all this is we still have ice, and a good freezer/refrigerator that works, so there's just not that big a hurry. To boot, I was able to do the "spring cleaning" behind and under the frig that hasn't been done for about 5 years!:)
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I had the exact same problem as someone else from what I can tell but there were no replies. I posted something but I still don't know what the problem is. Probably if I just replace the whole unit for $100 it will work fine right? hahaha. I might just have to do that but first I'd like to check and see if anyone has any tips to replace/fix a switch or ????
The arm is down and all the idiot stuff is not it. Inlet water line is not frozen. No water or ice in ice maker cresent mold tray - bottom of the unit seems to be frozen like it's working but - ???. Auger/crusher works fine. The water inlet solenoid valve seems to be working and I tested the other dual valve. No water is being allowed into the IM apparently. And I get only warm water from the water dispenser - not chilled as usual, so I first thought it had to be the dual valve on the back of the unit. The ohm meter shows this is okay and it's not corroded or anything.
I'm going to check the switches inside the ice maker tonight per something I read on Acmehowto.com. They seem to have some good tips there. Having the circuit breaker trip would seem to indicate something burned out - maybe the IM motor?? I'm going to try and check that too and if that's fried then it looks like no choice but to buy a replacement unit. All these model #s seem to make it difficult to find the right unit online. If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know!! :confused:
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