Hi. My Whirlpool dryer (model LEB6400LW0) is about 4 years old. It is running, but not heating. I checked the airflow out the back and it's strong, just not heating at all. I was told that I could remove the two large red wires connected to the thermal cut-off fuse at the top of the heat shield, and tape them together with electrical tape to bypass the fuse and thermostat, to see if they were bad. I did this, and the heating element fired right up and the dryer was heating. I disconnected it and I ordered a thermal cut-off kit and replaced the fuse and the thermostat. When I plugged the dryer back in, it triped my circuit (double circuit). Still no heat. I tried taping those two red wires together again to bypass the fuse and thermostat again, and now the heating element isn't heating at all like it did before I replaced the fuse and thermostat. I'm not sure why the circuit breaker tripped. I didn't see any wires touching, but I think I may have connected the wires incorrectly to the thermostat. I didn't pay close enough attention when removing the wires from the old thermostat. There's a thick red wire coming from what looks like another fuse on the bottom left side of the dryer, and one thick red wire which appears to be part of a wiring harness and comes from underneath the driver. One of those two red wires is supposed to connect to the thermostat and the other one I believe was just hanging there, not attached to anything. I'm just not sure which one was just haning there not plugged into anything. And then the thermal cut-off kit came with a thick red wire. If I have this right, one end of that connects to the new thermostat and the other end of it connects to the terminal on the bottom of the heat shield that covers the heating element? Does it matter which terminal each wire connects to on the thermostat and on the element? Did I most likely fry the heating element or fry the new fuse or a different fuse ? (heating element isn't firing up after bypassing fuse and thermostat, but it did fire up before I replaced the fuse and thermostat).
Thanks, Pam

Good job, Pam. We're glad you were able to fix it.

Gene.