With intermittent issues it could be any one of those parts acting up to be honest you can test one thing then under load it doesn't work or does off and on. Unfortunately you might have a harness short or bad connection somewhere or an intermittent motor or timer issue which is hard to track sometimes. Take a really good close examination at parts and wiring harness and connections. Also could be random voltage problems at your wall outlet that you may be sharing or overloading that circuit if it's not isolated also. Good luck

I used a small jumper wire to jump the white and tan wire on the outside of the wire harness on the right side of the timer and the dryer started. Does this indicate a bad timer???
Thanks in advance

dryer works now with white and tan wire on timer switch assembly harness jumped from outside while harness still plugged in. Timer motor also works and shuts off dryer at end of timed dry cycle so I'm thinking I have fried contacts in the timer switch. heat works. I taped up jumper wire to prevent any short. This tells me it has to be the timer switch assembly - right? Went to Sears Parts store and of course they don't carry part # 3979618 and have to order it. I want to make sure that's what I need before I order as it is the most expensive part - as much as a motor. I would like to get a Factory reconditioned timer - they are half the price. Any ideas where that can be had?? I learned alot over the last few days about dryer repair.