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Just an update for you. While I am awaiting the delivery of my spring, I gave something a try. I hung some weight on the shut off arm to take the place of the spring tension. I took about 4 small stainless nuts and ran a piece of fishing line through them with loops at both end. I slipped the loops over the arm and the cycle began. I works great as it returns the arm to the bottom position and allows the cycles to continue. After a day I had the bin full of ice to the point where the nuts hit the ice thus stopping the process.
Now that my icemaker and I have become one over the last few days, I noticed that when filling the trays I get about one or two overflow drips per cycle, building a small icecycle. I see the GE icemaker repair guide discusses removing the "separator" and running a bead of caulking on top of the first tray. What do you think of this idea. If you agree with that then could you tell me : do you have to take the icemaker out to remove the seperator (I'm assuming this is the part official named the stripper)? Is the idea of the caulking to seal between the separator and the mold unit. or is it to simply build a wall to serve as a dam. I wasn't sure if I would put the separator back in on top of the caulking right away, which would be to make a seal, or if I'm supposed to allow the silicone bead to dry so a dam is made before putting the separator back in.
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[FONT='Times New Roman']Yes I do agree with that page and you do have to remove the icemaker to do this. I have repaired many icemakers this way. Make sure you use silicone caulking. Note that this will only work on a small leak. Oh and the separator and the stripper are the same (stripper is the official word). [/FONT]
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O.K Thanks again. Just clarify for me: After I remove the ice maker, I'll take off the stripper and then run a bead of silicone caulking along the back and side of the first tray. Do I place the stripper back on right away so that the silicone caulking forms a gasket between the tray and the stripper, or do I allow the silcone to harden and act as a retaining dam, (sort of an extension of the back and side of the tray)? Is the repair a seal or a dam?
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I always put the stripper back on right after then whip the access off. Two things happen to cause the first cube mold fills before the water gets a chance to drain to the other cube molds or the water follows a imperfection in the cube mold right out the icemaker. It doesn’t take much to block the water from coming out. Sometimes that stripper can be a pain to reinstall just make sure you don’t whip all the silicone off trying to reinstall the striper. Appliance Repair Guide For All Major Home Appliances
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Well, I was almost home free. I got the new spring and installed it yesterday. Ovenight I made a bin full of ice -- no problems. Today I thought I would tackle the drip. I removed the ice maker and the stripper. Put the bead of silicone on and replaced the stripper. Re installed the ice maker and then a big problem. Afeter hearing a batch of ice drop in the bin I assumed all was o.k. When I returned a little while later there was a pool of water on the floor. The ice maker is going through about at least three maybe four cycles of adding water to the tray. Why is this happening? I shut it off by lifting the arm and I'm going to try to find answers in the guides. Hopefully I'll get a response from you. Thanks
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Now I am not sure. Are you saying that the icemaker was working after you got the spring on and now after you done the silicone thing it doesn’t? Make sure the tube coming in the back of the icemaker is in place and the tube isn’t frozen.
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The water valve may have been the leaking problem to start with.
Or something got out of place when you took the front of the icemaker off.
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The water valve seems to be working fine. I had the fill tube out when I removed the ice maker. The problem I have is I get too much water in the tray now. I didn't have that problem before. Something may have gotten out of adjustment when I was doing the drip repair. Right now I have turned the ice cube size screw in one full turn. I'll have to keep trying that to see if the problem can be remedied this way
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I had the cover off the module and this is what I observed. Starting with frozen cubes in the tray. The heater I assume activated and then the motor turned and pushed the frozen cubes into the bin. When the arm came to the bottom the water valve let in some water. I thought that the motor would stop at this point to let the water freeze, but the motor turned the gear around again and when the arm came back to the bottom more water was let in. This happened for four revolutions. The trays started overflowing by the third revolution. Is the motor supposed to make one revolution in each cycle, or more than one revolution?
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It is supposed to stop after one cycle until the water is frozen. What is mind bogging is that the drip repair shouldn’t have had any effect on that. This is a harder thing to diagnose. There is a cam inside the icemaker that turns and as it turns it makes and breaks switches. When the icemaker finishes the cycle it makes a switch and cuts the motor off. The motor doesn’t come back on until the thermostat bypassed the switch indicating that the ice is frozen and ready for harvest. If the cam is out of place you can get this problem. If one of the switches is bad you can get this problem. If the thermostat is bad you can get this problem. I wish I could be of more help! I hope you get it going but you may have to end up with a new icemaker, which is what I was trying to help you avoid. I say the drip repair didn’t have anything to do with it so go back into the icemaker where you installed the spring and look for anything that seems out of place. Typically nothing will get out of whack when you take the front off of these icemakers but you never know.
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