I have an RCA dryer and this is my story:

Last night my dryer started making an intermittent grinding noise - it seemed like it was in the same place each time the drum cycled around, but I am not sure. It sounded like metal rubbing against metal and there was some sparking. When I tried it without a load, the noise was less but still there.

I have now taken the dryer apart and it appears that the drum is rubbing against the heating coils in the back of the dryer. During disassembly it looked like the drum was a little tilted off center such that the back left side of the drum (when facing the front of the dryer) was closer to the back of the dryer than the back right side. I guess this makes sense because the grinding noise was coming from the back left. When I forced the drum back to center and manually rotated it there was no noise - I guess because the drum was no longer scraping on the coils. It went back to the tilted position when I let it go.

It's my first time trying to repair a dryer so this is all very new to me. Please tell me what the most likely cause of the problem is and how to troubleshoot it and fix it. A million thanks to anyone who can help.[/SIZE]