I have a Frigidaire Gallery refrigerator, model number LGUB2642LF3 that’s 14 months old.
This is a french door, top refrigerator, bottom freezer model. The refrigerator compartment ice maker has now stopped dispensing ice.
Please forgive my lack of the proper terminology, but I’ll do my best. When the paddle is pressed, the flapper door between the outside of the refrigerator and inside of the ice maker opens and immediately shuts. The auger does not turn nor do I hear it’s motor run. I pulled the ice bin out, checked for anything frozen or lodged in it and found noting. I am able to turn the auger forward and backward by hand with nothing stopping it with the ice bin out.
This is an all in one control panel on the front with the temp displays, water filter status, water, ice, and crushed ice dispenser with push button controls. The water dispenser works fine with no changes. When ice or crushed ice is selected, the light comes on normally and the water filter status light comes on normally.
After doing some reading here on other models, I think it may be a problem with the auger motor actuator. Am I on the right track? Are there some troubleshooting steps that I can take before throwing parts at this thing?
Thank you all in advance for any help and guidance you may offer.
Just to follow up on this issue, I got it fixed this evening. It was not the auger motor actuator or any other electrical part for that matter. It was a simple matter of a very slight adjustment and minor lubrication.
If anyone is interested, I’ll post what I found and how I fixed it.
Thanks for all the page views and if this will help someone else out there, I’ll post it.
I think I might have the same problem with my Frigidaire Gallery LGUS2642LF0. After testing everything I could think to test, I finally realized that the flapper simply would not lock into the open position. It looks like a little metal spring is the culprit. Assuming that was the problem with your ice dispenser, can you offer any tips?
Yeah, teagues, the problem with mine was/is the little metal rod that the spring rests against not locking into its holder to keep the flapper door open. The bent end of the rod locks into a recess in its track to hold the door open, seen here:
[ATTACH]5024[/ATTACH]
I added some lubrication to the tracks, red arrows, and worked it in.
I then turned my attention to the spring:
[ATTACH]5025[/ATTACH]
I used a little screwdriver and bent the spring out a little to add more resistance to get the rod to lock.
[ATTACH]5026[/ATTACH]
It worked, but not completely. The dispenser is working, but it is intermittent at times. I still have some tinkering to do with it to get it right. Ice Maker 05.JPG (23.6 KB) Ice Maker 04.JPG (32.4 KB) Ice Maker 06.JPG (31.2 KB)
Yep, we have the same problem. You got a much better look at it than I did. My dispenser is still in the door.
On mine, that brass spring is a little loose. It looks like it floated out about 1mm relative to the front of the door. Maybe that’s be design, but I found that if I push that spring back with a screwdriver and hold it there, the flapper locks open every time. When I stop pressing on it, it will dispense ice once or twice, until the spring slips back out again.
I am going to see if I can find a way to push that spring back and keep it there permanently. I’ll post again if I figure anything out.
Pretty sure we have the same problem as DJ in WV. Went to the Frigidaire website looking for a schematic so my husband can get the ice maker out to work on it using DJ’s great pics of the situation. Found only a wiring diagram. Does anyone have a document or instructions for getting to those parts. Thanks a bunch for this info!!
I tried several different times to adjust the spring and lock rod. After each adjustment, I could get the flapper to catch open if I pushed the solenoid in manually, but it still did not work reliably if I tried it with the in-door dispenser switch.
So I started thinking that the fault might with the solenoid itself. Perhaps somehow it is not pulling in long enough, or far enough, or whatever, to get the rod to catch in the open position.
I have no idea how to test the solenoid, and probably lack the proper equipment to test it anyway (other than a visual “yes, it moves when you press the switch” check), so I started looking for ways to reduce the resistance that the solenoid has to deal with to open the flapper. I saw that there are two springs that keep the flapper closed. The spring closest to the solenoid (back end of the left hand arrow in DW’s first photo) seemed to have a lot more tension in it than the other, so I thought to see if it loosen it up a little. It turns out that this spring is only held in the mechanism by it’s own springiness, so it’s a simple matter to remove it:
Turn off power to the fridge before you try any of this.
Mark one end with a sharpie so you know which end goes back where.
Put on safety goggles in case it flies out when you release it.
Push the end of the spring that’s closest to the solenoid down and out with a flathead screw driver.
I took a little spring out of the spring by coiling it an additional – approximate – 1/16th turn on each end. Put it back in place, re-installed the dispenser, and now it works every time. We’ll see if it holds up.
Our in-door ice dispenser has begun working again by itself. Owners manual page 32 states “Dispenser paddle has been pressed too long and the dispenser motor has overheated.” Solution states motor will reset in three minutes. If that was our problem it took more like a week to reset. We would still like instructions for getting dispenser out of the door to work on the spring issues in case that is the true issue in the future. Thanks to all for taking the time to share!
My husband took the ice dispenser out and determined that on ours the solenoid no longer has enough power to keep flap open. Weakening the springs does help temporarily but we just ordered a new assembly from this site for $113.
if you test the door without it mounted to the fridge it closes too far and the rod falls out. Found this out the hard way while changing a micro switch.
Great information, great tips!! However, how do you get inside the door to get to the mechanism. I tested out you solution by reaching up and holding the flapper open while pressing the ice dispenser and it dispenses ice as long as I hold the flapper open. Now I just need to figure out how to get into the mechanism.
[QUOTE=DJ in WV;771850]Yeah, teagues, the problem with mine was/is the little metal rod that the spring rests against not locking into its holder to keep the flapper door open. The bent end of the rod locks into a recess in its track to hold the door open, seen here:
[ATTACH]5024[/ATTACH]
I added some lubrication to the tracks, red arrows, and worked it in.
I then turned my attention to the spring:
[ATTACH]5025[/ATTACH]
I used a little screwdriver and bent the spring out a little to add more resistance to get the rod to lock.
[ATTACH]5026[/ATTACH]
It worked, but not completely. The dispenser is working, but it is intermittent at times. I still have some tinkering to do with it to get it right.[/QUOTE]
I finally broke down and had a technician come. What I had done was lubricate the moving parts with a silicon lubricant and also used a Dremel to grind down a couple of linkages that I thought were part of the problem. It worked for about a week. I watched the technician and he knew exactly what the problem was because he had encountered it before. It only took him about 15 minutes from the time he came until he was ready to leave.
The issue is a wire that connects two of the linkages. The wire is straight with a bend on each end that goes into holes on the plastic linkages. All he did was put a slight bend in the middle of that wire and the dispenser has worked perfectly since.
Now my only complaint is the speed that the ice maker makes ice. Living in Florida, we use ice constantly.
DJ in WV,
THANKS! My Frigidaire Service man showed up, and was skeptical about bending
the Flapper Rod. He said that wasn’t it. I said it has fixed one, and it’s worth a try.
So, as I powered off the Breaker, he removed the Flapper Assembly. After removing the
end of the rod (on the right in your Photo) and bent that end about 10-15 degrees, he
reassembled the Flapper Rod. As I went downstairs to turn on the Power, he reassembled the Refrigerator User Interface & Flapper Assembly.
He also was amazed that in Test #36, I could reach up into the dispenser, and open the flapper with my finger and see the display change to OP from CL.
To his amazement, it worked the first time. Total repair time was less than 15 minutes.
Yes, on Page 1, Posting #4 there are three nice pictures, with a RED arrow pointing
towards the wire that needs about a 10 degree bend. Mine is still working fine.
To get access, CAREFULLY and EASILY pry the Outside Bezel from around the Ice
Dispenser on the Left Door. Remove 4 to 6 screws and loosed the hose, and swing
the Flapper assembly out so you can see the the small wire rod. Bent it about 10
degrees with two sets of pliers. Then reassemble. It’s not that bad a job, just
be careful with the outer TRIM Plastic.
Just did this on my fridge. Works great thank you hugely for posting this simple fix. I did have issues with the TRIM sticking at the bottom, stubborn and tight but it came out eventually, very glad I didn’t snap it. Also the wire to be bent is very rigid and I needed an extra set of hands to hold the mechanism whilst gripping it with two needle nose pliers to make the bend. Thanks again to all. Yay crushed ice!!!
