I am trying to repair an electric dryer. The make and model is unknown as the sales company had physically removed that information with a grinder. The repair should be simple, requiring only replacement of a couple bad parts.
Currently, the wiring I have completed thus far for new installation of the part is:
A wire from the upper side of the harness attached to the new part (Whirlpool AP3094244)
A jumper wire is attached at a terminal on the new part and the other end attached to the heating element.
There are two terminals on the new part with no wires attached to them. One of the terminals is next to the terminal that has the jumper wire attached to it.
There is a terminal on the heating element without a wire attached to it.
The repair is incomplete with this wiring, as no heat is produced in the dryer.
Note in the illustration of the original part (Kenmore, 3977767) that it has three terminals. This original part had two wires from the harness attached to it and a third, small wire. Note that on the original part, there are two prongs/terminals on the same (terminal), one for a harness wire, the other for the small wire. On the new part there is no terminal for the small wire. I don’t know much about appliance circuitry, some circuits like this use only one wire, with the appliance “chassis” as the other part of the circuit (for example in automobile circuits). Is the small wire a ground wire that should be spliced in with the harness wire? Or should I remove the female tip on the small wire and replace it with a large tip, and then attach it to the large terminal on the new part? (the terminal up next to the terminal with the jumper on it). Also, I assume that the second harness wire should be connected to the second terminal - is this correct? Note that there is a harness wire from the upper harness going downward, that I have attached. The second harness wire, from the lower harness going upward, is presently unattached.
Thank you, in advance, for your time and help on this problem.
Thank you for your reply, Magician59. My camera is malfunctioning. I did have some photos of the dryer parts, including an overall photo of the back of the dryer; none for the front side. The photos are on another computer. I won’t have access to it until tomorrow, at the very earliest.
A camera is a good tool that I should be using.
Okay, Magician59. After searching, found a few photos of the dryer, though none of full view of the dryer. Hope you can help me, with these photos, as my camera isn’t working.
Those are fantastic photos. It sounds like you got the wrong part. Otherwise, the manufacturer would have supplied instructions to convert the wiring for the part. Your dryer, by the way, was made by Whirlpool.
I know this has been a long delay on my return to this forum, for various reasons, but all I noticed in the reply I got was that they liked the photos that I posted and that the Dryer looked like a Whirlpool.
Magician: Now that I notice you say that the manufacture usually includes instructions with the parts. They did include instructions. The instructions were incomplete, however, leaving no instructions for the extra remaining wires that I described.
This is the question that I had posted here:
[quote]
[INDENT]Currently, the wiring I have completed thus far for new installation of the part is: [/INDENT][INDENT]- A wire from the upper side of the harness attached to the new part (Whirlpool AP3094244)[/INDENT][INDENT]- A jumper wire is attached at a terminal on the new part and the other end attached to the heating element.[/INDENT][INDENT]- There are two terminals on the new part with no wires attached to them. One of the terminals is next to the terminal that has the jumper wire attached to it.[/INDENT][INDENT]- There is a terminal on the heating element without a wire attached to it.[/INDENT][INDENT]The repair is incomplete with this wiring, as no heat is produced in the dryer.[/INDENT]
[INDENT]Note in the illustration of the original part (Kenmore, 3977767) that it has three terminals. This original part had two wires from the harness attached to it and a third, small wire. Note that on the original part, there are two prongs/terminals on the same (terminal), one for a harness wire, the other for the small wire. On the new part there is no terminal for the small wire. I don’t know much about appliance circuitry, some circuits like this use only one wire, with the appliance “chassis” as the other part of the circuit (for example in automobile circuits). Is the small wire a ground wire that should be spliced in with the harness wire? Or should I remove the female tip on the small wire and replace it with a large tip, and then attach it to the large terminal on the new part? (the terminal up next to the terminal with the jumper on it). Also, I assume that the second harness wire should be connected to the second terminal - is this correct? Note that there is a harness wire from the upper harness going downward, that I have attached. The second harness wire, from the lower harness going upward, is presently unattached.[/INDENT][/quote]
Thank you for your time and attention on this subject.
I provided plenty of good photos and I posted, in detail, description of each wire associated with the parts and the dryer. I can’t see why anybody here with experience with wiring and appliance repair does not reply to this message.
If you have no heat, you must wire three items in series, overload thermostat, heater and thermal fuse on the top of the heater can. Two heavy wires, allways red and red/white come from the dryer wire bundle and do not go to any of the items mentioned All these items must be in series with these wires. Forget about the small diameter wire. Without it, you will just not have auto- shutoff feature.
Before you start the dryer, measure across the two wires from the wiring bundle. If you measure zero ohms, you screwed up somewhere.
Thank you for your reply, Rich. I am not sure what is meant by “overload thermostat” and “the top of the heater can”. But I take it that I make sure the wiring is in a series circuit, to leave the bundle wires alone, and leave the small wire unattached.
Maybe I should call up Whirlpool (the manufacture of this part) to verify the wiring.
I would like to get a repair manual for this dryer. Could you tell me how I can identify this dryer? Notice on the photo that I have downloaded, that the retail store had removed the make and model of the dryer. It appeared that they had painted over this information. But that wasn’t all they did. They had grinded away the information with a power tool, then painted over it. There is absolutely no information of make, model or even the serial number anyplace on this dryer.
