Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Replacing the belt on a Whirlpool Model LE6100XS Electric Dryer

One day my wife told me that the dryer drum wasn't turning, but the inside light still came on when the door was opened and it still made noise when it was turned on. I looked at it and the drum turned very easily in either direction. This would seem to indicate a broken belt. I started searching the web for instructions and illustrations.

The best set of instructions I found were not fully applicable, but they were enough to get me started. I'll go over the differences, but here's the link to them:

http://repair2000.com/wpoolbelt.htm

Here are the changes I would make to these:

Opening Up The Dryer:
  • It tells you to pull out the lint screen (which is on the top of the dryer near the back right) and then remove the two screws that are under the cover. Don't remove the lint screen. If you remove the lint screen you open up a hole where the screws can fall into and then you will have to take off the back of the dryer and disassemble part of the air path to retrieve them. I see no reason at all to remove the lint screen as on our dryer it was not blocking access to the screws. I removed the screws, left the lint screen in place and things went fine.
  • These instructions say "To unlatch the dryer top, insert a thin-blade putty knife between the top and front panel ... Push in on the knife to release the locking clip ...". Well, that didn't work. Possibly our dryer had a different clip. Anyway, a standard sized screwdriver was the tool that worked best for me. The clips on our model were sort of plastic pyramids with a small place in the center of the pyramid about the width of a screwdriver blade where you could push to help them release. I put some tension up on the lid, pressed in on the release with the screwdriver and when I felt it move a bit I moved the screwdriver to a place beside the clip with the blade positioned between the dryer top cover and the dryer front cover and applied some leverage to lift the top off of the clip (repeat for other side). If you look at the first diagram in the dryer parts list referenced below, you'll see a drawing of the clip as item 50.
  • The instructions say "Next, move to the lower toe panel." Our dryer didn't have a lower toe panel -- the front cover was all one piece. What I did instead was the following: Note there is a wire bundle going from the right side panel to a connector block on the front panel. make a drawing of this so that you can replace the wires correctly and then remove the wire bundle connectors from the connector block (this didn't seem to be shown on the parts list). While carefully maintaining pressure on the front of the dryer front cover to prevent drum from getting loose, remove the two screws near the top of the inside of the front (number 6 on the first parts drawing) and set them aside. Have an assistant support the drum while you lean the front panel out and lift upward to remove the entire front panel (set it aside). Place a support (I used a 1/2 gallon milk carton) under the front of the dryer drum.
Installing the Belt:
  • Remove the old belt and per the instructions with the grooved side of the belt facing the drum, get the new belt into position around the drum.
  • The instructions say to push the front panel back into position. Don't do this yet. Skip to the section beginning "Now, move to the motor area ...". Since my dryer had a one piece front panel, it was necessary to finish routing the belt before replacing the top and front panels. Make sure you remove the old belt if it has dropped into the lower area.
  • Once the belt is properly seated on the drum and routed through the idler pulley and the motor pulley, have an assistant support the drum and remove whatever you placed under it to support it. Then carefully lift the door and guide it down on the little hangers at the bottom of the side panels that you lifted it off of earlier. At this point, the front panel should still be inclined outward. Work with your assistant to ensure that the drum is seated properly in the seals on the front and back as you move the front panel back into it's vertical position. Replace the two screws holding the front panel to the side panels. Replace the wires from the side panel back to the connections on the front panel using your diagram to get them in the right place (mine had 3 connectors). Now carefully lower the top panel, align it with the clips, and press down to engage the clips.
Finishing up:
  • No major problems with this section other than that the lint screen should already be in place because it was not removed.
Whirlpool Manuals, etc. for this model may be found at:
http://shared.whirlpoolcorp.com/product_literature/search.jsp
where you just plug in your model number and tell it to search. Here is a link to the results for the LE6100XS Whirlpool Electric Dryer (it may not last as they change their site):
http://shared.whirlpoolcorp.com/product_literature/search_results.jsp?searchTerm=LE6100XS&siteCd=WHRCOM

The search resulted in an owner's manual, an installation guide, and a parts manual. We already had copies of the first two (came with the dryer). The parts guide was very useful. Here's a link to it (again, it may change with time):
http://shared.whirlpoolcorp.com/assets/pdfs/literature/Repair%20Part%20List%20-%20697125.pdf

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