How to Troubleshoot & Replace Ge AP4297334 / WE14M124 Drum Support Bearing

First, I had to take off the front of the dryer. This wasn't as bad as it first sounds. Only tool need was a phillips screwdriver. 1) Turn off breaker to dryer. 2) Remove back of control panel cover (3 phillips) 3) Remove Top cover of dryer (2 phillips) 4) Remove control panel (2 philips) - Disconnect one ribbon cable (easy) 5) Remove front of dryer (4 philips (2 top, 2 bottom) - Disconnect two connectors (easy) After investigating, of the 4 bearing slides, only one was left in place, and the drum support itself was heavily worn thru on one side. All needed to be replaced. Removing the drum support bearing... 1) Free up the wires for the light and moisture sensor. Easy to do, they just ran thru a few clips. 2) Remove the drum support bearing. Probably the 'hardest part', but not really. Just needed to pull up on the sheet metal while pushing down on the plastic some. Pretty easy. Install new drum support. 1) I fit the new bearing slide before inserting into the front of the dryer. 2) Transferred the light assembly (a single philips screw) 3) Started by aligning the drum support a the bottom and working up the arch. This wasn't hard, but you need to make sure that the edge of the sheet metal is correctly aligned in the drum support. To seat the drum support, pull up on the sheet metal, and each plastic clip (2 total) fits into place. Reassemble dryer. 1) Only tricky part was getting the drum back in place. Basically a 1 or two person job. Lift the drum with one hand (thru the door) and put the front back in place. It may help to put the lower two screws in first. 2) Finish putting dryer back together, reverse of the disassembly. All told, this took maybe 25-30m to resemble. Probably the same to disassemble, give that I was going slow an methodically. Easy fix to breathe new life into my 9 year old dryer. 

Wife and I are expecting a baby and worst thing happened after recieving so many baby clothes from shower. Each load a few garments would get pinched/stuck on top, back side of door. Then clothes continue to tumble spinning the hanging clothes hundreds of times making them super wrinkled when load is done. Then when the load was done we had to try our best to pull them loose without tearing a hole. Unfortunately, some new baby clothes got minor holes im them! So my wife did the research, found a blog where people had similar problem and suggested the potential problem. I checked it put, watched instructional videoes on appliancepartspros.com and felt i could fix it. Once i took the dryer apart is was obvious what was missing. There was one bearing slide left on the front/top bearing and constant wear on the bearing made the plastic paper thin. I ordered 4 new slides, 2 green 2 white, a new felt trap duct, and a drum support top bearing. $80 total. Came in 2 todays. Did the repair in 30 minutes. Everything working like brand now. No squeak, no stuck clothes 

Replace front bearing. 

Our GE front loader dryer is approximately 10 years old. It started making a loud noise. Before we sank another $600 for a new dryer, I decided to go online to search Youtube videos to try to find out if anyone else had the same problem. I found that a lot of dryers had drum support bearings that wore out and needed to be replaced and a lot of dryers were also having clothes caught up in them. I then found an Appliance Parts Pro video on how to fix this problem and found out what parts were needed to replace the worn out ones. I went on to AppliancePartsPros.com and started an online chat to find out exactly what I needed. The guy on the chat recommended everything to fix the dryer. The cost for the parts came to about $182 (which is still a lot less than buying a new dryer.) My husband took the dryer apart, vacuumed it out and replaced the drum support bearing, the bearing slides and the Trap Duct Assembly. He only needed a Phillips screwdriver. Took him about an hour and 1/2 to remove and replace parts. DRYER WORKS LIKE NEW! 

Followed the video instructions for replacing the front bearing slides, found the Drum Support Bearing worn beyond reuse. Decided since it was going to be apart anyway I would replace the rear Drum Bearing (no visible reason), the belt (even though it wasn't broken or visibly worn) and the Trap duct Felt because i didn't want to get into again for a while, Having said that it really isn't a bad job, the dryer comes apart with just a few fasteners and its a pretty simple procedure. The time it takes to do the job is less than what is stated but took extra time in cleaning each part of lint & dirt buildup as I went, Oh, don't forget to put the belt on with the grooves toward the drum because if you don't the drum will not turn with a load in it and you'll spend an extra 10 minutes correcting your mistake! ;-) 

I spent two weeks researching this dryer and collected a ton of info. I watched you tube videos and put all that information into thinking it was the motor overheating. I took the dryer apart and found the front bearing slides were worn in half on the left side, it had rubbed a groove on the upper support bearing. I replaced all four slides the upper support bearing, The rear bearing(kit) and both the thermostat and thermistor on the outlet just past the blower. While I was in there i replaced the belt and idler pulley. Since it was a ten year old dryer i gave her tune-up while i had her apart. From what I learned from many others there were two suspects, 1 worn bearing causing friction and overheating the motor or 2 the thermistor. I t works like new now and it wasn't difficult, a little time consuming since it was my first dryer repair. I forgot to mention the felt trap duct was also replaced. Thermostat tested good with meter, old thermistor showed less resistance than the new one. I kept the thermostat any ways as part of the tune-up. 

I ordered the suggested parts. They came in just a few days. I have never worked on a dryer before, but with the video and the right parts it was fairly easy to fix. The dryer has worked like a charm ever since. No need to buy another dryer. Saved a fortune! 

Ordered a drum support bearing and both the green and white bearings. Fairly easy repair and now dries clothes faster and is quiet. Great place to get OEM parts. May be a little higher priced but I have found that it is well worth buying from APP from past projects. They stand behind their parts and are excellent on returns/replacements as well. They also have live knowledgeable techs for advice/instruction as well as videos that can be a huge help. 

Replaced drum support and slides. 

Did a lot of internet searches about probable causes and watched videos showing how to do the repairs. Didn't really like the idea of having to take the dryer apart to such an extent. Happened across the video from appliance parts pros. The technician ran the dryer, and it was squeaky like mine. The video showed how to take the front panel off and sure enough, right on the front, the drum support bearing was all busted up. Ordered the parts (and two screws I had previously lost). Installed the replacement part along with the video, pausing and rewinding several times. It was a little tricky to get the front panel hung back on, guess I missed the part where you're not supposed to take the bottom screws out all the way. It took me about an hour to fix the dryer, not counting the time it took to get the front panel off.