Whirlpool Y303836 Dryer Blower Wheel Assembly OEM Part

In the past, I replaced some electronic components on our gas dryer, the solenoid and the electronic ignitor, but the rest of the dryer looked more difficult to repair if needed in the future. I was wrong. I went unto AppliancePartsPros.com and watched some repair videos on dryers like mine that make big thumping sounds while drying. This happened when I googled my dryer model number in an attempt to find out is capacity, because I wanted our new dryer to have the same capacity. I found out through the repair videos I could have a broken blower wheel, could be two worn back rollers, could be stretched out drive belt and worn drive belt idler pulley. So I ordered all those parts, $130. Anything I didn't remove from its packing I had 365 days to return for full refund minus shipping. The repairs didn't appear to be too difficult. This is what I found when I took the dryer apart. -The two back roller wheels that support and allow the rear big dryer drum rim were riding off track on the drum leaving evidence of skid marks out of the track, like the drum was wobbling some as it rotated. When I removed the worn drive belt, I noticed black skid marks on the plastic idler pulley., likely the drive belt had stretched some and was slipping on the idler pulley. This could be some of reason for the thumpy noise, though I was not convinced that I had found the root-cause of the noise. The back roller steel drive shaft axles looked fine, so I didn't replace them, just cleaned them up and put anti-seeze paste on them (molycote lube that I use so brake pads move easier would've been a better choice). It would've been very difficult to remove them, and as I learned after doing this repair, a waste of effort. The two front teflon bearing pads that support and allow the front of the drum to rotate looked good, so I didn't replace those two items. I still was not certain as too what was causing the loud thumpy noise when the dryer was on. I then opened up the blower housing, and sure enough the blower's hub had worn out and was not rotating and blowing hot air out the dryer and house, just being banged around by the electric motor drive shaft causing the thumpy sound. So, I replaced it with the new one. Our dryer was a fire waiting to happen. The inside and all the duct work in the dryer was clogged with lint. With the blower now fixed, that should solve that build-up issue and I placed a Gorilla Tape patch over a small hole in our lint screen filter, and ordered a new one in case that patch fails. (the patch is working just fine after two weeks of drying clothes) I took me about 3 hours to clean the lint out of the dryer as most of the dryer drum assembly removed. It took me about 2 hours to replace the worn out parts. In hindsight, which is always 100%, I should've gone outside and put my hand down where the dryer air is being blown out of the house. That would've told me right away that my dryer was clogged with fire starting lint, or/and my dryer blower is not working for some reason. This job was far easier than doing a car brake pad job, and I did the work in a air-conditioned room. Total cost was less than $150. The new dryer that I was going to get cost $1100. I sent the few parts I didn't use in their unopened packages for refund. I was a little concerned that the drum rotated by hand seemed too stiff, but when I ran it, it ran great. Since then I was at home depot and hand rotated a Maytag dryer drum by hand, and found the rotational stiffness was the same. So, I am convinced the re-build was done right. I found out dryer light bulbs are special like oven bulbs... they're designed to take the heat. So, I got one of those from amazon and it works great now. (I had to do a small repair to the lamp holder to keep it in place, which is more secure than it was originally.) C7 size Christmas tree bulbs, night light bulbs, or LED bulbs will burn out quickly inside hot dryers. When the plumber comes to hookup our new gas water heater, I am going to have him put a yellow gas flex hose so I can move the dryer out to vacuum behind the dryer and more easily get to and repair the metal flex that exhausts hot dryer air out of the house. Currently our dryer gas feed is all metal pipes and I can't move the dryer out. This almost made it impossible to tilt the dryer housing top up so I could remove the dryer drum. Also, since I couldn't move my dryer away from the wall to get at the rear access door to re-thread the dryer belt on the idler wheel, I found that with the damaged blower out, I had easier access to do that job from the front. I used a telescoping mirror to make sure I put the belt on the idler correctly. I used a strap hung from the ceiling to keep the front rim of the dryer drum in its mounting position while I did this brief task. I looked at a few maytag dryer belt replacement youtubes to make sure I did this belt install correctly, it is a bit unusual the way the belt is routed through a metal guide and wrapped on the idler pulley. I make this sound difficult, it wasn't, it took 5 minutes. The appliancepro video does show the correct belt orientation, but it takes a bit to freeze the right youtube frame to see it clearly. You need a cheapo box store snap-ring tool, the rest are common tools that most people have. I had spine surgery a year ago, so I don't move like I use to, so this job took me longer to complete. A 12 year old minus their iPhone could do this job with guidance in about an hour.

The Inside of the old Blower Wheel assembly was stripped on the center spindle. The process to fix is as follows: - Unplug dryer - Remove the two outside screws with a medium size star screw driver. these can be found about 4 inches from the ground level, facing down towards the ground. You can find them if you run your finger along the front metal ridge below the door. - The front cover will now be loose. Lift up the front cover about 30 degrees and the door will disconnect from the top hinge mechanism and can be placed to the side. - Remove the two wires from the top drum sensor. These can only fit one way and won't be crossed over when reinstalling. - Remove the two screws from both the left and right hand side (total four screws) that hold the drum in place. - Remove the bottom bracket (two screws) that holds the blower wheel assembly in place. - Remove all small screws around the blower wheel assembly. The lower screws can be a little "fiddly" since its hard getting a tool in there. A little work and they will un-tighten. - The front metal cover of the blower wheel assembly will now come off. Set this aside. Be careful to keep all these screws in a small container so you don't kick them accidentally under the dryer. - The final removal step is to remove both the Circlips washer and the old clamp holding the center of the blower wheel to the spindle. - After removing these washers, the plastic wheel should slide off. - Reinstall the new blower wheel assembly and reinstall everything in the reverse order to complete the job.

The blower wheel had been previously “repaired,” but the repairman did not install a retaining clip or clamp, so the new part was destroyed in about a year and a half, as the motor shaft rounded all the square edges in the plastic hub. The old blower wheel came off easily and the new part was a perfect fit. The center clamp that comes with the blower wheel kit would probably hold it in place by itself, but I also purchased and installed the retaining clip (#35) as well, because the end of the motor shaft is grooved for it. Everything is solid now, and I don’t expect the new wheel to strip. The drum belt was very worn and needed replacement. The new belt was a little tricky to install at first, but I figured out the easiest way was to drape it over the drum, while the drum was already in place, then feed the lower part of the belt through the pulley system (much better than trying to feed the belt through the pulley system first, then insert the drum through the remaining loop). This requires you to do a little bit of the pulley threading by feel, because you can’t always see it very easily with the drum installed, but it seems the easiest way. I think the belt requires a twist when you install it. When it comes out of the pulleys, the flat side of the belt would naturally lay against the drum, but this doesn’t seem like it would have the proper friction, so after it was in place, I gave the belt a turn so that the ribbed face of the belt was against the surface of the drum. The belt now does a twist before entering the pulleys, and it has worked very well like this. If I got this detail wrong, perhaps someone here can correct it. An unassociated video on this site showed the belt installed with the ridged side against the drum, but it won’t feed properly into the pulley system like this, so the twist seems necessary to make it all work. Perhaps a specific belt install video would be a helpful addition to the site. Belt routing: https://forum.appliancepartspros.com/posts/t25960-dryer-belt-diagrams

Unplugged line cord. Removed two phillips screws close to bottom in front and lifted at 30º angle to release top clips on front panel, rotated it aside so as to not disturb door switch wires. Turned drum by hand. Located rattle emanating from blower housing. Removed lint screen and holder with phillips and 1/4" nutdriver. Removed blower housing cover with 1/4" and 5/16" nut driver. Blower wheel's hub was shattered around motor shaft. Ordered new one. Cleaned out lint buildup. Took off retaining ring with external ring pliers. Blower wheel fell off shaft. Installed new blower wheel (line up with flat of motor shaft) and new expanding clip (included) on hub with needle nose pliers. Reinstalled retaining clip and reassembled. Worked like a champ. The buzzer was for a different project.

Real easy to fix. front panel on dryer took off. and two other panels just inside of dryer panel removed. replaced old blower wheel with new one and that was it. Ordered parts from PartsPro and had them in 2 days. very, very speedy delivery.