Whirlpool 4389144 Refrigerator Evaporator Fan Motor OEM Part

Used U-Tube diagnostic clips to diagnose that most likely problem was a worn Evaporator Fan Motor which is located in the freezer back wall, located in the top third of the unit. I removed 6 hex head screws from the freezer's interior back panel that covers the evaporator coils. The cover is located in the lower 2/3s of the back wall. Removed all shelving. Also removed screws that held in shelf supports on one side of the freezer wall. I then removed the back panel. You may need to remove the shelf supports from both walls in order to get the back panel out, as the tolerances are tight. I removed the fan motor which was located behind the back panel. The motor was positioned with the electrical connections facing the front of the freezer. The replacement part was configured so that the electrical connections would face the rear of the freezer, so I had to decide how to get correct connections on the new unit so as not to short the part out. I arranged both the new part and the old part side by side with all connections showing. The resulting left connection on each unit correspond to each other. The same holds true for the right connection2, and the center connections. Then I replaced all the other parts in the reverse order of how I had removed them. The work space in my side by side freezer/fridge is limited, and my shoulders are wider than the opening, so I had really contort myself in order to get my hands and tools into the proper work position. I was successful, but it took longer than I would have expected. I would not let the this stop me from performing the repaid again.

Screwdriver and small nutdriver was all that was needed took about an hour after removing food from freezer. Wire connections were on left side of motor instead of right side facing front, so I connected wires first then faced motor and connections to the back so original wires could reach .

Removed rear freezer panel- 6 Phillips head screws, remove shelf brackets- and found 2 problems. The evaporator coil was touching the panel with tell tale rubbing mark on the back side, and fan bearing was worn out. Side to side movement of motor shaft showed this. Carefully bent evaporator line away from panel, replaced fan motor and blade. Old blade appeared to be out of balance which probably caused the bearing to fail in the first place.

Replaced fan motor.

Ordered new fan motor and fan (just in case) Fan had stopped turning a couple of years ago while I was working out of town. One spin with my finger and it had ran fine ever since. Last month or so it had started getting noisy, looked like a good time to clean out freezer and change fan motor Very straightforward process, only problem encountered was the connections were on opposite sides of the motor compared to the factory original. Turned motor around 180 degrees with contacts to the back and all wired reached fine. Suggest watching videos if you are not familiar with working on such items. A lot of jobs like this are easy and can save the DIY person lots of $$$$