Evaluating my Whirlpool refrigerator ice maker problem, that of diminishing ice cube size and culminating in failure to produce any cubes, with normal interior temperatures, I found that my Whirlpool fridge, model GZ25FSRXYY1, had one water solenoid valve only, servicing both cold water and ice dispensers; in the presence of normal water dispenser flow, that meant that the ice maker had failed.
Watching several YouTube videos gave me an appreciation as to how easy a replacement would be, so I ordered it from APP, W10882923 (AP6037857), which arrived in 36 hrs. I anticipated removing a hex screw, loosening two others, lifting my unit off of the side wall, and unplugging the 4-pin Molex connector and the Hall sensor. Installation should have been the reverse.
Nothing could have been further from reality. In my refrigerator, the mould tray was not suspended from hex screws on the side wall, but was mounted on a plastic cooling tray, the bracket on the left side of which had been slid into a sidewall track, and secured by a release tab. Nothing I did would release that catch and allow the icemaker to be slid out from its installed position. Eventually I located the three hex screws on the bottom of the plastic tray, removal of which allowed me to wiggle the mould tray loose, unplug the wiring harness, and eventually lift it out, though freeing its insertion from the back wall was not easy.
At that point, I compared the two units, which had minor differences in materials, but significantly, the new unit had a rotary dial front, compared with the black box front of the failed unit, a larger 4-pin Molex connector, and a differently-shaped Hall sensor, so that rewiring would be needed. I examined the two wiring harnesses supplied, and realized that without being able to release the tray, I couldn't access the back panel of the icemaker enclosure to install either harness, so I took the easy way out:
From the end of one of those harnesses, I cut off the five wires emerging from a plastic tube, giving me the makings of a harness for the newer unit, and hooked them up to the 5-wires in the base tray, using butt connectors sealed with Silicone.
I made the new harness longer, to allow me to go through the convolutions of reinstalling the mould tray without stressing the connections. This latter maneuver was very difficult because the tray would not drop into place without being pushed fully back, and that couldn’t be accomplished without trimming away the back rim of the water chute, to get it past the feed tube and into its niche. The black fuse on the purple wire, and its clip, also hindered the reseating of the mould tray, so I removed the clip, and allowed all of the wiring to float in the space between the trays.
After restoring the power and water, I was delighted to hear the first fall of cubes into the bin in about four hours; by the next day we were back to normal ice production and volume.
I must say that had I not been experienced with wiring and plumbing repairs in my house, cars, and boats, this would not have been possible, especially because no instructions were supplied. Also, please note that this particular unit, was in no way an “exact replacement”.
I did actually make one phone call to your tech support, to query the pin-out of the wiring for the new Molex connector, which was different from the original; they confirmed my plan.