Whirlpool 279640 Idler Pulley OEM Part

It was the day of my birthday June 6th when my wife came to me to tell me that the dryer was not working. Immediately I started to look for a new dryer from Best Buy and the rest. Then I said It would be better if I waited for 4th of July at which time I could find a better deal. This is when I decided to take it apart to see what was wrong. Initially, I thought of the belt that could be broken and I rotated the drum by hand and I heard a noise of the belt at times falling on the drum. I was pretty sure there was a problem there but I could not understand why I could not hear the motor turning. When I took it apart I found the belt was intact but out of the pulley explaining why the drum was not rotating anymore and this is when I could understand why I could not hear the motor running because there is a protection switch that is activated when the belt goes around the pulley and lift the bracket activating that switch. I bought a new pulley from appliance parts pros and a new belt even though the other one was not broken. I replaced them and reassembled the unit. It is now working smoother than it ever did. I decided to postpone my idea of buying a new set saving me at least $2500 for now. I must admit that I am a Mechanical Engineer with good knowledge of electricity that gave me the enthusiasm to take that challenge. It was not the most difficult task but you must have a pretty good understanding of how to fix things. I encourage you to watch some videos of the parts installations provided and take a picture of every step you do and preferably filming if you can. Good luck!

I did a little research and found out that the dryer drum rollers needed to be replaced. I decided that since I would be replacing the 4 drum rollers that I should replace the belt and the belt drive pulley. This was a simple project thanks to YouTube. I used one of appliancepartspor videos to st me through the repair. Now I have a dryer that does not squeal like a pig!

Replaced the idler pulley after watching the video on this site. The hardest part was turning the dryer around to access the back panel.

At first I tried lubricating the Idler Pulley which only lasted for about a day or two then I opted for replacing the Idler Pulley, four roller wheels, belt - much better results. Thanks appliancepartspro.com!

Pulled the drum. Replaced the idler pulley. Put the drum back in. Put on the new belt. Nice to have the helpful video. Also nice to order the parts and have them arrive the NEXT DAY!