Whirlpool WP314820 Dryer Drum Felt Seal OEM Part

Started my Maytag dryer (model LDE8200ACW) with a large load early Saturday morning and immediately heard a noticeable thumping noise as the drum turned. Opened the door and checked to make sure some of the laundry hadn’t wadded up and was causing the thumping. Restarted it but the thumping was still present. Did a google search for obvious possible causes for the symptoms but the only suggestion that made sense was to check and make sure the dryer wasn’t rocking on its feet. Checked and found everything solid. I decided to restart the dryer and allow it to run…hoping that the thumping would go away. Shortly afterward the thumping did go away but what I heard was a soft quiet hum. I immediately suspected the drive belt has broken. Opening the door confirmed the drum has ceased turning. I could manually rotate the drum with ease. Proceeded to disassemble the dryer following instructions compiled from viewing a half dozen online self-help videos. As expected, found the drive belt broken and in generally bad shape. It was evident that the belt had been deteriorating over time. There were small bits of it scattered over the entire bottom. Surprisingly, there wasn’t as much lint scattered about. Found both front and back felt seals in very sad shape. The two front tumbler bearings…green in color…also appeared thin and worn. The two drum support rollers looked to be okay if only slightly worn. But decided to replace them as well just to be sure. I placed my order with Appliance Parts Pros that evening, December 14. I ordered two drum support rollers, two tumbler bearing kits, two dry drums seals and a dryer drum belt. The total bill with tax and shipping totaled $115.34. The parts were on my front door step when I got home from work Wednesday, December 18. Replacing the support rollers was easy. Popped off the existing snap rings with snap pliers. Replaced old rollers with new and reinstalled the old snap rings. Note that the new support rollers don’t come with snap rings so you either need to order new snap rings or reuse the existing ones. The old snap rings were in good shape so I simply reused them. I decided to not replace the front tumbler bearings. On inspection I found the new bearing pads to be about the same thickness as the old ones still installed. The new bearing pad material is a light blue in color, not green as the old ones. I wasn’t sure that replacing the old bearings made any sense given that the new bearing pads were about as thin as the existing ones. So, I decided to return them. (The process to initiate the return process was very straightforward. You’re provided a pre-filled RMA form and return address information and label which can be cut out and taped to the return package.) The felt seals on my Maytag is secured in place with integral punched out tabs. Replacing the seals were much easier than I expected. The tabs are thin so they bend easily with a screwdriver. Removal of the old seals was easy. Replacing them was a bit more involved but was accomplished in less that 20 minutes each. The hardest part of the repair was reinstalling the dryer drum. It took some effort getting the drum belt correctly routed around the idler and onto the motor pulley. I had watched other online videos for clues as to how best to accomplish this along with how the belt is to be routed. It was quite challenging because it is done blind by feel. Initially, I was convinced that the belt was too long but after rechecking a screenshot I had taken from an online video, I realized what I was doing wrong. The most difficult part of the entire repair was getting the front and back felt seals tucked into the right position while simultaneously installing the front bulkhead. The seals didn’t want to stay tucked in and I was constantly having to work my way around the drum periphery to retouch them while trying to secure the front bulkhead in place. None of the videos provided clues as to how best to accomplish this installation. It was frustrating and quite fatiguing but I eventually got everything into place and screwed things tight. Proceeded to wash a very large load of towels and threw them into the newly repaired dryer. When I hit the on switch I could hear the drum belt slipping on the drum. I was very sure that I had installed the drum belt correctly (flat side against the drum) and that there was probably enough belt tension. I had previously cleaned the drum exterior with alcohol so I was sure there wasn’t any grease or oil residue. I decided that maybe the belt needed to be “broken in” with a lighter load thinking perhaps a little heat exposure over time would help break things in. I lightened the load to just two large towels and started it. It seemed to work just fine. Two more light loads were done in this manner. After those, I tried a full size load and things seem to be working just fine so far. This dryer was bought new about 30 years ago and this was the first problem I ever had with it. I’ve been more than satisfied with this dryer purchase. The online shopping experience with Appliance Parts Pros was great. The two tumbler bearing kits were dropped into the US Mail on December 21, 2019. Assuming the refund process goes without a hitch I’ll have expended a little less than $100 dollars. I have no idea what an at home service repair would have cost but I imagine I’ve save myself quite a bit of cash with relatively little effort. Thank you Appliance Parts Pros!

I replaced the motor and all other moving components along with the felt drum seals.drum glides and drive belt. The wiring instruction is where i had the most problems. Because my wiring had only 4 wires in the harness not 5, and one was a different color then the instructions call out, I believe was because it might have been and older model. the instruction called for a gray wire but mine was white with a blue piggy back wire attached. but after finding a few videos on line i figured that the white wire was indeed the gray wire and the piggy back wire was the 5th wire meant to be attached to the blue terminal.

Took the dryer apart, found worn-out parts. Ordered replacement felt seal and tumbler bearing kit. They arrived promptly. Replaced tumbler bearings and felt seal and reassembled the dryer.

Took the front panel off (the door front), disconnected the connector to the door switch and used a wooden clothespin to bypass the door switch. Turned on the dryer to locate loud squeaking sound and found it was coming from the motor area. When I started to take the blower section apart from the motor, that is when I saw the "blower wheel" slipped off the motor shaft. The blower wheel has a "C" clip retainer and compression ring to keep it snug on the motor shaft (but it was loose). Now I also know why there was a lot of lint on the clothes and not on the lint trap filter. The blower wheel was not really turning on the shaft. I bought this Maytag dryer back in 1981 and the only thing done so far was the replacement of failed "dryer gas valve coils" back in 2001. So, I cleaned up the inside of the dryer (removed all the loose lint and bugs, and stuff). Checked over all the parts inside the dryer to see what was worn out and made a list of parts to replace. Total cost was less than $200, but when I got done it was as good as a new clothes dryer. The replacement parts were: a new belt, blower wheel (main problem), dryer gas valve coil kit (backups -- just in case), Front rubber seal for the door, Two -- dryer drum felt seal, blower seal, high temperature adhesive for the felt seal and blower seal. Everything else was good. Motor and its parts. I cleaned up the old grease and greased the motor bearings and other parts that I removed the old grease from.

I searched Youtube for the exact repair that I wanted to make. And there it was! A video made by a professional repairman on the same model of dryer. I followed the same steps in the video and I'm confident that I replaced the seals and bearings correctly because I watched someone else do it. I would list out the repair steps here, but it would be WAY better if you searched for the video. The only out-of-the-ordinary part of the repair was pop-riveting the bearing tumblers in place. I did not own a pop rivet tool so I now have a brand new tool in the box and I know how to use it. And before the bearings could be riveted in, the old rivets had to be drilled out. A cordless drill and 1/8th inch bit made that task easy.