John wrote:
Hi:
A friend has asked me to repair her electric clothes dryer.
Problem- She dropped an object (possibly a pen) into the lint trap jamming
the drum.
She has done this before and the service tech repared it in 15 minutes (she
says). She seems to think that I, the inexperienced, can do it in this time
too. I told here to be prepared for a long day :-)
She is trying to avoid the service call by employing me for coffee and
donuts.

First- I am a reasonably mechanically/electrically competent person and will
not be electrocuting myself but have never taken apart a dryer. She says,
based on past service history that the face of the dryer needs to be
removed and the drum removed to remove the foreign object. Of course, I will
see if the offending object can be fished out of the lint trap orifice
before attempting major surgery.

I have never done this so any hints as to how to proceed would be
appreciated. I cannot see how to get the front of the dryer off. I have not
yet seen her dryer but looking at my own and they seem to all be similar
there is a seem but are there hidden clips behind the outer cases ? I'm
guessing the top comes off first. Are any special tools required as she has
none of her own. I have a good selection.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.
John Buffett



Funny you should ask. About 4 weeks ago I decide to pot the
lid and vacuum the lint out of mine and wouldn't you know,
the nozzle on the hose fell off and I could find it.

Anyway, first you pop the lid which is held down by two
metal clips on the front edge about 4-6 inches from each
side. The easy way to do this is run a putty knife along
the seam between the lid and the front wall to locate the
clips, then put the putty knife against the clip and push
(toward the back). It may take a bit of fooling around if
you've never done this. Then the lid lifts up.

With the lid up you can see how everything fits together.
The front panel will probably be held by two screws one on
each side near the top. Take those out, pull the top of the
front panel toward you (just a little) and lift up (the
bottom of the front panel likely has two slots that slide
over a metal projection. The wire for the door light,
likely is on one side so you don't have to disconnect any
wires, just swing the door over to that side.

If you are lucky, the ducting for the lint trap will be
right in front so that there will be no need to remove the
tub.

Doing the above should take about 5 minutes (including
moving the washer out so you can get to it and unplugging it).

OTOH, two things concern me. I don't know how a pen or
pencil in the lint trap could jam the drum and I don't see
why you would have to remove the drum. So maybe the pencil
is jammed elsewhere.

To move the drum you need to move the belt off a pulley to
get slack. The drum usually just sits and slide on non
movable parts (felt in older dryers, nylon straps in newer
models). The back end may be different, but you should be
able to figure it out. Then you can pick the drum up and
move it out of the way. Rather than removing the drum it
might be quicker to just remove the appropriate side panel.

Nonetheless, if you are mechanically inclined you will have
no problem, but it might take you an hour to do what the
technician did in 15 minutes. All you need is a thin tool
(like a putty knife) for the top clips, a phillips and a
straight screw driver, and if you are unlucky, a socket
wrench and a set of sockets. Good luck.