How it works: GE clothes dryer

The GE dryer has a 120 volt motor. In case of lint build-up and air restrictions manufacturers install a non-resetable limit which is tied in with the door circuit. When the dryer overheats above 300f this limit kills the dryer.

Their is another 250f limit that mounts on the opposite side of the pan.
The control klixon mounts on the blower housing
The 2 smaller terminals fire off a small heater inside the control which makes it shut down faster for delicate and perma-press cycles. Clever no? The heater element mounts on the rear of the dryer
The drum rides on a central bearing in the middle on the back side. This small plastic bearing will get thin and begin
to sing a song: squeek, squeek, squeek!
The front of the drum rides on slides. They get thin and tend to pinch clothes bind on the drum mount and generally make the motor bog down in some cases.
In the past the old school GE dryer drum rides on these glides:
You get into the dryer by opening the door and removing the screws holding down the top:
Note: I worked one recently that simply had spring clips between the top and front panel, hay we don't need no stinking screws!
After popping them clips on each end the top comes off there and has a green grounding wire that attaches to it.
Then disconnect the screws and lid switch and remove the front panel:
Push downwards on the idler and release the belt. Grab holt of that belt and use it to help you remove that drum:
Once you get that drum out the innards look like this:

The belt goes around the drum with the ribbed side down. A twisted belt is a belt that is gonna get destroyed the minute you start that dryer. Make sure it ain't twisted. Note: GE uses different sized belts and different parts for components per production run. Make sure you give your model number (inside the door) to get the correct belt,element, glides, bearing,etc. They are not all the same. You can cut yourself easily on the stamped metal frame so be careful when wrangling that belt back on:
Tip: To get the belt on there you gotta have 3 hands. Yank the idler from right to left till it is over the motor pulley then get a friend to hold that in place with the broom handle while you loop the belt over the top of the idler and under the motor pulley; then grab the idler and ease it back enough to remove the handle. Then let it go and all will be well. Give the drum a turn by hand and see if the belt is twisted. If the heater element is broken their is no need in buying the whole pan.
The kit comes with directions to pre-stretch the coils to 42 inch's for the inner circle and 48 inch's for the outer circle. You want no gaps on in your restring because that would make the coil die quickly.

Lets talk gas heat for a moment:
The gas dryer has the Flame sensor, ignitor, and coils like you might see in many other makes of gas dryers. When the control calls for heat it powers up the gas assembly. The ignitor, flame sensor,and coils are all energized at once. The coils will not operate unless the resistance in the circuit changes.
To do it the ignitor and flame sensor has to be removed from the circuit.


The flame sensor has a bi-metal strip in it which opens and kills power to the ignitor.

With both the flame sensor and ignitor out of the circuit the coils yank open spring loaded valves and the raw gas ignites on the hot surface ignitor.

When the heat is about 160f in the drum (which takes no time) then power is removed from the gas assembly the heat goes off and the clothes tumble on till the temp inside the drum gets to 105f and then power is once more applied to the gas assembly. If the heat works some but quit those coils are getting hot and quiting.



Nothing is hard about repairing a good old GE dryer. I am including a video I found online a guy made on an older GE dryer; so that you can get an idea on fixing both older GE dryers and the newer ones.

That's all the smart pills I have for today.
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