Ge WE25M40 Dryer Rear Drum Bearing Kit OEM Part

Repair went well, replaced the pulley wheel, belt, rear drum bearing. Had an issue after replacement with the dryer stopping after ~5mins or so when running with heat. Fluff cycle would run fine. Details: The lock nut on the pulley wheel didn't feel tight enough so i tried to crimp it back on the pulley arm. It then became way too lose. I had to replace it with a plastic washer I had in my toolkit. That fit snug and seems to work fine. I also added some grease to the pulley shaft under the wheel. After reinstalling their was no noise, but when running on heat the dryer would stop after 5 mins and not restart for a while. i could hear the motor slow down for a couple turns and then stop. running on 'fluff' would not shut off. my first thought was that i had either damaged a sensor, a wire wasnt connected properly or something wasn't installed correctly. After some research i thought it was the cycling thermostat, the most common cause was too much lint, blocking air flow. I had vacuumed the inside of the dryer when replacing the parts. I checked all wiring, removed the thermostat and cleaned it. Tested it with a multimeter (cool) on low ohms, went to =0. I heated the thermostat over an open flame (gas stove) and heard it click, ohms went very high.. When replacing the front panel, the inside large plastic vent/plastic insert (with light at top/vent at bottom) wasn't installed correctly. I reinstalled the thermostat and the dryer front door plastic insert correctly and the dryer is functioning properly. I did not add grease to the rear drum bearing, I may add after the fact.

Watched video online for learning. Unplugged dryer and moved out a bit for easier access. I also vacuumed out the dryer as I was working on it. Removed two screws that secured top. Opened top and removed two screws securing front panel. Removed front door panel and disconnected wires. Released drum belt from idler pulley. Pulled drum from machine using belt to lift on drum. Removed screws from inside drum guard to release old shaft. Wrench with screw driver bit was using to get enough torque to loosen the screws. After vacuuming out the area, installed drum guard with new shaft. In dryer, disconnected wires to the electric heater spring pan. Removed the electric heater spring pan. Removed the old bearing mount. Vacuumed area. Installed the new bearing mount. Attached the electric heater spring pan back to dryer body. Reconnected wires onto heating element terminals. Placed drum back into dryer using belt to lift on drum. Several attempts were made before successfully lining up shaft with bearing to the bearing mount. Success was obtained by placing the bearing into the bearing mount instead of having the bearing on the shaft. Made sure the belt was correctly aligned with no twists. Returned the belt onto the idler pulley. Spun drum to double check for twists and binding. Replaced front bearing and felt on door. Vacuumed out dryer vent pipe. Reconnected wires going to the door. Replaced front door panel on machine. The drum will need lifted up to insert the front bearing section. Checked drum rotation again for free movement. Replaced the two screws securing the front panel. Replaced the two screws securing the top. Moved back into position and plugged in dryer. Tested with small load for heating and quiet operation. Thank you for the video!

First I moved the dryer out of its niche so I could easily get to the front and back. Then I removed screws holding the top to the front panel, having taken a photo of the wiring harness wires to the door light and switch and removing enough wires that I could prop the top up by laying it backward and leaning it on a nearby shelf. (I would not have just let the top hang.) Then I loosened the two screws on the bottom of the front panel and removed the two backward-facing screws on the upper inboard side to the left and the right. The front panel then swiveled to the right and leaned against the dryer. I took the time to remove the light to vacuum its socket and the chamber that holds the lint screen. On the backside, I removed the covers for the power cord, & the center bearing. I took off the power cord and the grounding strap for the bearing then removed the lower back access panel. I pulled the tensioner pulley in to remove the belt from around it and the motor pulley. (I did not take a picture of the belt, but recommend that for first-timers, because it's not always obvious how it goes.) Once the belt was loose I lifted out the drum pulling it with moderate difficulty through the front. Then I thoroughly inspected the heater coils and all the harness wires. I vacuumed out all the surfaces and the exhaust tube. Had it been really linty I would have opened and vacuumed out the impeller housing on the front of the motor. I replaced the glides on the front of the door (2 screws each on mine) and checked the felt ring around the drum. I found where a wire had rubbed against the frame until the insulation failed, which caused a short circuit and tripped the breaker. I took out 4 bolts to remove the bearing sleeve guide (rectangular) and its worn bushing. This was in the center of the heater coil panel. I took 3 screws out of the inside of the drum to remove the mandrel and that drum rotates on. It took two people to put the new one on, and it helps to mark the screw holes. Mine had 5 possible holes for 3 screws, and would only go on one way. Figure it out first. I could not find directions about greasing the center bearing, so I used white lithium grease. When I was throwing stuff out, I found two small tubes of grease in the packaging. The directions with the bearing were so badly translated that it was humorous. But don't be put off, it's not hard. If your old bearing was secured in the back with a C clamp, rejoice like I did that the new one has the bushing pre-installed and locked on with a pressure ring. A friend had replaced the center bearing about 5 years ago, and not replace the glides. That was a mistake. He did not level the dryer, so it leaned forward, that was a mistake. replace the glides and label your dryer left and right, and front to back. It's easy to tilt the dryer and turn the legs, then recheck the level. Re-assembly was the reverse of assembly. I observed that the side panel and top panels have metal tabs and slots to aid alignment. Sometimes I had to lean on the dryer to get everything to line up. It will. I did clean around the dryer's niche and vacuumed out the flexible exhaust tube. It runs like a dream! This took me 2+ hours, but I was working on a porch in over 95-degree weather with much humidity, so I took many cool down breaks. It was worth it. The "other" tools were a wire cutter/stripper to cut and splice the frayed wire, and a smartphone for taking pictures.

We disassembled the dryer and found three obvious things that needed fixing. The felt seal was wadded up and out of its track and old, the tension pulley was worn out and one edge missing and the rear bearing sleeve was worn thin and broken off inside the bearing race. The video's on appliancepartspros.com showing how to replace the parts was great. We had it half taken apart before we found this site but it helped a lot in reassembly. The parts we received were high quality parts as well. The only problems we struggled with were threading the holes in the parts that did not have threads already cut for the screws, trying to sandwich all the pieces together to install the rear bearing, and removing the keeper nut that's pushed onto the tension pulley shaft. (Keeps the pulley from coming off). The video makes it look easy but we had a hard time lining things up in our dryer drum. The chrome plate that goes inside the dryer drum with the outside bearing part. The video showed the tech using a nut driver to thread the screws into the parts but the screws provided were philips pan head screws. Be careful you don't jab a hole in your palm trying to put those screws in the first time. Make SURE you thread the screws in perfectly straight or you'll have a nightmare trying to get them started when you put the parts together later. Get your vacuum with hose attachment ready, now's the perfect time to completely clean all the lint out from around everything and prevent a fire. We used 2 sizes of philips screw drivers (medium and large), a medium flat screw driver, a torx driver, needle nosed plyers, rag, vacuum and a few drops of oil. They don't tell you to do this and some may say it's not a good idea but I put about three drops of oil on the tension pulley shaft to prevent wear on the pulley (it's plastic on metal). I also did the same with the plastic rear bearing sleeve (between the sleeve and the shaft the sleeve is permanently mounted on). Without that, I don't see how this would ever keep from wearing out the plastic. If you do the same, just use it sparingly on the rear bearing sleeve and don't get any on the heating coils. Any small amount of plastic-safe oil or light grease would go a long way to prevent you having to replace these parts again.

A thumping sound (like sneakers in the dryer) started happening. We stopped using it so that it wouldn't get worse and potentially break more parts. Online research suggested rear drive shaft would be the problem. But also suggested while we have the dryer apart, would be smart to replace the belt and the slides/glides (green and white plastic tabs in front, attached to the door). We ordered all the parts from AppliancePartsPros.com and they arrived FAST. It helps to have two people for this repair. The videos are really great. The hardest part to do is to uninstall and re-install the belt because it's all underneath the drum in a tight space that is hard to see. Study the video carefully to understand how the belt should be threaded and how to move the pully arm. If you don't, you may have a problem with the motor switch. This is a part that is against the pulley arm/tensioner. If it doesn't engage properly or if you damage it, the dryer won't run. This happened to us. When we reconnected everything the dryer would start briefly, but it wouldn't continue unless holding the start button down. We had to look up another video about that problem (found on another site) and learned about the switch. Had to take the drum back out, fiddle with the pully arm and get it reinstalled exactly right. Then, the repair was a success. Luckily we did not break the switch, it was just not aligned. So the repair took much longer than expected. But the steps are generally easy to follow and the tools are simple.