JCB2388ARQ Jenn-Air Refrigerator - Instructions

First I removed the 14.3 tons of freezer contents, closed the water valve, shut off the juice, and removed the freezer bins, the freezer door and the three screws that held the element in place. After bringing in 397 hand tools from my garage inventory, I loosened the unit and, after extensive evaluation, I finally disconnected the wiring connector from its freezer rear wall connector counterpart. You ain't gonna believe the rest of my story--of total ineptitude by an experienced fix-it-yourself dummy.

I searched the internet for a replacement ice maker and found it at partselect.com. I called Sears to ask if I could add my refrigerator to my existing appliance repair account. Sears said sure--it would cost me only one arm, three toes and one grandchild. I abruptly declined their magnanimous offer—I don’t give up my arms and toes so easily.

I visited the local Maytag repair parts and service retailer, who advised they didn't do parts anymore. Expecting their repair price would be greater than Sears, I resorted to partselect.com. I called them to be assured what I was buying was not mistakenly a 747 Landing Gear. On the afternoon (West Coast) of 4/28/10, I ordered (via internet) one PS21215123 Ice Maker Assy. Much to my pleasant surprise, it arrived via FedEX on 4/30/10 (no freight charges to me).

My repair/replacement efforts were hampered by the effects of my right rotator cuff surgery a few months before and major left wrist surgery two months ago to remove fractured bones and torn ligaments.

Undaunted by my physical handicaps, I forged forward. After re-installing the unit, I turned the water supply and electricity back on. It was graveyard dead. I wisely then bought two bags of ice as an interim solution to the severe needs of my wife and me for our daily chilled evening cocktails. I removed the unit, checked it out and re-installed it. I bought two more bags of ice. All the while, I turned the water and electricity off and on as required by reasonable safety standards. High tediousness!

Several more home maintenance tasks then arose for Sergeant Super Fixer, but I returned to the ice maker problem on 4/8/10. Last chance--remove the device and insure there was no frozen ice in the inlet tube--or call the local partsless repairman. No ice found, but I did learn the wiring connector to the unit was awry--no contact! While explaining that to my wife, I realized the two upper mounting screws were intended to be partially installed into the freezer wall to accommodate the unit's slotted mounting holes! Then, tighten the screws. Oh my God! During my 143 installations and removals, I had installed those screws blindly--using the (handicapped) skills of my right and left hands without any benefit of direct eyesight.

I returned to my challenging project this morning (4/9/10), fully utilizing all the expertise I had gained yesterday. Fifteen minutes of amusing effort! Turn on the juice! Turn on the water!Two hours later, ice cubes were dropping into the bin like rhinoceros bisquits in the jungle.

Hallelujah! I now am free for the next challenge!

HINT: Put a bed pillow (an old one, or your wife's) in the freezer compartment to soften the harshness of its cold metal on your back, if you use the "crawl in on your back" approach.

An easy job for smaller hands. Removed the two bolts holding the light cover. Removed two electrical connections from the old switch by pinching the retaining clip,removed the switch, snapped in the new one and re-attached the connectors. Your online illustrations helped me to know that the plastic housing for the light switch would only swing down so far and was not intended to be removed. Saved me from breaking that plastic cover's tabs. This home repair saved me more than 5 times the cost of hiring a professional to do it. Very happy homeowner.

rmv panel (5min) rmv fan/motor 3 screws (10 m) cut wire 2in from motor, re route remainder of wire to front so can strip for wire nuts. ( 10m) attach old fan to new motor, place in old opening ,3 screws, a little fussy to align, ( 15m ) route and strip wire from new motor , zip ties work well, wire nuts , plug in fridge vola, no noise, close up, reverse panel. ( 20m). i also took time to clean grilles with small vac and damp rag, ( looks and sounds like new) bob Wi.

The tiny piece of plastic that holds the wire that shuts off the icemaker, broke early on with our fridge (after just a few months.) We superglued it, but last week it bit the dust for good.

Once I got this part, I removed the freezer door and trays, and pulled the icemaker out by removing 3 flathead screws and unplugging the cables. Laying in the freezer on the floor was a bit unconfortable, but not too bad.

Then I inspected the icemaker. There was no obvious way to remove the part without disassembling the front of the unit (where the motor is) to release the spindle and free the part, so I did that - 3 or 4 nuts was all that held it together. Once that was out, I removed the spindle, swapped out the part, and put it all back together and back in the freezer. Plugged it in and waited.

It took a while to start making ice. Like 5 hours. Now it's going pretty slow (much slower than before.) Haven't had time to look into it, but my suspicion is the rubber hose that feeds water into the icemaker is blocked with ice or kinked. In any case, we have ice now (but not a lot), and the unit shuts itself off properly. However, we went from having too much ice (thing never shut off) to too little (thing makes ice too slow), so I need to shoot for somewhere in the middle ;)

After removing all shelves, I removed the 2 screws holding the 2 panels in front of the evaporator and heater. The heater is located at the bottom of the evaporator coils and is held on by a simple wire clip. After removing the heater and thermostat, is very easy to replace the new unit and reconnect the wire harness.

Once I saw the replacement part I understood how to pry out the switch with a small screwdriver. Then just unplug the old one, plug in the new one and pop it into place.

The PartSelect site made it easy to correctly identify the correct part, it was inexpensive, and the shipping was fast.

I'm very pleased!

I first dropped the Cover Assy, which covers lites and controls, this was done by pulling it forward and it drops down, did not remove top shelf so It was a bit difficult to tilt cover assy. for removal. There is a srew located close to filter assy. in back use nut driver 1/4"located to remove this screw, there are then 2 screws located to the rear and side of light holders, both phillips head, the one on the left side is a bit tricky to remove but I use a thin bladed scredriver, Next there are 2 screws located on both ends od the slides that control temp, both again removed witn1/4 " nut driver, the whole upper assy drops down and forward the Adeptive Defrost assy is located in the back right corner of this assy, unplug the wires and unit snaps out, I foud it easier to pop off top cover of new unit so I could see connector assy when I reattached the wires, then replaced the top assy and snapped new unit it place, Reassymbly was reverse of removal, before placing cover assy back in place I replaced both lamps as 1 was out .

My husband replaced the condenser fan. It took awhile and a few choice words but he got it replaced. The fan seemed to work fine, but it still wasn't cooling. I noticed that when we had the fridge unplugged that water started draining out the dials at the top of the fridge under the freezer. And there was absolutely no water at all in the drip pan under the fridge. So I took the doors off and totally took the inside of the freezer apart. I discovered that the styrofoam on the floor of the freezer had become inudated with fluid and the under the foam the coils were all frozen solid with ice. Hence not allowing any drainage. I put a lamp in the freezer area and defrosted all the ice. In searching the internet i discovered that they no longer produce the foam so i went to home depot and got a piece of foam and aluminum foil and cut it to replace the ruined foam. I put the fridge all back together said a prayer and crossed my fingers and lo and behold it works perfectly now!!!!

Remove the back hardboard cover screws for access to the condenser fan. I opted to tip the fridge over on its side for even better access to the fan mounts and wire. Replaced the fan assy (reused the fan). Splice the wire and it's done.

First I removed the Ice bin, I then loosened the ice bin rail under the ice maker and removed the screw that attached the bottom of the ice maker to the side of the fridge. I unplugged the power to Ice Maker from the back of the fridge and unscreewed the two screws that secured the ice maker to the fridge. This allowed the Ice Maker to be removed from the fridge. To replace the new ice maker I simply repeated the steps in reverse.

I saw on a partselect web site that these symptoms could be caused by a failed condensor fan motor. After removing the cardboard panel in back of the refrigerator I noticed the fan was not running when the rfigerator was. The fan was held in place by three brackets. I unscrewed the screws holding the fan motor to the brackets and also unscrewed one of the brackets to make room to pull the motor out. I cut the wires close to the motor. I removed the fan blade and secured it to the new motor. I had to reroute the old wires in order to have enough slack to use wire nuts to attach them to the leads on the new motor. I then re-attached the motor to the two brackets remaining in place and then re-attacehed the third bracket I had removed to get the motor out.. The most difficult part was working in a very confined space.

The adaptive defrost assembly is located in the refrig compartment. This requires removing the panel which covers the temp controls and interior lighting. In the back right hand corner is the adaptive defrost circuit board. It has a six wire connector and is retained by two screws.

Remove the two screws and grip the connector making sure to disengage the locking tab with holds the connector in place.

Replace with the new assembly by plugging in the connector, replacing the two screws and then reinstalling the compartment cover.

Set the temperature lower than you normally would temporarily to make sure that the system is working properly (takes 30 - 45 minutes).

Once the unit begins to cool again, you can gradually readjust the temperature to it normal range in both the freezer and refrig compartments.

I used a flashlight and a mirror to check the coil in the freezer compartment for a couple of days to make sure that the defrost function was working correctly by looking up into the louvers and observing if there was any ice accumulation.

Easy repair and Partselect provided great on-line information. Also, I probably saved a bundle.

Philips head screwdriver and ten minutes was all it took! I removed the two screws that hold the icemaker assembly in place, then pulled it out a little and disconnected the electrical plug freeing the icemaker assembly. Then I snapped the external parts off my old icemaker assembly and snapped them on the new icemaker assembly. Installing the new icemaker assembly was just as fast and easy. I snapped the electrical plug into the new icemaker assembly, then screwed in the two screws. It was making ice shortly thereafter. Glob free ice! I'm glad I didn't call a repairman. I probably saved a hundred bucks. A ten year old could accomplish this simple and easy task. No wonder the Maytag repairman has time on his hands.

After moving the refrigerator away from the wall I removed the cover on the lower back of the unit by removing the screws that held it in place. The condenser fan was not turning and there was heat build up in the area causing the refrigerator to not work properly creating elevated temperatures in both the freezer and regrigerator. Removal of three torx screws from the original motor was all it took to get the motor free. By turining it and working the fan blade around the mounting bracket I had the motor out in just a few minutes. Replacing the new motor was just as easy to reinstall. The fan was removed from the old motor and placed on the new for installation. The original motor was wired to accept a connector from the wiring harness of the refrigerator. I simply cut the connector off the wiring harness and stripped the insulation from the wires which easily allowed me to connet the wires of the motor and harness with two wire nuts. Three self tapping screws were used to hold the motor in place replacing the torx screws. Installed I plugged the unit in and immediately the fan started spinning as the unit came to life. Cleaned and replaced the cover over the back and slid back into its spot. Running as good as it did when it was new. Easy job to take care of.

I was about to waste $1000 on buying a Refrigerator. Took 1 mins to search on google "Refrigerator doesn't work". Found a video on youtube, showed a step and step video to solve my problem. Order the part $50 and it took me less then 5 mins to install it. =)