I’ve learned a lot about how my dryer operates, and it’s once again happily spinning and drying clothes.
I think the root cause was a bad bearing on the idler pulley. The idler pulley keeps tension on the belt, and the stuck pulley then put too much strain on the motor and burned it out. The belt broke during disassembly, but needed to be replaced anyway. I broke the blower wheel during disassembly, so that was the only “unnecessary” part of this repair. The dryer was also desperately in need of having the lint cleaned out from all its parts.
Had I maintained my dryer and cleaned the lint out and replaced the idler pulley and belt at the first sign of the drum not spinning easily, this repair would have been vastly easier and required only $20 in parts. Thanks @mayer for all your suggestions on this!
Success!
I’ve learned a lot about how my dryer operates, and it’s once again happily spinning and drying clothes.
I think the root cause was a bad bearing on the idler pulley. The idler pulley keeps tension on the belt, and the stuck pulley then put too much strain on the motor and burned it out. The belt broke during disassembly, but needed to be replaced anyway. I broke the blower wheel during disassembly, so that was the only “unnecessary” part of this repair. The dryer was also desperately in need of having the lint cleaned out from all its parts.
Idler pulley: [link|/W10837240 Bracket|https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0189H5EHE/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1] $7.15
Belt: [link|/661570|https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M75VU8W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1] $12.98
Motor: [link|/279827|https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DM8JA5S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1]$54.44 (was refurbished)
Blower Wheel: [link|/697772|https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0087Q08Z6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1]$30.98
My grand total: $105.55
Had I maintained my dryer and cleaned the lint out and replaced the idler pulley and belt at the first sign of the drum not spinning easily, this repair would have been vastly easier and required only $20 in parts. Thanks @mayer for all your suggestions on this!