1957 GE Clothes Conditioning Dryer noise...

[turquoisedude]

Over the long Canada Day weekend, I decided to focus on finishing some vintage washer and dryer work, with a laundry room re-organization in mind.

Needless to say, I was anxious to get the 57 GE dryer back together with the 57 GE washer.

I hauled the dryer downstairs, re-installed it, tested it (note that), then completed my latest round of 'musical appliances'.

I ran a good-sized load of laundry throught the GE washer. What better to finish it than by drying it in the newly-repaired GE dryer, right? Wrong! After a few minutes into the cycle, the dryer developed this scraping sound...

post was last edited: 7/2/2019-11:34]

 

[turquoisedude]

I did a re-enactment of a scene from the British sitcom "Fawlty Towers" where Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) is frustrated with his stalling car and he raises a fist to the heavens and exclaims, "Oh, thank you God! Thank you so bloody much!" Sigh... I am guessing the blower fan is rubbing on the housing somewhere. I am further guessing that the motor may have slipped out of the mounting brackets just enough to cause the fan to rub on the front of the blower housing. Naturally, there was no such noise when I tested the motor and blower before and after putting the dang dryer back together. I am not looking forward to having to take it all apart again but I'm not ready to give up on this dryer. It is nonetheless very, very, very annoying. On a happier note, I still managed to dry a small load (just a couple of towels) in the dryer using the Automatic Dry setting. The towels smelled fresh and clean with no trace of the 'scorched' smell I had always noticed with this dryer and blamed myself for overdrying. And the new relay to the heater unit seems to be working fine. It's a good thing I am a GE devotee.... LOL

 

[pulltostart]

Paul,

Who cares if they work?  They are BEAUTIFUL together!

 

lawrence

 

[turquoisedude]

Guess what I did on the weekend?

Yep. Took the dryer apart for the 4th or 5th time now... And sure enough, the blower wheel had slipped.  I think I got it tight this time!

 

[turquoisedude]

Yeah, that sounds a whole heck of a lot better!! A laundry test should be coming this weekend. Damned sunny weather - discourages one from using the dryer... LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

So....

After exactly 2 loads, the blower scrape came back. I had the dryer apart again 2 weeks ago to investigate. The damned blower had slipped again!

 

[turquoisedude]

I took some of my own advice for a change and coated the set screws with Loc-Tite (like I did with the '59 Frigidaire).

I wanted to let the Loc-Tite cure properly, so I left the dryer alone.

I always do a three-step test with dryers for some reason (parnoia, OCD, whatever....). I test the machine with no heat, then timed drying, and then automatic drying.

First test - air dry/fluff or sprinkle - fail... The dryer was dead.

I was furious... I checked and rechecked the connections. One wire on the terminal block was loose (given the number of times the machine has been pulled out and dismantled, this is almost to be expected). This time around, the dryer was getting power, so I tried the air dry test. It passed this time, the blower seemed good and solid!

Second test - timed dry - pass!! The dryer heated up, blower seemed to stay put for the entire 20 minutes.

Now this is where I'd try the automatic cycle - I didn't due to time contraints. I _ASSUMED_ everything was peachy keen. Nope. I threw a load of permanent press shirts into the dryer yesterday and set the dryer for auto dry. After half an hour, I had a pile of 10 soggy shirts. GGGGGRRRRR!!

I didn't do any diagnosis as it was getting late in the day yesterday, but this morning over coffee, I pored over the service manual for clues. Based on what I read, I can't help but think that I've got a bad connection somewhere, possibly one of the half-dozen connections on the dryer door for the thermostat and compensating resistor. Per the dryer's electrical schematic, the timed dry cycle bypasses the compensating resistor, so this kinda makes sense.

So, the GE is going to be dismantled for the 6th time since I started this whole ordeal. Fingers crossed that all I have is loose wire!!