Flouresent Light in Ge Americana Dryer

[geextrarinse]

Hi all! I recently came across 2 (!) Ge Versatronic Dryers in the same day! A Late 60's model and an Americana. Unfortunately neither were in a condition good enough to want to take home. The 60s model had a non rotating drum and no power cord and the Americana was rusted and the door was held shut with Duct tape. I did however salvage the consoles of course and I want to get the Lights to work. I would like to rewire the original fixtures and just runa cord out the bottom but there are sooooo many wires in there I just don't know where to begin - Im sure there are others of you on this list who have done it already - I know I've seen pics, but I need some advice. These will make nifty night lights in the laundry room and are saving the best part from these fun old machines.

Any advice will me much appreciated!

Thanks,
Matt

 

[geextrarinse]

close ups

versatronic

 

[geextrarinse]

and again

timer

 

[mayken4now]

Matt:

I have a Maytag A806 lighted control with a flourescent tube that I mounted in the entire console, with out disturbing the controls. When I want to turn it no, I just plug in the fixture. Got it at Home Depot.

Steve

 

[coldspot66]

Hey Matt,

The light circuit should be on one leg of the 220v ( 110v). Prolly a black wire and a white neutral wire. Trace the wires from the pins of the light sockets to the starter, then to wherever they end. You may have to turn the dial to a cycle when you want to put the light on. Am i making sense? A schematic diagram would help.

 

[geextrarinse]

well i'lltake a picture of the spaghetti...

i'm thinking that becauuse its a versatronic there are a million wires.
i did trace the wires - now does it need to go to the little relay or not?

 

[coldspot66]

That relay is, most likely, a small transformer in the light circuit. Does it have 2 spade terminals on top? Circuit should start at a black wire, then through the transformer and starter/ballast then to the neutral side (white wire)???? If I could find a schematic of an older GE dryer with a flourescent light, it would be clear as mud!!!! LOL

 

[Unimatic1140]

Hi Matt, that's going to be hard for us to help you determine how to wire this without a schematic. I believe the light comes on when you start the timer and there isn't a seperate switch on thess GE dryers. You only want to energize the light circuit only and to do that its going to involved four parts:

The Timer
The Ballast (transformer)
The Starter
The Bulb

Can you shoot some clear pictures of the wires going from the timer to the Ballast, starter and bulb sockets?

 

[geextrarinse]

uugh!

honestly there are so many switches and buttons that tie everything together i might just take the home depot route - but i'd like to at least try first - plus the wires here are red, black, yellow, and brown. And they don't go thru that pattern you described because some have double conectors and go to a switch or button b4 they go to the ballast or the starter - its all very odd - i'm pretty good with wiring but this reads like a labyrinth. sigh...

 

[bajaespuma]

I always wanted that dryer--it is/was one of the big drum models, yes?

Have a local friendly appliance repair person call the GE answer center with the model #. They usually fax schematics directly to them. They won't send schematics directly to consumers.

 

[Versatronic]

Hi

I would be willing to trade my versatronic dryer in a deal to get a nice matching 50's or early 60's washer/dryer set. I have pretty much given up on finding a match for the versatronic. I have a beautiful Maytag 641C Dryer and would love to find the matching washer. So if someone could hook me up with a match for that dryer, I could let go of the versatronic. Or, for a great matching washer/dryer set, I could let go of both dryers as part of the deal. The only caveat is that I'm not very handy with large appliances so I need the units to be in good working and cosmetic condition.

Please feel free to contact me if anybody wants to sell and/or trade. Thanks!