Done!
All the parts arrived yesterday for this dryer. I bought the overhaul kit which included the felts, rear bearing, new idler arm & belt for about 60% of buying the parts individually. Total parts cost $77.00.
What happened with this dryer is the nylon bearing around the drum of the machine disintegrated on the left side (there are two pieces, left and right). I mean the entire bearing was gone with no trace of it anywhere. The right side bearing was scratched, but it still looked serviceable and held steady. The felt that the drum rides on was totally torn up. So we glued on new upper & lower felt and let it sit while we replaced the idler pulley assembly.
So with the drum removed we attacked the machine with a Miele vac. There were some large gobs of lint & dust everywhere, especially around the burner box(gas dryer) and the motor was completely covered in lint. So we vacuumed out everything. Surprisingly the lint was light and fluffy and not sticky at all even though I spied what must have been a 5 gallon dispenser jug of Downy on the shelf above the washer. This alone took about an hour. But the machine looked like new when we were done. After all parts including a new belt were installed we reassembled the machine. We checked the ductwork for lint. It was that cheap plastic variety and the round clip that was holding it to the dryer was so weak that you could squeeze it with your fingers. I told the guy what a hazard that type of plastic ductwork is, but he said he'll replace it later. We just took it outside and blew out the lint, of which there was only a small amount. Then we used a leaf blower on the ductwork in the wall so it too was clear.
Finally after we reassembled the we discovered that the wires to the automatic dry bars were cut. Probably damaged during the initial failure. So we repaired those, cleaned the bars with vinegar and rinsed with water and dryed them off.
When we were finished with reassembly, we turned the dryer on. It was really quiet. The owner said that the dryer wasn't that quiet even when he got it brand new. It was even much quieter than our Whirlpool dryer.
All in all this dryer took about 2.5 hours to overhaul. But it should last another 8 years or so hopefully. All the parts used were Electrolux parts.
I actually had fun doing this repair.
But still, this dryer almost was sent to the scrap heap thanks to Sears service!
