Kenmore 90 Series Model 110 Clothes Dryer is squealing and making noise while running its cycle. Also - How to gain access to interior.

Is your Kenmore 90 Series Model 110 clothes dryer serranating you with a mild music of its own?  The sounds may be squeals, squeaks or just plain stupid noise.  "Stupid noise?"  Yeah, that's the kind when you'd rather have your dryer sitting outside in the yard as opposed to listening to the stupid noise it's making while running inside your residence.  lol

This is a solution which may remedy your issue.  These dryers contain four rubber rollers which the turning drum rotates on during its cycle.  Two are located at the rear of the housing and two are located at the front of the dryer housing.

To gain access to these wheels for a much needed lubrication the dryer will need to be dismantled.  Unfortunately, there are no quick fix solutions.  Do not let this scare you away however.  It is not as difficult as it may first appear.

First turn your breaker off in your electrical panel that feeds your dryer.  There should be an electrical schematic located on rear of the panel door which states which breaker or either the breakers may be labeled individually.   If you cannot find either, no worries, it should be a 30 amp, two pole breaker - flip those off or simply unplug the dryer...hey that's easy. 

Next after you are certain the power is off, you will need to remove the dryer filter, just go ahead and do this now because if you forget when you get really involved later on - it could possibly become damaged.

Next remove the two end caps on the control panel by easily popping them off.  May need a flat head screwdriver for this.  Just go easy, starting at the bottom edge.

Then after the covers have been removed, remove both screws.  Then, grab the control panel at each end, pull the entire control panel towards you about an inch to dislodge it from the top of the enclosure then flip it to the rear.  (Again)--> You will feel the control panel slide forward about an inch and then it will stop.  At this point flip it towards the rear.   It will remain in place if flipped far enough to the rear.  (see following pictures for clarity) 

Once you have the control panel flipped backwards and it is in place, remove the three screws attaching the rear panel to the enclosure.

Now after these three screws are removed you can simply slide the top portion of the enclosure towards you.  This will disengage it from some locking tabs on the front of the dryer.  Now just lift off.

Now to the bottom front of the dryer to remove the lower cover.

Insert a stiff putty knife along the top of the cover, approximately 3.5" - 4" from the end.  You are attempting to align your putty knife blade on top of the black locking devices (as seen in the picture above) and depress that locking device downward. (you may need a flashlight to peek into the crack between the covers)  There is one on each end. 

You do not necessarily have to press both of them down simultaneously.  Just press one closed and  pull that end towards you slightly as you do so.  It should remained unlocked on that 'one end'.  Now just do the same thing on the other end.  Cover will dislodge and come off after both are unlocked.

Then onto removing the dryer filter housing.  Make certain your filter has been removed from inside before attempting to remove this housing.  You will damage your filter if not.

BE CERTAIN ELECTRICITY IS TURNED OFF - BREAKER IS OFF AND/OR DRYER UNPLUGGED before attempting this next part.

 

To the right of the drum, reach alongside the element housing and remove the leads feeding the element itself, there are two.  Just look for one wire on each end that is being fed from the dryer's wiring harness.  You do not need to remove all the other connections (jumpers) that are located there on the element housing.  Just the two that are being fed from the dryer's wiring harness.  This is obvious, just look really well and you will see what I am talking about.


When removing the leads, use finesse and try not to wiggle the terminals excessively and with excessive force in either direction,  for you can damage the spade terminals on the thermostat and thermal cut-off if you do so.  Just use finesse - pull and wiggle cautiously and you should be able to get the two terminals off, which are feeding the element housing without damaging the spade terminals.  The male spade terminals are not overly fragile, its just worth noting this because some people may not be cognizant at the moment and just use excessive wiggling.

  

 

Now get you a 1/4" nut runner and remove the housing itself.  Remove the two screws attaching the foot of the housing to the bottom of the dryer's enclosure.   

Very carefully, so as to not to bend the terminals of the thermostat and thermal cut off against the side of the drum, twist the housing clockwise and pull it out of the rear exhaust duct seat.  It seats in there about 1/2" deep.  Dislodges very easily and re-installs just as easy.  No worries here.

 

Once the element housing has been removed then you can remove the belt that turns the drum.  Reach under the drum with your right hand.  It would be best to lie on your back and place your right arm under the drum.  Grab the tension pulley in the palm of your right hand as you hold the belt in the fingertips of your right hand.  Push the tension pulley towards the motor and remove the belt from the pulley on the motor shaft.  Very easily return the tension pulley to its position (its' under spring tension).

(installation is reverse order, its really easy if you sit the tension pulley into the palm of your right hand)

Now the belt has been removed, time to remove the drum.

 This front cover of the enclosure (cabinet) needs to be removed.  There are four screws total, one on all the corners.  Remove the ground wire located on the bottom right of the cover and disconnect the four wire leads located in the upper left corner of the cover.  Just remember what wires were disconnected from where.  Side note- you shouldn't accidentally get the wires crossed later when installing because of the memory left in the wire and the varying lengths, those two facets will aid in distinguishing their appropriate connection locations. 

 

Slide drum forward a little bit through the concave depressions in the side wall panels and slip the belt off the rear end of the drum.

 

After removal of the drum ensure you clean this rim really well where the drum rides.  Also, clean the drum and vacuum the felt gasket on both ends.

Clean all the way around this rim's entirety ensuring all grime, dirt and grease have been removed. 

 

The culprit of your noisy clothes dryer, these rollers which the dryer drum rolls around upon. You have two at the front end and two at the rear of the dryer.  They need to be removed, the pins cleaned and then lubed with some good light-medium weight lithium lubricant.

 

Be really careful with these cheaply made plastic, triangular retainers.  They can be removed very carefully with a pair of needle nose pliers, just take your time and go easy. I did not break any when removing mine, they seem to be a little ductile and may not break as easily as one may think, however use caution and ease and you should be fine.   

 

Clean up these wheel pins by removing all hair, grime, dirt and wiping them clean with a rag before applying a layer of some light-light/medium weight lithium lubricant to the pins.  Then reinstall your wheels and you are good to go.

 While you have the drum and all of the components removed:

1. vacuum the entire area inside the dryer
2. vacuum the exhaust duct out thoroughly leaving the fan blower housing
3. vacuum the interior of the fan blower housing, may want to vacuum from rear of the dryer through the length of the duct
4. vacuum motor but be careful not to nick the electrical wire windings inside the motor
5. lube the tension pulley shaft
6. check your belt for any signs of aging, wear and determine if it might need replacing or not.  If you do not see any signs of stress or dry-rot cracks, you should be fine to reinstall.

 

be careful when vacuuming the motor to ensure you do not nick or injure the electrical wiring of the windings inside the motor.

  

Lube this shaft here, (tension pulley)

Reinstall everything in reverse order:

1. install drum - make sure you place the belt over the drum before you seat the drum in its place.  Then  seat the drum around its rim and on the rollers in the rear
2. replace front cover - replace grounding wire, replace 4 wires in the front, upper left corner to their appropriate positions
3. now place on the right side of tension pulley, place tension pulley in the palm of your right hand, push the pulley towards the motor, using your fingers orient the belt around the motor shaft pulley and easily allow the spring loaded tension pulley to tighten up on the belt
4. the rest is simply replacing the parts as before mentioned.

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It takes hours to compose these tutorials that are not readily available anywhere else on the web that i could find, thus the reasoning behind my creating this blog - to help other do-it-yourselfers.