Dadoes.....thanks for the response.

Hmmmm.....not sure if I want to tackle this repair myself. I think I can do it, but not sure if I can find the time in the near future to do the job....

I am going to call my local Fisher and Paykel dealer where I purchased the dryer to get a quote on a repair.

Question for you dadoes:
If I have the dealer do the repair, what other repairs/maintenance would you suggest I have done while the machine is torn down?
I figure if I have the dealer do the repair, might as well have them do some other maintenance to get the most bang for the buck...

Thanks.
mm

There isn't much tear-down required for the drum bearing, assuming all goes as it should. Raise the top and remove the front panel ... other than dealing with the bearing assembly itself. Some instruction details are included with the bearing kit and I can answer questions and/or provide a full service manual (but need an e-mail addy for delivery).

IF you want to investigate further with a complete tear-down ... I recommend pulling the chassis from the cabinet for access to remove the left-side panel to examine/clear the air outlet duct of any lint accumulation, check the filter ring for tears, clean any lint accumulation from the cabinet interior, and check the heating elements (if your unit is electric).

Reason I got into mine is it had been throwing an airflow obstruction (beeping with Auto Sense light flashing, Fault Code 16 in Diagnostics). I had been getting around it by running everything on low temp. I found upon examination (as expected) a large impacted lint accumulation in the outlet duct, and also one of the elements was bad (which seems at odds with the Fault 16 overheat situation ... but there you have it).

Dadoes -

I think I'm gonna call around to get a few estimates from the local Fisher and Paykel authorized service centers.....
If the estimates are astronomical, I may give it a go myself.
Otherwise, in the interest of time, I may let the experts handle this one.

I recently changed the lint filter ring myself. Mine had a tear.
While doing that, I cleaned out a good amount of lint in the area.

Thank you.
mm

Well, I called a couple authorized Fisher and Paykel dealers in the area.
Both quoted about $300 to repair the drum bearing.
Both also said that there wasn't much else to do as far as preventative maintenance repair. They did mention cleaning{{gwi:807}} out all the lint that may have accumulated.
One place did mention some sort of pulleys (??) that sometimes need replacing. Other than that and the drum bearing, he said, they don't get a lot of repair calls for them.

Dadoes - what are the part numbers I need to do this job myself?
I may give it a go and if I get stuck, then call in the pros

As always....thanks for the help dadoes.
I edited my profile to allow for emails.....

mm

This post was edited by mrmichaeljmoore on Fri, Jan 2, 15 at 11:21

The pulleys to which your service people refer is the belt idler/tension "jockey" assembly that I mentioned in the first reply. The replacement kit involves two pulleys, pulley shafts, and a couple nylon washers (four are needed, reuse the best two of the originals if necessary). The yoke and spring are separate pieces and not replaced with the pulley kit. The inner chassis must be removed from the cabinet for access to the assembly.

Properly clearing a lint clog such as I had (in the airflow exhaust housing *below* the filter also requires pulling the chassis, and removing the left-side chassis panel (the exhaust housing mounts to the panel).

Bearing Kit
P/N 479332

Jockey Pulleys Kit
P/N 395579

FisherPaykelParts.com (LetsTalkParts.com) usually has best prices ... but always good to check several sources.

Never mind!!!! Got the shaft bolt loose.....

---------------

Everything was going swimmingly until I got to the shaft bolt removal.
It seems that the shoulders on the shaft are worn away on one side.
So the socket is having trouble getting a grip on it to loosen it.

My bearing assembly was pretty much destroyed. I'll post pictures later.
The retainer clip had began to fall apart.
Lots of metal shavings....

Are there any other tricks to getting out this shaft bolt?

What about a pair of vise grips on the shaft then trying to spin it work it loose?

mm

This post was edited by mrmichaeljmoore on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 14:06

Having trouble tilting the chassis forward.....

As I tilt it forward, I heard all sorts of sheet metal popping sounds.
I stopped and put the chassis back down.

I had my wife pull the chassis forward slowly while I watched underneath the front of the dryer, and it seemed like there were parts all in the way of each other as I titlted forward. So we out the chassis back down.

I just hope I didn't damage anything.

I may just try and hold the carriage bolt the way the guy did in the video, by sliding my arm down the side

mm

Well I dropped the bearing housing and the inlet drum bearing....so naturally they came apart. I know.......I'm an idiot......

You stated clearly that their orientation is important....how do I know if they are orientated correctly before I put it onto the shaft?

mm

This post was edited by mrmichaeljmoore on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 16:02

Well, when I pulled the chassis forward and heard the sheet metal popping, I must have caught the sheetmmetal heat shield on top of the heating elements and bent it. When I put it all together the tub was hitting it as it tumbled.

So I took off the front panel and removed the heater box assembly (2 screws), then removed the shield, bent it back, reassembled and it the tub rolls fine now.
One thing I noticed though is that the heater isn't sealed to the duct on the right side of the machine. It just sort of sits against it. It's not an air tight fit by any means.... I thought that was weird.

So......in conclusion, a few issues/thoughts:

1. The bearing retainer didn't like to lay flat against the bearing housing. So, the retainer screws pulled it flush and tight. Not sure if that's the way it is supposed to be. I kinda figured the bearing retainer would have laid flat and flush against the bearing housing but it didn't.

2. One of the 5 retainer screws didn't tighten down. It would get tight, then one more turn it would loosen.....kinda like the hole was stripped. So I made it as tight as possible before it loosened. Hopefully, it holds.

3. I hope I orientated the drum bearing correctly. After it fell out of the bearing housing, I put the side of the drum bearing with the grease back into the bearing housing. Hopefully, that was correct.
And, hopefully I didn't remove too much of the bearing grease fumbling with it to compromise the life of the bearing.

4. I really had to lift up quite a bit on the drum to seat the drum bearing. The shaft wasn't even close to center before I pulled up on it to seat the drum bearing.

5. Machine is about 9 years old. The original drum bearing was shot. The bearing retainer was falling apart.

So, if the bearing lasts a year or more, I guess I'm in the good about $200+. The part was $85 at my local dealer. They wanted $300 to do the work.
If it fails again, at least I have a better idea of how to replace it.

And, as always, I appreciate your assistance dadoes. Thank you.

mm

Hmm. Can't say what's the deal with the trouble you had tilting the chassis forward. Shouldn't be anything clashing internally ... unless maybe the wiring harness to the motor (which is at the right/rear) got hung on the heater box. The motor control board is in the brown box at the lower left, the motor harness has to be disconnected from it to fully remove the chassis from the cabinet, and maybe also depending on how far forward it's tilted.

Did you get the service manual I sent to you?

What I had to do when the cap screw wouldn't come out is pull the chassis completely. Unscrew the shaft from the carriage bolt (by way of the too-tight cap screw) enough to push the square shoulders of the carriage bolt clear of the side panel so I could unscrew it from the backside of the shaft. Then remove the side panel to get the shaft loose from the cap screw. Or something like that. Difficult to visualize in my head.

I pretty much fully disassembled the machine to examine everything, clear the lint clog and clean whatever lint accumulation was in other areas.

Parts changed:
[required] broken 1.6KW element
[required] filter ring, had a tear
[optional] right-side drum bearing
[optional] left-side drum bearings
[optional] jockey pulleys
[optional] lint bucket grill
[optional] lint scraper

My drum bearing was not significantly worn compared to the replacement. I changed it since I had the machine apart.

I had no reference as to the original thickness of the left-side ceramic drum bearings for wear determination so bought a set for comparison. Mine weren't worn but I changed them anyway.

I had the jockey pulley kit on-hand for *4-1/2* years from when it was squealing a little for a few months but then quit before getting to the point of crisis. Probably could have gotten by with cleaning the pulleys/shafts and lightly oiling but I changed it since I had the kit on-hand.

This is the 2nd replacement of the filter ring due to small tears. This replacement seems to be of a different, stronger material.

The lint bucket grill has been redesigned with a smooth back (instead of ridges around the perforations) to reduce accumulation of lint behind it. Don't know how much effect that has, a year has passed now so I need to have a look-see.

I added some foil duct tape to better seal a couple connection seams in the exhaust path.

I also noticed what you saw about the heater box interfacing to the inlet duct but there's no reasonable way to retrofit something to correct it ... the interface must be able to separate for removal of the chassis, and any material added would need to tolerate high temperatures.

This is my original bearing (9 years 3 months). You can see how my Allen wrench got twisted trying to loosen the cap screw, at which point the shaft went to unscrewing from the carriage bolt.

Not sure why the chassis was grabbing, but it did get that heat shield and bend it a bit.
Oh well, it was an easy fix to bend the sheet metal back.

I did get the service manual you sent me. Thank you for sending it.
To be honest, I only glanced at it a few times while I was doing the bearing repair.
I relied mainly on the videos.
I will print it out and keep it for future reference.

Attached is a picture of the broken retainer clip. It ltierally fell apart.
Also attached is a picture of the old shaft bearing bolt before I removed it (and after having wiped all of the grease and gunk off of it). The bolt didnt look too bad.
I wonder why your bearing assembly was in such good shape after 9 years but mine was all but destoyed after the same amount of time......

Here's the retainer photo.
It shows what fell out when taking off the outer cover, before unscrewing the 5 retainer screws.

I tried to remove the inlet cap screw but it would not come out. The center of the screw stripped out ( where you put the Allen wrench). Any suggestions for removing the stripped screw to change the bearing?

The only other access is by pulling the chassis out of the cabinet to get at the bearing shaft and back of the carriage bolt on the exterior of the side panel. In my case the bearing shaft (with the cap screw attached) started unscrewing from the carriage bolt. However, the bearing shaft will not pass through the bearing and retainer so is impossible to disassemble that way.

However, the carriage bolt (which is not included in the bearing kit) cannot be unscrewed from the back due to having a square neck, until the neck clears the square hole in the side panel. I managed to unscrew the bearing shaft enough to push the carriage bolt out enough to clear the square hole, then clamped vise grips onto the round head of the carriage bolt to finish unscrewing it off the bearing shaft. Then I removed the chassis side panel to unscrew the bearing shaft from the cap screw, which released the cap screw and bearing cover.

Your case is more difficult if the bearing shaft is not unscrewing from the carriage bolt. The bearing shaft is hex behind the drum but I can't say if there's room to get a wrench down in there to unscrew it.

Recognize thus post is 5-6 years old, but what type of grease is used to lube the bearing on these fisher Paykel top loaders?

The drum bearing is factory-lubricated and is not otherwise supposed to be greased or oiled. The bearing is in the incoming hot-air stream so the lubricant involved must withstand the heat without melting or vaporizing.

That being said, I have applied a very scant amount of turbine oil in one instance ... a drop of oil on my finger, applied to the shaft surface, and the excess wiped off with another finger. A bearing I replaced in 2018 (different dryer, not the one pictured above) developed a creaking noise that manifested when cold at the start of load. It settled down 10 mins or so into the cycle after heating up but I figured the bit of extra friction at the start isn't healthy for the long-term. The bit of oil solved that issue.

The bearing I purchased is not a factory purchase since all of the shops I looked at were out of stock. It is just the bearing, it the complete bearing kit, so I am concerned about lubrication. I will try a drop of turbine oil

How's it going with that black (non-OEM) bearing? I purchased the same one (two pieces, black, from eBay). It lasted exactly four loads until the spherical bearing seized on the shaft.

Next, the bearing housing started rotating around the sphere, making a horrible racket in the process.

Disassembly after this failure was a nightmare: I Managed to unscrew the seized-together assembly (shaft, flange, spherical bearing) from the carriage bolt by grabbing onto the sphere with locking pliers. Then I attacked the back side of the shaft with a grinder until the wrench flats fell away and I was able to recover the flange (pictured above the twisted Allen wrench previously in this thread) from between these seized black parts.

Finally, because I was curious, I pressed the remaining shaft out of the spherical bearing using a hydraulic press. Some of the (black oxide?) coating wore away while it was operating correctly. Nothing about the surface of the shaft looked terrible.

The seller was quick to suggest I hadn't lubricated the parts (the installation sheet says to use "high heat grease", but I did; I'd put a smear of Lucas #10301 prior to assembly. Then the seller quickly refunded my purchase without additional comment.

So, I'm not sure what to think. Maybe I was unlucky? Maybe the non-OEM parts are garbage? Other than helping a bit with initial wear-in, I can't fathom that any lubricant is expected to survive in this application.

I've had two of these dryers. The first one (electric) handled ~5000 loads without this bearing needing to be replaced. The second one (propane) has failed after less than 1000 loads.

Short term plan: I'm going to scavenge the used bearing out of the electric dryer.

Well, the replacement kit was out of stock everywhere, so I also bought the 2 parts from EBAY, and just had the same experience as Kyle......The shaft and bearing seized and spun themselves off the carriage bolt. Now the carriage bolt is out completely, and I believe the spacer is what I heard dropping. Today I see that I could now buy the entire replacement kit, but I have no idea what to do about the spacer. Any suggestions for someone new to repairs like this?

Have to further disassemble the machine to fetch the spacer from where it fell.

Those substitute bearing parts are apparently low quality.

I also used the aftermarket bearing kit b/c there was no oem stock. It was a life saver but found it was seizing even though greased, so i remove it and sanded down the shaft to increase clareance with bearing, regreased and it worked well. Other parts were damaged previously though so i ordered oem kit the other day.

Hello, I am struggling with the spherical bearing that is completely seized onto the shaft. Same as mentioned above, I used a replacement bearing from Amazon and after two loads, it wreaked havoc. I now have no way of separating the bearing from the shaft, even though I've got my dryer completely disassembled. Any advice would be helpful!

That aftermarket substitution bearing apparently is not of good quality.

Per the post above on Aug 24, 2020 from Jrd Oley, it also apparently isn't lubricated.

My only suggestion is get a genuine F&P bearing kit, which includes all the various components to fix it properly (including the shaft). It has gotten expen$ive but seems that's the only choice for a proper and lasting repair.

Google the part number 479332. Seems it's available at a few online parts sources, and (currently) is on Amazon.

F&P also sells parts directly (check their website, under "Help & Support" then "Spare Parts" ... I've bought items from there in the past ... although the parts site is currently down for maintenance. Call them at 888.936.7872

You know, after failure of the substitute bearing, and losing parts into the inside of the FP dryer, I gave up and bought a new Speed Queen dryer. I’m not mechanical, so for me this was the best option.

Depends on how much one likes the unique aspects of the F&P machine as to the effort one will go to keep it running.

We love our dryer, but I am on bearing 4 and most of the small retaining ring screws have stripped and the new one doesn't want to stay in. Is there a better fix for this issue? I might have to MacGyver something, but I'm worried about the heat there.

These five screws? Best I can suggest is improvise. Larger screws? but they must fit through the retainer's mounting holes.

Your househole apparently has a heavy duty-cycle on laundry machines. My dryer is 18 yo and I've replaced the bearing once. It didn't need replacement at the time but I was doing another repair and figured I'd be proactive by replacing the bearing while I had the machine disassembled.

Yes, those five. I've already tried some slightly larger, just seems like a better fix should be out there. We do a lot of loads and run the delicate cycle a lot. (Without taking the laundry out. )

That's what I was thinking for this repair. Thanks for the good pictures!

So back again, this time I have a tension pulley that had a blow out, can I replace it with a plastic one that fits or is it a $100 metal one for a reason?

I'm not aware of any specific substitutions for the pulleys, your choice to attempt devising something. I've changed them once on my now 18-yo DEGX1, when it was 10 years. I had it disassembled to replace a bad element and clear some lint accumulation in the blower housing. The pulleys had exhibited some squeaking for a while several years prior, had quieted-down and possibly didn't need replacement but I took the disassembly opportunity. My mother has been using it for the past 4 years when I bought an 8-yo AeroSmart DE62T27D with matching AquaSmart washer. I fully disassembled and cleaned-up the DE62 but didn't replace any parts.

I thought my issue was bearings but upon taking everything apart barring doesn’t look bad but we seem to have drum
Balance issue. I’ll take any advice

@Melissa VanGessel

Please clarify what are the symptoms your dryer is exhibiting during operation. Excess vibration? Unusual noises? Did you pull the bearing off the shaft to examine it and the shaft for evidence of wear?

Draw strings were getting caught wrapped up and then whole area was excessively hot. Hot enough to burn hole in blanket

The part you are pointing to I can’t get off

The heated airflow route is through the right side of the drum, through the bearing area. It will be hot there during the drying cycle but shouldn't be so hot as to burn clothing.

However, it appears that your bearing housing and/or bearing are badly worn to the point of causing misalignment of the parts which possibly resulted in excess space behind the bearing cover which led to those drawstrings tangling behind it. Clothing caught and tangled there could block the airflow and get overheated, and an item could get cut on the edge of the bearing cover.

The piece indicated by the red arrow in the photo above IS the bearing. It should slip off the shaft without excess effort ... it may be stuck to the shaft. The bearing also should NOT pass through the bearing housing, it should sit IN the bearing housing.

Below are photos of the bearing assembly, showing how the pieces fit together. The shaft mounts to the right sidewall of the machine chassis.

This piece indicated in your last photo looks to be remnants of a broken bearing retainer.

So, yes, you apparently need a complete new bearing kit with all the parts. There are substitute bearings on Amazon and eBay that may not include all the components. Hopefully your drum isn't damaged.

This is what I’ve disassembled so far and I think I see what you mentioned in broken part

Just want to double check that this is what I need before I purchase..and just got shaft out.

Fisher and Paykel DG62T27DW1 Drum Bearing Kit - Genuine OEM

Fisher and Paykel DG62T27DW1 Drum Bearing Kit - Genuine OEM

The F&P kit is part number 479332.

I don't recognize the piece in your photo above.

I hope your drum isn't damaged where is fits to the bearing housing.

How would I check that?

You'd need to be familiar with proper condition of the bearing area of the drum and how the bearing assembly fits to it.

As we begin to assemble our bearing kit, I realized we need another part. I’m hoping @dadoes can help us figure out what part this is so we can order a new one.

There's no context as to where the latest piece you picture was positioned/found within the machine.

However, it kinda looks like remnant of the cup on the right-side chassis panel's heat-input flume to which the drum bearing shaft mounts. Destroyed, with remainder of the destroyed bearing shaft attached.

Thanks for all your help

I'm guessing you continued using the machine while it exhibited symptoms such as metal-on-metal squealing or grinding noises? Or did the failure occur suddenly?

We thought it was a belt issue. Either way we definitely dropped the ball