If it has spark, is in time, the throttle spring hasn't popped off - testing with a shot of fuel or carb spray in the plug hole & it still won"t fire -likely you have an issue pertaining to compression. What seems a little unclear at this point is that the flywheel key is as it should be. In regards to compression, just a note on whether it seemed to pull differently than before should suffice. If you pull it and it feels as it it pulls much easier- likely a valve is being held open such as from a loose seat. If it feels about the same , my guess is it has blown out a chunk of head gasket. Either way, the cylinder head comes off. If you are wrong, you are out the price of a gasket.

Every new dryer I have purchased only had the steel inlet pipe coming out of the dryer and you have to purchase the nipple for the new flex pipe to attach. If you purchase an installation "kit" at Home Depot last I checked it was about 20 bucks and includes nipples for the dryer and the pipe from the gas source and the flex pipe all in one bag. It recommended to always replace the flex pipe when installing a new appliance. Also be sure to use pipe dope on the nipple to the steel pipes to ensure it is sealed. The flex pipe will seal itself to the brass flared ends. This post was edited by fordtech on Wed, Jul 10, 13 at 8:17

okay - well here's an update. last night I had taken the timer assembly completely out. That's when I had noticed, and mentioned, the rattle in the timer motor, etc. This morning I was going to test the unit per above, so I put the timer assembly back in. When I plugged the unit back in - I tried starting it just for the heck of it. It's starting and running seemingly just fine now. What the...??? I supposed this could be the end of this thread now that I'm back up and running and I'm thrilled it's working again. But what the heck would have caused that??? In summary - I had replaced ONLY the failed thermal fuse - did not even open up the console back or tinker with ANYTHING else - and the unit was still dead. This forum and the people on it are awesome. Thank you all. Brad

The solution depends on how much you want to spend. When I remodeled, I opted for a French door refrigerator which was next to a wall. The solution for me was to cut down the wall so that the door would open freely. Since it was done when I was doing a whole remodel, it was relatively easy to do since they are down to the studs in many places and reframing portions of my place anyway. So theoretically you wouldn't have to take down the whole wall. Most of the wall is still there - it's just that the entrance to the kitchen is a bit wider by about 6" and the wall is a bit shorter :-). But taking down any portion of a wall is a huge undertaking because you then are also dealing with a portion of the floor that is exposed and the obvious expense and hassle of dealing with the wall itself. I agree that having a door that doesn't open more than 90 degrees is difficult. What is causing the problem and why did your old refrigerator not have that issue?