GEAR PINION Right Hand

The best instructions were several YouTube videos for replacing icemakers on GE french door bottom freezer refrigerators, but none fully described the process. The following difficulties were encountered: (1) Instructions for removing the freezer door showed three screws on each side that needed to be removed; in fact, there was only one screw on each side. It was smaller than the three depicted screws and its location was not exactly as shown in the videos. (2) None of the instructions adequately described the process for removing the mounting plate from the nonfunctioning icemaker so it could be attached to the replacement unit. The key was to forcibly pry open the cover over a screw that then needed to be loosened with a screw driver. It seemed that I risked breaking the unit when I tried to slide the tab, but it eventually moved and revealed the screw that was holding the original mounting plate in place. (3) Replacing the freezer door required lining up some metal studs with slots in the undercarriage; you need to get down on the floor to examine how this fits back together. (It might help to take some photos before removing the freezer door.) (4) Replacing the upper drawer was perhaps the trickiest. My first effort resulted in having the rod with gear pinions on each end pop out because some of the tabs holding the gear pinions on each end broke. That meant that I had to order two replacement gear pinions (left and right are identical). Then, as with the freezer door, it was necessary fo slide metal studs on each side into a vertical slot leading to a horizontal slot in order to seat the upper drawer properly. So the whole process took a few weeks; actual work time was perhaps 3-4 hours. This could have been shortened significantly had I taken photos as I disassembled everything and if the procedure for moving the mounting plate had been clearer (or even existing). All in all, though, this is a doable DIY project.