First I removed the front drawer face held on with 4 screws - I loosened the screws a bit and had to jiggle the drawer face a bit to get it off the screws.



Then I unscrewed 2 screws holding in the front of the upper track.



I tried tugging on the lower and upper white plastic tracks attached to the freezer side but they would not budge. Then I noticed 2 push in clips on the lower tracks further inside the freezer. I pressed on those clips and again tried tugging on the upper and lower white plastic tracks - to no avail. Turns out those clips release the metal tracks from the white plastic lower tracks....D'oh!!


I removed the lower basket - it just lifts out. Then I then tried pulling out the metal tracks - and they came out!! In hindsight the white plastic tabs I pushed in would be what released the metal tracks. The whole track assembly was pretty flimsy - so be careful to hang onto both sides to prevent something from warping.




I was stymied at how to remove the upper tracks - then I slid the upper rack out to the end of its travel (again be careful here as the track assembly is now floppy) and tugged / carefully pried at the back part of the track - and it popped out! This photo shows the end of the track - with some sort of blade /stabbing thingie to attach it to the back of the freezer. It turns out i was supposed to press the two tabs on each of the square things at the far end of the upper rack and at the same time lift the square thing up. Doing that on both sides allows the rack to be removed from the freezer and the plastic tracks to be swung inward and removed. More about that later on.



I then unplugged and removed the ice maker. Note - have a cloth ready as defrosted water is going to be dripping onto the freezer floor at this time.

I next removed the thermistor cover. I used a flat screwdriver - stuck in a slot on the left hand side to pry to the right and out. That slot connects to a clip that hold the left hand side of the cover on. Hint - tape the thermistor to the upper roof of the freezer compartment - that way it is easier to remove and more importantly to put the back panel on. As when you put the back panel back on you have to drape the thermistor wire over the top of the back panel.






Showing the clip on the left hand side that holds the cover on.



I took off the 4 screws holding the back cover on. Then I slid the ice maker fill tube out of the back cover and disconnected the plug for powering the ice maker by prying on 2 tabs on either side of the plug.




I saw ice at the top right hand corner



and in the drain tray



I will now use a hair dryer to melt the ice. More news at 11..

I also noticed the 'duck bill' drain (tech term: The Grommet) was gunked up with something akin to chewing gum. I had to use 'goof off' to clean it up.

This grommet prevents air infiltration but allows water to drain into the condensate drip pan (the condensate pan is a white plastic tray below the fan). This grommet is behind a plug - on the top of the back compartment - just beside the compressor. it feeds into a drip tube that feeds into the drip tray.

In this picture I am pointing to where the grommet goes. It was removed at that point to clean it.









I saw a you tube clip where a service tech was replacing this grommet with a 'P' trap - and he described how the 'P' trap eliminates the water backing up issues that this grommet causes when it cruds up. Thing is - my fridge is at 4 years (half life expectancy with the 'energy efficient' appliances - so I might as well just clean up the grommet as the fridge will no doubt crap out before the grommet plugs up again.

When you replace the ice maker - be sure the fill tube coming from the back of the fridge is going into the round ring on your ice maker. I forgot to do that and ended up with water on the bottom of the freezer.


Of course now that I have completed the repair - I watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSiLmJQmzEY The guy shows the work described above. Interesting he is installing a grommet that is the same one on my fridge. He says the one that was in the fridge he is repairing is prone to clogging- and you can see in the video that the old one he is changing out is smaller than the current one like I have.

Trouble is - even the current Grommet I have clogs up - which is why I suppose they went to a 'p' trap design. you know - the same drain design that has been used in plumbing for hundreds of years.

In this updated video he shows the 'P' trap https://www.youtube.com/watch?an...JQmzEY&v=Tk24ISRzSRs

Total time it took for my first attempt at this repair: 4.5 hours. I could likely do the same repair again in 2 hours and if I did it frequently - 1 hour....

Same problem. Thawed out and cleared drain for second time, Then I turned the temp. setting for the freezer down to 1 and the upper refer to 2. No problems since then. I keep a thermometer in freezer and it stays below 20 deg F. I live in the pacific NW if that makes a difference.