Kenmore propane dryer 11076132410 squeaks - drum roller bearing?

[reezekeys]

Hi, I'm back with a new appliance to troubleshoot & fix (thanks to Vance & a few others my dishwasher is running like a top)! Now it's our propane clothes dryer - it squeaks. From what I can see after some google searches and looking at a few youtubes, it's probably the drum support roller. Before embarking on another repair adventure I thought I'd post a short (30 second) unlisted video to youtube, and if someone could indulge me by checking it out and confirming that the roller is a good place to start, I would be grateful. I've been unsuccessful in locating a service manual for this exact model, and the youtubes I've seen so far describing the disassembly all use older models for illustration  – but I'm hoping the procedure is the same or at least close enough to where I can figure it out. The fact that this is a propane appliance is making my wife a litte nervous but I assume I'll see a valve in back that I can shut off. Thanks for any tips!

https://youtu.be/PeijFpOkUNM

[isaac]

It can be either the roller or the pulley wheel,  this kit includes all you need 4392065

[reezekeys]

Thanks Isaac! Believe it or not I may have fixed it, temporarily at least. My wife was so worried about not having use of a dryer for a few days that I decided to forge ahead and take it apart to see if I could confirm for myself what was going on. Well, one of the two rollers was almost stuck – you couldn't spin it at all. I took it off, cleaned the support post and applied a bit of WD40 to it and it now spins freely! I'm still going to order that kit and put new ones on. And I'm glad I took the dryer apart because the inside definitely needed a vacuuming! Anyway, I took a break from fixing to post here, and now I'm about to re-install the drum & belt, which I'm hoping is as easy as the friendly repairman on fix.com makes it out to be. Thanks for the quick reply!

[reezekeys]

Well, my record is intact - no more squeaking. Thanks again, and please pardon my asking one more question. Here's a pic looking down from the back of the dryer. I see the propane supply hose is sorta contacting the vent hose, which obviously is going to get at least warm if not hot. For all I know it's been like this the last 5 years (that's when we got this dryer). Am I being paranoid in thinking a gas supply hose shouldn't be too close to any heat source, or is this not anything to worry about? Thanks!

[Vance R]

Not the best routing, should be easy to move. 

[reezekeys]

Ahh... I'm an idiot, I didn't realize how rigid that hose was, I bent it at a few places and things look better now, I think. The bends do look a little less "gentle" than before but I assume this will work OK:

[Vance R]

Looks good and you pushed it back couple of inches.

[reezekeys]

Vance, thanks for putting my mind at ease. Have a nice holiday!

[reezekeys]

Ahh... I'm a little confused (nothing new for me, I know!). I'm getting ready to buy the 4392065 kit with belt, rollers & idler pulley. Amazon has the oem kit, shown as "Kenmore Sears Roper Dryer Kit Part # 4392065, with Belt 341241, Idler 691366, Rollers 349241t."

On searspartsdirect, when I search on my exact dryer model and look at the parts list, every number matches but the belt, which is shown as "W11025122." I assumed the "341241" number was a replacement or equivalent, but when I look up the 341241 belt by itself on Amazon, all the equivalent numbers are listed and "W11025122" is not in there – and I've checked three or four sellers.

I'm wondering if the 341241 belt will actually fit my dryer or not, since it makes more sense to buy the rollers by themselves if the belt is wrong. The rollers are the only parts I need to replace right now, but it would be convenient to buy a kit since I'll probably wind up needing the other parts somewhere down the line. Thanks!

[reezekeys]

Ok well the squeaking is back and my wife is freaking out thinking the dryer is being irreparably damaged, so I went ahead and ordered just the rollers on Amazon. The estimated delivery day is Monday. Tomorrow I'll open 'er up again, apply some more WD40 to the post the roller sits on, and hope we can get a few loads done before the new parts come. My wife works at a hospital and needs to wash her scrubs almost every night. These are the cheaper non-oem rollers, so I'll just hope for the best. If I find out the belt in the oem Kenmore kit fits my machine I may still get the whole kit at some point. Thanks for any feedback and happy holidays to everybody!

[reezekeys]

So I re-lubricated the rollers (I did both of them this time, along with the idler wheel), but on a hunch I googled "WD40 good lubricant" and had my suspicions confirmed - this may not be the product to use to keep my rollers rolling until the new ones come in. It's a penetrant & rust inhibitor, not really a machine oil. That's probably why the squeaks started again soon after I put the dryer back together. It certainly did work to get them spinning much easier, at first - it just didn't last.

[reezekeys]

While waiting for the new rollers to arrive I decided to try again with lubricating the existing ones, this time with real oil instead of WD40. I had no machine oil at home (and no car to go to a Home Depot or hardware store to buy any) so I used a few drops of Mobil 1 0W30 I had in my garage! It worked very well - my wife did a bunch of loads in the dryer and there were no squeaks or noises at all, everything ran smooth as silk.

Now I have the new rollers, and want to ask if you guys put a few drops of oil on the pins before installing them. I've seen advice given both ways on the net. The reason I saw for not using oil was that it attracts lint to the assembly. I'll say this - my applying a small amount of Mobil1 completely cured the noises I was hearing. I'm tempted to use it with the new rollers, but thought it wise to ask the pros here. Thanks once again!

[16345Ed]

No oil of any sort it just attracts lint. 

[reezekeys]

Got it, thanks!