Kenmore propane dryer 11076132410, Q about drum roller shafts

[reezekeys]

Hi everybody, I'm back a few months after "fixing" my Kenmore dryer. I replaced the rollers at the end of December, with the helpful advice of the pros here. Now, one of them just came apart. I am chalking this up to me buying a non-oem roller kit. I went to searspartsdirect.com and they can't deliver the rollers until May 3! I called and spoke to a human, he told me there are no Sears parts stores now and everything is done online. With my wife's hospital job, she has to be able to wash & dry her scrubs every night so I decided to buy another cheapo roller kit (which is supposed to arrive tomorrow, we'll see how that goes). This is just to buy me time until I can get the OEMs in.

I had a thought that I should do the shafts too, just in case they had something to do with the roller's failure (I'm guessing they got a little worn from when the original set of rollers seized). I started looking online. Of course there are sellers on Ebay that have them, and some are claiming they're genuine OEM. These "OEMs" are cheaper than Sears and also have free shipping so I could definitely save a few bucks. Of course, that has me thinking - is there a catch? The only thing my undeducated brain can figure is that there coud be an issue with fake "genuine OEM" parts from these 3rd-party sellers. Is this a thing? As always, thanks in advance for any & all helpful words. Here's the roller that just died:

[evaappliance]

Lots of aftermarket claiming to be original,  I think you are just dealing with bad parts, it is doubtful the shaft would cause that.

[evaappliance]

4392065   This is a kit with both rollers , belt and idler.

the original rollers that are out now are built better than the ones pictured

[Terry Carmen]

I'd keep your original shafts and check around for OEM rollers. They do turn up now and then.

You can clean the original shafts with WD40 and a rag and lightly spray them before installing the new rollers and they should be fine.

I've changed a few shafts, but really, the number that were totally unusable is very small. A little cleaning and good rollers should fix everything right up.

[reezekeys]

Great, sounds like there might be a consensus here that it's not necessary to replace the shafts. The OEM rollers from Sears are actually very reasonable (on sale now!) so I'll put the cheap replacements I just ordered in, and they should hold me over until I can get the Sears parts shipped. Thanks everyone for the quick replies!

[John Converse]

If the original roller was “seized” you probably have some scoring on the shaft. This will definitely shorten the life of the next roller bearing.

[reezekeys]

Ahh... the plot thickens! OK a vote for shaft replacement. When I say "seized", it was the issue that had me replace the original rollers with these aftermarket ones: I started hearing a squealing sound, opened up the dryer and saw that one of the rollers was not spinning freely. I put a drop of oil on the shaft and that cured it for a while, until I had the replacements. Now I'm replacing the replacements! BTW the oil wasn't a great idea, though it bought me some time. This is the result of a very spare application using a q-tip:

[reezekeys]

Amazingly, the rollers came in one day. Prime shipping actually worked this one time. I replaced the destroyed roller but this is a stopgap until I can get better parts, and as I detail below, the shaft is probably NG too.

I cleaned up the area as best I could but beg someone's indulgence in looking at the attached visual aid (yes I have time on my hands and like to geek out on photoshop!). I don't know what that dark stain on this roller shaft is but repeating hard rubbing with a cloth dipped in acetone didn't seem to do anything – that's as clean as it got. I sharpened the pic which might exaggerate the appearance but I'm guessing that a new roller shaft might be in my immediate future - can someone here with more experience (that would be everybody!) confirm?

I'm also thinking that as long as I'm getting new shafts and wheels I should do the idler pulley and maybe the belt. I've looked for the kit referenced above (4392065) but my dryer model wasn't listed as compatible, so I'm nervous about ordering it. Also I think I should get factory parts and stay away from fakes or knockoffs. Any pointers to a good source would be appreciated. Thanks very much!

[reezekeys]

Looks like I didn't investigate things enough because the 2392065 dryer repair kit does show as compatible with my dryer on searspartsdirect.com. I was looking on a different website – https://www.genuinereplacementparts.com – and they only had one Kenmore model listed as compatible out of over 200 models listed, and it wasn't mine.

I'll tell you what I still don't understand - the entire kit is just $21.44. The parts ordered individually are $79! The belt by itself is $46, more than double what the entire kit costs. So the parts in the kit are the exact same as what I'd get if I ordered them individually? I guess I should trust that anything sold on searspartdirect is OEM, correct? $21 for both rollers, belt and pulley is a steal, and the shafts are cheaper there too. The rollers are on back order and so is the kit. Absent any more replies I'll probably just order the kit and the shafts and hope the crap rollers I just got (and what's left of the shaft!) hold together until Sears can ship me the real deal (they're saying May 4). Thanks again to anyone offering advice!

[evaappliance]

Your plan sounds good to me !  It should last till you get your good parts 

[reezekeys]

Thanks for the reply and putting my amateur mind at ease!

This dryer gets a lot of use, so maybe everything I'm replacing should be considered "normal maintenance" items that I replace every few years. Not that big a deal really – but our previous dryer was a model from the 1990s and I don't remember it needing anything from the day we moved into the house almost 20 years ago until it perished in a house fire seven years ago. They don't make 'em like they used to, I guess.

[evaappliance]

8 hours ago, reezekeys said:

They don't make 'em like they used to

Appliances and parts are being made cheaper every day