Mystery part found in Electrolux Dryer..

[Ehochste09]

A towel caught in my electric dryer (EFME527UIW0) causing the belt to break. When I took it apart to replace the belt I found the idler pulley had flown off and this half melted plastic part was on the bottom of the dryer. The idler pulley seems to be fine but I can’t figure where the white circular (half melted) piece came off of.

I’ve looked through the manual and parts and can’t figure out what it could be. Any ideas?

[Terry Carmen]

It's probably part of the idler pulley.

Check what's there now against a picture of the part, new, online.

[Ehochste09]

Thanks Terry! I tried checking the new part online and in some repair videos and everything looks intact on the idler pulley. The pulley is in the background and I’m holding the mystery melted piece.

 

I couldn’t get the files to upload to my original post.

[Budget Appliance Repair]

Looks a lot like the belt guard that you would find behind the motor pulley on a Whirlpool dryer motor.

But, I've never seen a Frigidaire/Electrolux motor have the belt guard and looking up the pictures of the motor for that model all show it to be the standard Frigidaire motor without a belt guard behind the motor pulley.

[Ehochste09]

Thanks for the insight! Yeah, I couldn’t find any evidence of this part existing from the manual or by watching other repair videos of Electrolux dryers. Our dryer was a 2019/2020 model. maybe something fell in the dryer that shouldn’t have been there during assembly?!
 

im contemplating putting the dryer back together but just trying to determine what this is first in case it’s necessary and should be replaced.

[Terry Carmen]

5 minutes ago, Ehochste09 said:

im contemplating putting the dryer back together but just trying to determine what this is first in case it’s necessary and should be replaced.

If it's important, you'll notice it quickly. 8-)

[MRIGUY]

Working on a 2021 model last night and came across the exact same mystery part. This dryer also had a broken belt.

[Terry Carmen]

It looks a lot like part of an idler pulley. Maybe from a previous repair where the guy didn't clean up.

[David1]

Just found the exact same thing. With a broken belt... there is definitely more to this than just coincidence... In my case the customer mentioned that an item got stuck between the drum and bulkhead which is what precipitated the problem. But I can't figure out where the part comes from either and there were no prior repairs.

Edited March 2, 2023 by David1

[MrApplianceMatt]

It almost looks like one of those plastic belt guides that some dryers had behind the motor pulley to help reposition the belt if it drifted towards the motor. Kinda like this one, but yours looks bigger.

[16345Ed]

Photo of this motor 

 

[David1]

Well the mystery part does appear to be the belt guard then because the dryer I worked on used that same 5304529782 motor and the belt guard was missing in the video I took that day. I'll update if the belt slips off or something but I think it just broke because something got stuck between the drum and bulkhead, which is what the homeowner told me happened.

The belt guard probably was rubbing against the idler pulley arm at the time that it melted off due to the belt being under extreme tension after the drum got stuck. 

Edited March 6, 2023 by David1

[Nelida]

Hi,

I was changing the belt and I found the exact same white burned piece of plastic underneath the pulley.  How do I replace it? 

[David1]

The piece of plastic is the dryer belt guard on the motor. It is not an individually replaceable part so you would have to replace the motor.... or just put the new belt on and forget about it like I did. It's been working for 6 months already. 

[otaknap]

On 9/2/2023 at 8:44 PM, David1 said:

The piece of plastic is the dryer belt guard on the motor. It is not an individually replaceable part so you would have to replace the motor.... or just put the new belt on and forget about it like I did. It's been working for 6 months already. 

This exact thing happened to my dryer. I thought it was just the belt and the technician replaced the belt not knowing that the plastic got chewed off. The dryer was run within the same day and it broke the new belt again.

How long has it worked for you? Has the belt broken off again? I'm contemplating whether I should buy a new motor or try running it with the belt again. I'm peeved that they don't sell a replacement part for this plastic piece. Seems like a terrible design.