Icemaker not working/filling

Refrigerator & Freezer Repair
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1

Kitchen Aid Icemaker stopped working and I hear the creaking/groaning of the motor trying to activate the icemaker - like when an ice cube gets stuck while ejecting.

found the reservoir dry and one of the fingers from the ejector was jammed with a finger from the ice stripper - freed this and the motor and icemaker cycle took off and seems to cycle ok. But no water fills the ice mold.

Following instructions from Gene in another post, I swapped the wires on the water dispenser solenoid with the ice fill solenoid. Pressing the water dispenser button causes the ice mold to fill ok so the solenoid seems ok and the line seems ok too. Just to double check, checked between N + L test points and found 117 V. Cycled the icemaker by jumping T + H and no water flows from the water dispenser - seems like something is bad in the icemaker - whatever closes the circuit to activate the water fill solenoid.

Swapped the wiring to the solenoids back to normal and cycled the icemaker twice more by jumping test points T + H and no more water came in - but the water in the icemake did get warm indicating the heater is working ok too. Still no water coming into the icemaker.

I’ll let it run overnight without interference and see if it normalizes - but I’m not optimistic - I’ll probably need a new icemaker…

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Cal

3

update 7/7/10 AM - this morning I found icemaker had ejected the ice from the manual fill last night and had created some additional, very small icecubes. An ice cube was jammed and the mechanism was locked up until I removed the jammed ice cube. There was a small amount of water frozen in the unit as well. Unit then cycled, ejected a few small ice cubes and refilled - this time with more water. I’m now at work and will recheck it later today when I return home.
Cal

4

Update 7/8/10 After allowing the icemaker to continue to cycle, it seems to be making ice. sometimes the ice cubes are hollow and sometimes solid. It has filled half the bin in 24 hours so far, though the hollow ice cubes may mean the filter shuld be replaced??? - hasn’t been replaced in about two years.
Cal