[Mohgreen]

We're not exactly sure how old this Dryer is (I REALLY wish appliances had the year manufactured on them...), but it stopped working last night.

All it does now is, you can hear a hum/buzzing noise when you press the start button. It doesn't spin, or appear to heat at all. You can hear the timer ticking, but thats it.

Anyone have a guess if this needs a new motor or what?

Thanks!

[denman]

Here is a link to the dryer, may be helpful
Whirlpool LET6634AW0

Sounds like your belt has broken
Open it up and take a look
While you are at it give it a good cleaning and check. Also do the vent system at the same time

[Mohgreen]

Well, good news is, its not the belt.

I read over some of the other posts about Dryer's not starting. On the off chance, I opened the door on the dryer, gave the drum a good spin and held down the cut-off switch while hitting the start button.

It started right up.

I've given it a couple starts/stops and let it run for a bit, and it appears to be working same as it was. Its spinning/heating and such. All I can figure is one of my kids *eyes the 2yr old* got to playing with the switch and got it out of alignment? or something.

We'll see how long it lasts.

Thanks for the help!

[denman]

Well I missed that one, didn't I???

It could not be caused by the door switch because this disconnects all power from the motor.

The most likely culprit would be one of the centrifugal switches on the motor
At rest it connects the motors Run and Start windings to power
Once the motor reaches operating speed it switches the Start winding out of circuit and provides a path through one set of contacts to the Run winding.

Could be the centrifugal mechanism on the motor which activates this switch got stuck so your Start was not connected. Looks like it became unstuck once you ran it.

If it ever reappears it will only be when you really, really, really need the dryer.

Good luck

[kayakcrzy]

Yo Mo. You will eventually have to replace the motor. Tom ApplianceEducator.com