Originally Posted by
Richard Katz
Okay, my JennAir range/oven is working now, and I'd like to share some of the newbie experience I just had with the other newbies looking for help with their stricken JennAir. First, you need to get clear on what is meant in this context by "control panel" and "control panel assembly". The control panel for the stove = range/oven is what might commonly be called a keyboard, or touchpad, like on a laptop, a set of little buttons to push to issue commands to the stove; but what's confusing is that this keyboard is built in, and I mean solidly built right inside of, a big piece of steel just like in the PartsDr picture, that you can see on your stove. When you order a new keypad, or control panel, or control panel assembly, whatever you end up calling it, you are going to be astounded that you just bought this huge piece of steel just to get a new little plastic keyboard because a few of the membranes inside the keypad went on the fritz. Second, when you get around to actually replacing your great big control panel assembly --- because your keypad is issuing commands all by itself like a deranged telegraph operator -- you need to take a deep breath and contemplate the task and go for the LEAST number of screws to unscrew and reassemble later. It turns out that there are eight screws to get the great big assembly off the stove (and oh by the way, you really should rig up some way to support that big heavy assembly whilst you are working on it; I used a 2x4 that was supported by the pulled-out drawers on either side of the stove, with a few more shims here and there; you know, dunnage; cribbing.) Those eight screws consist of four Philips head on the sides and four hexhead on the underside, that you get to by opening the oven door, and looking up. Now remove the old control panel assembly, as far as the wiring will allow you to. That's not so easy to do, because there is a little angle-iron piece screwed into the top of the assembly that you have to sneak under the stovetop. Maybe there's a trick to that, but seems to me you have to manhandle it pretty severely, and that stovetop is heavy and wants to bite your fingers.
Now look at the new part, and look at the old still wired to the (hopefully totally dead meaning un-plugged) stove, and you'll see that you need not disassemble ANY of the circuit board at ALL. You see that you have to pull the mylar ribbon cable, because you see that it is the ONLY part sticking out from the new control assembly module and you can see where it goes. I can't really help you on how to get that ribbon cable to nicely get removed from it's receptacle on the old control panel assembly-- the black receptacle with the two little pin-like protrusions you can see if you pry it a little bit perpendicular to the way the ribbon is running. Somebody could make a really elegant Youtube video of just how to do that. mostly, you bend the middle of the black receptacle to make sure the two little tiny pins you see are free of the cable (which has two holes to hold those pins); and then you pull on the ribbon cable, and pray. You DON'T have to worry about screwing up that cable because it's the old one; it's junk. The new one will slide in later, just fine, and sort of auto-clamp itself, like a barb. Now that you've got the ribbon cable freed up, you can see that there are four hexhead screws that hold the circuit board; and that there are two screws each that hold each one of the four burner adjusters, after you pull off the burner knobs. You may have little red lights above the burner adjusters; you can SLIDE the white light"boxes" to the side, sliding each one off the little red plastic that is the "light" stalk. The little red light stalks pop out if you press them; make sure you aim them somewhere that you know where they aren't going to disappear. After you have freed the burner adjusters from the "control panel assembly" ; and have freed the circuit board from the control panel assembly (it's surrounded by cardboard, but you'll figure that out); you can remove the old control panel assembly.
Nothing tricky about reassembling the whole thing. You already know all the steps. I hope you figured out some way to hold the new assembly up in the right place and fairly level while you are working on it, assembling the burner adjusters to it and getting the circuit board in, with its crazy wall of cardboard around it. There is ONE fragile part on that circuit board, in the very front in the center; an electronic component that looks like it's easily bent and it sure is. I can assure you that you get at least one chance to bend it by mistake, for free.
Maybe you happen to be like me, and you have a JES9860AAS Jenn Air , the one that has a griddle and two burners all electric; and of course a downdraft convected electric oven. If it turns out that, like me, you couldn't get a PD00003678 (mfr # 74005747) because it is out of stock, you CAN if you have the stomach for it, order a PD00005649 mfr 74005747 and ... gasp ... enlarge the center hole for the burner adjusters a little on each "end" to accommodate the burner adjusters that came with that model; ie take a 5/32 chainsaw file and put little ears on the outside of the center hole like mouse ears but straight out to the side; mount your burner adjusters; and your're good to go. Near as I can tell, the control panel inside the control panel aseembly = the keypad; the keyboard is the same; works the same, anyway. Not for the faint of heart. MIght be a good deal easier to just get the right part, if in fact they're still making it. PartsDr had the wrong part cheap enough that it was worth it to me to jerry-rig it for my all-electric model Jenn-Air.
And BTW we just LOVE our Jenn Air.
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