Kenmore Coldspot door cams misaligned

[hoyaguru]

Model Number: 106.50502990
Brand: Sears Kenmore
Age: More than 10 years

Hello, and thanks in advance,

I've been having a problem with the door cams on my Kenmore Elite Coldspot refrigerator. Here are the refrigerator specs:

Model: 106.50502990
Serial: SK0851189
Mfg Date: 2000.03
Type: C25SSA00

This fridge came with the house when I bought it. It is a side by side, and the freezer door closes fine, but the refrigerator door started to need a bit of an extra push to close it. I did some research, found that I needed new door cams. Ordered a new upper and lower door cam, watched a video on how to replace them, but when I put the new parts on, I noticed that when the door was shut, the cams did not line up correctly. Looked at the freezer side, they line up perfectly, so I can see how they are supposed to line up.

Took the door off and looked at any and all possible ways to adjust the cams, there are none. This was about a year ago, and now a year later the bottom cam is worn down smooth, and I'm right back where I started. Started from scratch, got new upper and lower cams, installed them, and...same exact problem, they do not line up.

Checked again to see if there is any way to adjust the cams so they fit together correctly, there is no way to adjust them. The only conclusion I can come up with is that I got the wrong cams, but I quadruple checked this time before ordering them. Here are the part numbers I went with:

Upper door closing cam: Mfg # WP2182179
Lower door closing cam: Mfg # WPW10329686

I've searched every way I can think of, and these are the part numbers that keep coming up for my refrigerator model. I've spent countless hours searching for anyone else who has had the same problem, found only one person complaining about the same thing, and the answer he got was to "adjust the top hinge to a-line (sic) the closers". It is for a different refrigerator, mine does not have a way to adjust the top hinge.

Searching for this problem on forums is hard to do, because most forums will not do a search for words of 3 letters or less, so searching for "door cam" only searches for the word "door", and I get thousands of results.

So, I'd appreciate any and all help with this problem. It's not a huge expense, I can get both cams for under $10, but I don't think I should be having to replace them every year. Also, when they get worn down, the refrigerator door ends up being left open, sometimes over night, and I'd rather not have that happen.

[Doc Ryan]

First I would compare the parts you received to the photos we have listed on our website to make sure they match. If those match then my guess is that the manufacture has bad information and they have the wrong part number(s) listed for your model number. If that is the case you will need to contact the manufacture to see if they can look into the problem.

[hoyaguru]

Ryan,

Thank you for your reply. I found these same exact part numbers on four or five different websites before ordering them, so I'm fairly confident that the numbers I have are correct. And, I have the bags that the parts came in, they have the same part numbers on them, so I did receive the parts I ordered. But, I guess it is possible that there is a bad database out there that a lot of online resellers are using and there might be a mistake somewhere. I used to sell laptop batteries online, and the manufacturer would send their list of batteries to me and 20 other resellers, if there was a mistake on that list, we all had the same mistake on our sites.

This is a Kenmore refrigerator, so I'm guessing I need to contact Sears? Is that even possible to do any more? I've tried to get info from their website, parts of it doesn't even work any more. Does anyone have a phone number or website where I could actually get in touch with someone?

[hoyaguru]

I should have taken a picture when I first posted my question. In this pic, on the left is the freezer door cam, and on the right is the misaligned refrigerator door cam.

[denman]

This is a long shot but check the door seal.

It should be the same thickness as the freezer door.
Also check the hinge side of the seal to be sure that it is not grabbing and twisting when you close the door.
If this is happening a light coating of petroleum jelly or white lithium grease should fix this.

[hoyaguru]

Got the door fixed, you can close this thread.

I had a suggestion in another forum to try the bottom cam without the screw in it to see where it lined up. I took the screw out of the bottom cam so it could move, put the door back on, and then marked where the cam was with a sharpie. Took the door back off, set the cam back in the sharpie mark, and it was about a quarter inch off of where it was with the screw in. Used a dremel tool to extend the screw hole in the cam a bit, then had to flatten the area where the screw head would go down, put it all back together, and the cams meshed perfectly.

My conclusion is there is some kind of mistake in some database somewhere that has propigated to all the parts resellers that I was able to find online. There's really no wiggle room with either cam, the way they are designed, they fit in one way, the screw locks them into place. If I weren't at least a little handy with tools, I would have had to give up, there's no way I could have gotten it to fit.