How do I get to the thermal fuse and the heating elements in a roper electric dryer?

What you need to do is to take the dryer apart to get to the safeties. You will have to clean all parts, and grease the bearings. It is not that hard to do. Remove top and front. Have dryer on its back to make it easier to get the drum out. The first thing you want to do is to clean out everything very well which means to remove parts that move air and wash them out with soap and water, including door and blower fan. Just vacuum out the motor. Some dryers have a rear drum bearing and that needs to be greased. You always grease bearings in a dryer with white lithium grease, available at any appliance or auto parts store. If the bearing is not scored then you can clean it well and re-grease it put it back in, but if scored, then get a new one as it is fairly cheap. You also want to get a belt for the dryer unless you want to do this again in a month or two. It is only about $5.00. Put it all back together and test the drum by rotating by hand to make sure you have it right because many errors can be made in putting it back together. If you have labeled all wires when you took it apart you will have no problems. If you miss any dirt, you will soon know it because it will blow out the safeties again.
Here are some manuals: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8010163/GE%20Dryer%20%20Manuals.zip
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8010163/Whirlpool%20Dryers.zip
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8010163/Maytag%20Dryers.zip
One of these should be similar to a Roper.