A metal piece that acted as a lip cover for the drum on our dryer ripped off and ripped a hole in the metal casing behind the front panel. We removed the tangled metal mess and the noise has quieted, but it stills sounds "off". I What is the purpose of that piece? The machine is only about 4 years old.

Model#: SDE505DAYW

Thanks!

You really have to do a little research here yourself first.

To check what is going on in your dryer :

Remove the rear panel, and have a look as to what is going on.
Check the drive belt : is it frayed?
Is the drum still running against something? Or is the damage to the drum casing still touching anything ?
Does anything look still lose or broken?

Please be careful : do not touch anything while the dryer is connected to the power.

The drum is normally held upfront with either teflon gliders or plastic rollers . That may be the item that you removed, and that damaged your machine.

Also check if the damage to the casing can not damage the laundry in the drum.

Of course you can also come back to the board and discuss your findings before going on further !
If necessary contact me by private mail (click on my handle and follow instructions) to draw my attention. I will than reply here again.
If this helps solving your problem, than please rate this reply.

Success !

:)

I sure wish I could post a picture! The belts are all fine - the drum is rotating now and is working. From what we can see, nothing is rubbing anymore, but we did remove more of the drum casing. The teflon gliders are OK. This tangled mess we removed looks like a very thin metal hanger that's been stretched out. The laundry in the drum is unaffected.

So far, it is working, so I guess removing that strange piece was OK - we'll find out soon enough I guess!

Do you know, can the actual drum on a dryer be replaced? We could not find a part online anywhere. Thaks for the reply!

You can replace almost everything in a dryer. But the replacement of the drum, drum casing, or a drum bearing is not economically possible. It almost always will be cheaper to replace the dryer completely.

Pleasure to help you!

:)