Do I have to buy the whole assembly for one broken part?
Usually, yes, because online listings bundle components together as one complete unit. Since individual items like a felt strip or plastic piece are rarely sold by themselves, you cannot just replace what is broken, forcing you to either purchase the entire assembly or scavenge at a junkyard.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Purchasing the whole drum assemblyDid this help you?
- 2Purchasing a brand-new dryerDid this help you?
- 3Combining third-party replacement parts from other brands to patch together a solutionDid this help you?
- 4Going to a pick and pull, junkyard, or salvage yard to extract just the needed piece.Did this help you?
- 5Buying the full used assembly on eBay.Did this help you?
- 6Using super glue to put the broken pieces back together.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Everything to try yields the entire assembly (as pictured). Is it even available by itself?”source ↗
“Based on past experience, I think you are going to have to buy the whole thing. I have been through this with older vehicles.”source ↗
“Junkyard is probably your best bet if you just need the plastic piece, those online listings always bundle it as one unit.”source ↗
“You usually have to buy an entire shifter assembly on a couple of times in 36 years of being a tech have i seen you be able to buy individual parts for shifters”source ↗
“From my on and off searching for the last three weeks, I have not been able to find a felt replacement and am only seeing that the whole drum should be replaced.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 2Where to find specific replacement parts for broken fixtures
- 10Rebuild original vintage part or buy cheap reproduction?