I had changed my previous philosophy of repairing old appliances to replacing them with used ones on Craigslist.  People are always upgrading appliances and replacement parts can often cost more than buying a reliable used one.  With the original dryer which came with my house, I had replaced the belt several times.  I had purchased a refurb kit for around $20 consisting of a new belt, pulley and rollers and ended up replacing the whole dryer for about $50 a couple months later since I wanted a newer one with a temperature sensor.

My second dryer, a Maytag,  recently had an issue with no heat.  I pulled it apart and checked all the thermostats and they were all closed and there was 120V AC on that side of the circuit on the heater coil terminal.  The other side is fed by the timer and replacement timers were about $100 so I quickly found another used dryer for about $25.

My replacement dryer (Frigidaire)  was a bit squeaky so I took it apart to take a look.  This dryer was full of lint with a thick layer at the bottom and some burnt lint by the heating coils that could have easily caught on fire.  I vacuumed it all out and gave it a good cleaning.  It was only squeaky starting up and this was probably caused by a loose belt slipping.

With a working dryer, I wanted to go back and troubleshoot the Maytag since it was a bit more solidly constructed.  I removed the back of the console and noticed burnt wires at the timer connections.  One red wire coming from the temperature select switch was burnt to the point of disconnection and melted the insulation of nearby wires that contacted it.  I cut off the burnt section and re-crimped the connector (though I may go back and solder the connection).  I also re-crimped another connector that was also burnt.