Kitchen Large Electric Appliances - Problem - GE Fridge Water Filter Bypass Plug

I have a GE Profile Performance side-by-side fridge (model TFX27PPBA), and just got RO installed for my wife (for fridge and kitchen sink, not whole-house RO). I have what I am pretty sure is the right plug to bypass the filter (both GE and a local appliance store came up with the same part number -- WR02X10173).

Beats me how to install the bloody little bypass plug. After unthreading the filter, I see a 3/4 inch long nipple, with a hole in the end through which the water would enter the filter. I see no way the bypass plug will fit in or on the nipple. So, I figure I need to take apart the assembly that the 3/4 inch nipple sits in before I can find the place where the bypass plug attaches, but I see no way to disassemble it.

Much thanks for your help.

Max

While I am not familiar with your model specifically, I have seen a lot of GE refrigs. with inside filter. When you look at the plug, it looks just as if you were staring at the business end of the filter cartridge. You rotate the cartridge 1/4 turn to get it out, and twist the plug in just as if you were putting in a new filter.

I looked at the parts list for your specific model. It gives the part # you mentioned for the plug, and in the sketch it looks like what I described above.

Thanks, 549tough. Yes, the filter easily comes out with a 1/4 turn. Unfortunately, the plug does NOT go in the same way.

I've looked for an online image of the plug -- no luck. Other than a piece of plastic on the one end to hold on to the thing, it is shaped like TV cable. Meaning, it is a hollow plastic tube slightly bigger than 1" diameter, tube wall thickness maybe 1/8", and coming out from the center of the inside of the tube is a plastic pin, about 1/8" diameter, so that the length of the pin extends slightly past the edges of the tube, by about 3/8".

So, back to my original post, with the filter removed, what I see in the bottom-center of the assembly where the filter was, is a cylindrical piece of plastic ("nipple") about 3/4" long with a small hole in the end. The plastic pin of the plug will not fit in the hole in the end of the nipple, and even if it would, that wouldn't make sense to me, because you'd be trying to get two "male" pieces to fit in to each other, and social commentary aside, that doesn't work very well.

This is why I think that some of the assembly that the filter goes on to has to be removed for the plug to be used. That said, it could be anything. I am stumped.