Washing machines

Mine croaked.

Just sits there and hums. Doesn't know the words but it did a few days ago.

Motor, pump, & gearcase all spin freely.

Tell her to go to the doctor, for chrissake. I'm sure they have a pill for that now.

Clutch?

FinlayZJ said:

Clutch?

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Not entirely sure how I'd test that. I did manually spin the transmission input in both directions and had it agitate and spin.

The humming appears to be coming from the intake valves. Which seems odd during the spin cycle. Or during agitation once the tub is full.

Sounds like it's broken to me

I've reached that same conclusion.

I don't find myself excited to spend what I'm likely to spend to replace it. Sucks when you have tastes in higher quality tools & equipment.

Go on an appliance repair forum and ask there. There's very little in a modern washer or dryer that isn't easy or cheap to replace yourself. People who buy new washers when they break are idiots.

I just had my Whirlpool repaired. It ran fine, just didn't spin. I could spin it by hand and all the cycles worked. Ended up being a clutch. $160 for the repair. Figured I'd throw it out there.

If it's a GE... trash it. We looked at fixing our old washer, but nobody would touch it. It was a newer model and apparently, they aren't serviceable. Cheap crap.

John in MA said:

Go on an appliance repair forum and ask there. There's very little in a modern washer or dryer that isn't easy or cheap to replace yourself. People who buy new washers when they break are idiots.

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I've done some googling and thus far everything I've seen as a possibility has checked good. It's a Whirlpool direct drive (Kenmore branded). Motor checks ok electrically, same with starter cap. Supposedly, if the issue were in the transmission, I'd hear strange noises when spinning manually if I could do it at all. Same with the pump. On some models, they won't agitate with the lid open so I jumpered out the switch that controls that function. The timer motor runs. I don't see any evidence of arcing or general bad connections.

One thing I haven't checked is the centrifugal switch on the motor. It was late as I tinkered and so didn't get to it.

Is this one of those top-loading units that run a right-angle transmission through coupling to the motor? Those things usually last forever as long as you keep replacing the coupling. Probably the most reliable washer in history along with the twin-belt Maytags. Even if the motor's toast you could get a used one cheap.

You sure the timer isn't borked?

That's what type of washer it is. Motor windings tested ok. I want to go back and test the one switch and do more examination of the timer. I saw a jury-rig method for directly applying power to the motor, I may try that out if the wires match up to the video. Would rule out a few things right there.

clutch or dogs..

Still puttering with this. Confirmed this evening the motor/pump work just fine as does everything else mechanical. Juryrigged a harness to power the motor etc bypassing everything else.

I'm thinking timer at this stage. Guess I'll order one up.

Timer, half of mine is gone, I just use the other side of it.

My thoughts as well. I have one set to order. As easy as it is to get inside that thing, I ought to clean it up a bit.

Fu(k this fu(king thread right in the fu(king ass!!

Mine's taking a giant shit as we speak.

Timer should arrive tomorrow. Woot. Hopefully it fixes the ****er. The problems my machine has had have all been reasonably easy fixes.

Having said that, the lure of a larger capacity washer is strong. Something I can get a queen sized comforter in.

New OEM timer arrived today (Amazon Prime FTW), installed and have run multiple cycles through without failure.

Guess I can do laundry at home again. I had it in mind to clean some of the dry area components while the cover was off. Didn't happen. Probably won't happen.

I just replaced the lid switch on mine. $160+ bill for a $7 part (Amazon FTW again) and my struggling to get the damn thing back together properly. Wasn't much to clean out, but what was in there was weird. Cheap 14 year-old Kenmore that can fit a King comforter.

The matching dryer is having trouble heating now...I just cleaned the crap outta every crevice so it would stop squeaking about a month ago. Thinking the timer or something electric to do with the knob. Sometimes no heat on HIGH HEAT.