On Dec 3, 9:45*am, Ulysses wrote:
On Dec 2, 7:14*pm, wrote:

On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 17:36:02 -0800 (PST), Ulysses

How old is your Kenmore? If it's 10 years old it will oullive 2 or 3
new ones - and if it's 15, it might STILL outlive 4 new ones.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Let me try this again (third try). *I hope I have not triple-posted!

Howdy. *I'm seeing a lot of familiar faces (nicks, anyway) here. *Too
bad my ISP does not carry this NG and I have to resort to Google.

My Kenmore is probably about 10-12 years old. *It has a steel (?)
housing for the gearbox. *I took apart the gearbox when first trying
to determine what the problem was and it does have some plastic gears
but nothing looked worn or damaged. *From what you are saying it would
be worth putting a new motor in it every 10 years, if needed, and
forget the new ones. *I have some doubts about the switches and timer
lasting that long though. *I originally bought this machine used for
something like $100 when my Whirlpool belt-drive washer wore out.
This washer was outside in the rain and snow for years while I was
trying to get a house built. *Amazing that it still works. *It was
covered when not in use. *We used to fill it directly from the well
and then power it from a generator which may not have been good for
the motor. *I never tried to repair the Whirlpool as it had been
subjected to my wife for over 10 years. *This is my first washer
repair attempt and maybe I'll get better at analyzing these things but
so far it makes fixing a fuel-injected computerized car engine seem
easy.

When trying to determine if the motor was bad I also had to consider
the start switch on the motor, wiring in general, mechanical factors,
control switches, and the timer. *Plus there is a small circuit board
next to the second rinse switch and I have no idea what it is for. *I
was thinking it might be a motor speed controller that chopped the
waveforms like a dimmer switch since I had no slow speed on my motor.
Anyway, I'm learning. *Slowly. *I should probably get a generic washer
repair manual. *Does Hayne's make one? *I got a lot out of their small
engine repair manual.

A little update: I searched on eBay again and found lots of motors,
new and used, for reasonable prices and reasonable shipping. I didn't
find *any* the first time I looked. I also found timers, water pumps,
and other parts so it looks like it'll be possible to keep this thing
running for a very long time, assuming I can figure out what's wrong
with it ;-)