bob" wrote in message
...
On 4/18/2010 7:32 AM, Jon Danniken wrote:
bob wrote:
My 10 year old+ whirlpool washer went out the other day 3/4 the way
through a load. would not drain and the main motor would not run.

Checked it out, and the motor did not have any power.
looked at the schematic, and it appeared that the timer
assembly was the problem. Priced a replacement at $110+ dollars.
ouch! old washer not worth that much.

SO i took the timer off and bent the tabs that hold it together
straight and took it apart (non repairable part). Figured out one of
the contacts had overheated. Had nothing to lose, so i sanded down
the contact on both sides and put it back together. Motor came back on,
but it seemed
something was still not right. Did not want to drain right. I then
took the hoses off the pump only to discover a lump of fabric jamming
the
pump. a long nose pliers and some words eventually pulled the lump of
crud out. Now it seemed to drain, but the pull switch on the timer was
stuck on. Then i noticed another plastic part on the floor. (whoops,
forgot one lever on the re assembly of the timer)
Put it back together, and she is working. Who knows for how long,
but i had little money to spend now and i kept it out of the scrap
heap for awhile longer.

I theorize the fabric jammed in the pump caused the motor to draw too
much current and overheated the switch contacts. Hope it last for a
while...

Impressive repair job, Bob. I've replaced the pump twice on my old
kenmore/whirlygig, and I hope I never get the pleasure of digging apart
the
timer!

Jon


When i was trying to get the crud out of the pump, i released the two
spring holders and tried to pull the pump off. It seemed to be stuck,
that's when i just used the needle nose to pull the crap out of it.
I was afraid if i put too much force on it i would ruin it and create
another issue. It does seem to be draining, but i wonder if some of the
impellers in the pump were damaged due to the crud stuck inside.
The pump impeller must have been welded by crud to the end of the motor
shaft.


bob

When a similar thing happened to me (wife's nylon ped escaped the delicates
bag), the nylon stretched to about 20 times its original length and wrapped
around the impeller drive shaft.

I spent hours unwinding it and cleaning all the crud, got a greasy as a
White Castle hamburger and nicked every knuckle on my hands. I was so proud
of having found the problem, took the machine apart, pulled the
super-elongated footwear out and gotten the whole machine back together.

Despite my heroic efforts, when I got home from work the next day, my wife
had purchased a new Sears unit that was on sale and had the old one hauled
away. I was more than a little peeved but she pointed to a white blouse she
had washed in the machine that now had a big grease stripe on it.
Apparently I didn't wipe the tub down as well as I thought. She told me
that she knew the only way to keep me from chopping it up for parts was to
spirit it away while I was at work.

I think the only thing I ever worked on that was harder to reach was the
power steering pump on an old Jag sedan. After trying to replace it I
reached the conclusion that they began the car's assembly by having someone
hold the steering pump in the air and then assembling the entire rest of the
car around it. Whitworth, SAE and metric screws, too!

The best part is that when the PS pump gasket failed (it was at some
incredibly high PSI - I want to say over 2000, but that may be a total brain
lapse) it spewed power steering fluid all over the always overheated exhaust
manifold, emitting a cloud of smoke that looked like D-Day invasion
camoflauge.

--
Bobby G.