"Raymond Cruz" wrote in message . ..

Hi,

I have about a 5 year old KitchenAid (Whirlpool) top loading, direct drive
(no belt), washing machine that rapidly progressed from vibrating on all
cycles to no tub or agitator motion at all.

I've found that the
motor is fine but the three plastic teeth of the coupling between the motor
and transmission are sheared off.

= new motor coupler time.
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink...ntomotcou.html
Motor drive coupler.

The book says this would typically be
caused by transmission lockup but the transmission turns freely in both
directions by hand which the book suggests is indicative of the transmission
being OK.

Broken coupler is normally NOT a locked up tranny/gearbox. Soem wear
and break on there own, some break from overloading the washer, some
break from hard stops and starts of the spin basket.

So there's a gap in the guidance given by the book. Is there a
way for me to evaluate transmission function?

Just turn the tranny post manually in each direction....one way is
agitation, the other way/direction is spin...if this occurs the tranny
should be ok.

Would an appliance repair
shop do this for me?

If you brought them the tranny/gearbox, probably yes.

Is it possible that I need do nothing more than
replace the coupling because shear force from repeated stops and starts
simply caused it to break?

Yes

Happens all the time.

jeff.
Appliance Repair Aid
http://www.applianceaid.com/