On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 10:11:48 -0500 Jim Adney
wrote:

Can anyone tell me whether there are 1 or 2 springs in there, whether
they are hard to replace, and whether they are the most likely
suspects or are there other linkage parts which are more likely to be
broken?

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions, but the dishwasher is fixed.

I had the day off, so one of the things I did was to stop at our local
place that sells appliance parts. She knew what I needed, but didn't
have them in stock. She could get them here in one day, but the price
was going to be $10 each, and each KitchenAid has 2.

Since I didn't actually know that the springs were my problem, $20
seemed a bit stiff. I went home and decided to dive into it.

At the bottom front of the dishwasher there's a kick panel and a
larger painted panel. I removed both (total of 4 screws) and there
were my 2 springs, one intact and one broken.

I grabbed the 2 pieces of the broken one and drove up to our hardware
store, where I found a pretty good match for $3.80. It fits fine and
works fine. I worked a little LPS-3 into each one just to hold back
corrosion. Time will tell how long this fix lasts, but my guess is
that it will be plenty long.

BTW, the KitchenAid springs were a snap to install. No tools, just
slip them into position. I was surprised; they are not particularly
stiff springs.

My parents have the same dishwasher with the same problem. I'll buy
another cheap spring to install there next time we're visiting.

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Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
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