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...

bob

"bob" wrote in message
...
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.


.. 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.


Well worth a little effort and it saved quite a bit of $$$. Could get you
another 10+ years.

"bob" wrote in message
...
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...

Good show! Always satisfying to show these machines who's boss.

But, you may have done yourself a disservice, as the savings and benefits
from a frontloader replacing a toploader start immediately.
I don't know what the ROI is, but, depending on how much laundry is actually
being done (and where you live), I'm sure it's well under 5 years.

The fellow on
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/applia...m-upgrade.html
calculated that his ROI on a net investment of $150 was one year on just
water alone!!! He has to pay for waste water removal, but the other savings
would probably more than make up for that for others with municipal sewer.
--
EA







bob

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...

bob



Congratulations- my appliance repairs seldom turn out so well, and I
usually end up replacing the busted item or doing without.

--
aem sends...

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

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

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.

My ancient Whirlpool has come up parts NLA (no longer
available) at my parts house. I've kept it running with
oiling the electric motor, and later the water discharge
pump. I've also had to clean the timer with a big dose of
electical contact cleaner, and then reoil the timer. Plans
are to keep it going as long as possible.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Jon Danniken" wrote in
message ...

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

On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:34:56 -0500, bob wrote:
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.

If the contacts were badly pitted, they might not last *that* long before
they fail again (but that's worst-case and you're still extending the
life of the washer for a bit longer*).

I remember taking apart timers as a kid - some of them have a bazillion
switch contacts in them that are all the same design. If you have one
like that then I bet you could swap contacts with good ones that control
a washer program that you never use...

* and by the time it dies next, new front-loaders might be a fair price...

cheers

Jules

On 4/19/2010 7:28 AM, Jules Richardson wrote:
On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:34:56 -0500, bob wrote:
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.

If the contacts were badly pitted, they might not last *that* long before
they fail again (but that's worst-case and you're still extending the
life of the washer for a bit longer*).

I remember taking apart timers as a kid - some of them have a bazillion
switch contacts in them that are all the same design. If you have one
like that then I bet you could swap contacts with good ones that control
a washer program that you never use...

* and by the time it dies next, new front-loaders might be a fair price...

cheers

Jules

I really did not think this would be a permanent repair. But it buys me
time to maybe find a used timer or other cheaper part.
Somewhere out there is someone who is throwing away a washer with a bad
motor and a good timer,,,

Maybe in the future i will get one of these tosser front loads and try
to restore it to life. I still don't know if i am 100% sold that they
are a long term wise idea.

bob

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:31:01 -0500, bob wrote:
I really did not think this would be a permanent repair. But it buys me
time to maybe find a used timer or other cheaper part.

good call! :-)

Maybe in the future i will get one of these tosser front loads and try
to restore it to life. I still don't know if i am 100% sold that they
are a long term wise idea.

They work - or at least the ones I grew up with in europe did. Problem in
the US is that they're still expensive compared to identical-featured
models in the rest of the world (why? maybe just because the
manufacturers think that's what people are prepared to pay?), and I'm not
sure the service/spares availability is there quite yet.

Give it a few years though and I think they'll be a good investment...

cheers

Jules

"bob" wrote in message
...
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.

SNIP.

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...

bob

Good for you. I did appliance repair for 30 years. I was a repairman not
a parts changer. Did all I could to save the customers money. As for my
own stuff, the dishwasher 1994 Whirlpool failed to heat in dry cycle. A
year ago. Bad relay on circuit board. Replacement board $180. Relay was
a 20 volt for coil, China crap. Relay not available at this voltage. Put
in a 12 volt relay and added resister to operate relay at proper voltage
and current draw. About 8 years ago wife decided she wanted our 1961
Whirlpool washer and 1967 dryer replaced. Did so and gave these older
items to a son . Both are still working fine. WW

On 4/18/2010 7:49 AM, Jeff The Drunk wrote:
On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:34:56 -0500, 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...

bob


I would have thought a seized pump make a hell of a lot of noise like
it did on my old Kenmore. The motor should have had enough torque to
spin the belt around the pump pulley causing a heck of a racket. If
the motor just locked up it likely cycled on its built in
thermal/current overload protection but I would also think it should
trip a breaker if locked up.

This was a direct drive pump. It was not locked up until the end, but
the crud in it put a extra load on the motor. It seemed also the
impellers were flexible inside so they would give some rather than be
rigid. That probably explains why it did not lock up before

bob

My siezed up pump just gave a vague over heating smell, as
the belt slipped.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


Jeff The Drunk wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:34:56 -0500, bob
wrote:

I would have thought a seized pump make a hell of a lot of
noise like
it did on my old Kenmore. The motor should have had enough
torque to
spin the belt around the pump pulley causing a heck of a
racket. If
the motor just locked up it likely cycled on its built in
thermal/current overload protection but I would also think
it should
trip a breaker if locked up.

I don't know off hand when they changed over. I do know that
my machine is belt drive, and has served me well.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


wrote in message
...
On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:45:17 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

My siezed up pump just gave a vague over heating smell, as
the belt slipped.

The ones made since the Carter administration do not have a
belt. The
pump is direct drive and the transmission is driven through
a plastic
coupler designed to shear off before you break something
expensive.