Vintage kelvinator

[Krisf]

Hello! I have a 1950s? Kelvinator wringer washer. My husband is needing to take it apart as we believe a belt is going bad. We are trying to remove the agitator shaft so we can remove the top tub and are finding it impossible. Is there a pin at the top of this shaft that is preventing this from happening or does someone know what we should be doing to remove it otherwise? He has tried to punch what we assume is a pin back out and it’s not budging. Please help! My Rosie has a fan club on TikTok and I need to bring her back to life thank you!!

 

[DADoES]

The belt should reasonably be accessible from beneath the machine (under the skirt), not through the tub.

 

[Krisf]

The belt should reasonably be accessible from beneath the machine (under the skirt), not through the tub.

Hi! Thanks for the reply! It seems everything was put in from the top down under the tub. While this post was being approved we finally got the pin out - had to drill it out…2 broken drill bits later. Then we could get the shaft out and the tub off and everything was easily accessible. It seems the belt is still the original and it is slipping and everything needs a good greasing. Fingers crossed she will be back in action soon!

 

[Krisf]

The belt should reasonably be accessible from beneath the machine (under the skirt), not through the tub.

This is from the top looking down. Much much easier access without the tub

 

[DADoES]

Yay, but that's wild. Seems unreasonable a machine would be designed such that that extent of disassembly is required to access a belt.

 

[Krisf]

Yay, but that's wild. Seems unreasonable a machine would be designed such that that extent of disassembly is required to access a belt.

My husband thinks that either the initial pin had been replaced in the top of that agitator shaft making it impossible to get out, or just the many years of use and water etc rendered it unable to be removed. If that pin would have come out easily, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all! Yes, you can sort of reach the belt from underneath but man it would be really difficult trying to get your hands around the motor and that plate that everything is attached to. The plate and everything else is attached from the top down so I do think we were correct in taking the tub out to access. He was within 2 seconds of cutting an access for in the back though - glad he didn’t have to!