Maytag Atlantis Out of Balance Spin

I picked up a free Maytag Atlantis, MAV6200AWW, sitting half full of rain water beside a hardware store that I go to frequently. I cleaned it up, pumped the water out, replaced the lid hinge bushings and the lid switch. I moved it inside my house and ran two cycles through with no clothes in it. I noticed with no clothes, as the spin cycle wound down, it would vibrate like it was out of balance somewhat, but not terribly. Then I tried a medium load of clothes--mostly T shirts and sox and one pair of jeans. The washer really vibrated on spin, especially as most of the water was pumped out. I tried lifting the lid and repositioning the clothes--that helped a little. But it still vibrated. I removed the single pair of jeans, and that also helped. What else can I do to decrease the out of balance condition? Would dry or damaged bearings cause this?

I’m going to guess that the plastic snubber ring is failing. These machines use a milk stool suspension setup much like a Speed Queen or a Helical Maytag, with a plastic ring that serves as the bearing between the pivoting metal surface and the stationary one. Replacing them is a little bit of a pain for a few reasons. The first one is that you have to decompress the brake spring. I would recommend removing one screw at a time from the brake assembly, and replacing them with ones long enough to run out the couple of inches or so that the spring needs to fully decompress. IMO, the worst part of this job is the suspension springs, which proved to be a pain to reinstall when I replaced the pinion gear in the Atlantis I had. I would suggest either buying a tool to re-stretch them, or getting some metal electrical backboxes, and slipping the coils of the springs into them to keep them stretched until you’re done. The transmission pulley is also a pain to get back on, as it uses a VERY tight fitting E-clip to hold it in place on the end of the pinion shaft. However, the part (#WP21002026) is very inexpensive, and still readily available. Hope this helps,
Thatwasherguy.

Probably a broken or oily snubber ring, they don’t really wear out however but if they’re broken, they have to be replaced.

When we see this problem of excess vibration on these machines, it’s usually an oily snubber ring from a transmission oil leak if that’s the case, you can try to clean it all up very thoroughly and you might get it to work for a while until enough oil gets on it again to be a problem.

This is the likely reason this machine was sitting outside the hardware store. We don’t attempt to repair this machine with this problem any longer. They’re too old to be worth it machines are not that durable in the long run.

another thing to check with these is buildup of corrosion between the aluminum basket hub and basket causing wobble of the basket-remove basket and scrape off corrosion so basket runs true again-when i fixed this condition with one of these,also had to repair hole worn i outer tub from wobbling basket rubbing.Wobbling basket from hub corrosion can also happen with SQ "Marathons"

Thanks so much for the replies. Checking Youtube for tips.

Wow. The first video I looked at on YT has the sequence. I LOVE AW. Thanks guys. I'm ordering a new snubber ring.

Just ordered an OEM snubber ring. $13.35 on ebay including shipping. Not too bad.

And thanks ThatWasherGuy for the tips about the springs. I've done enough brake jobs over the years that I've learned to get those puppies off and on without too much blood and gore.

I did one about a month ago. On that one, the pulley did not have to come off, it fit through the hole in the baseplate.

In the video above, that pulley didn't have to come off either.

I just tore the washer apart and installed the new snubber ring. There was a lot of filth/dirt buildup between the inner, perforated tub and the outer tub. I cleaned all that out. The old snubber ring looked to be the same size as the new one, and that bothers me a bit. The springs came off OK--took some muscle tho. I'm going to put everything back together tomorrow. We shall see what happens.

I checked the part number of my new snubber ring, and it seems to be the correct one.

One of the on-line videos I watched about this suggested getting new suspension springs. I priced them at AppliancePartsPros but the set of 6 was $68 plus tax and shipping. So I took a hard look at my old ones and none of the springs show any amount of being stretched out. Am I missing anything (besides leveling the washer once its in place).

Sounds like you got it covered.

Sounds to me like you’ve got everything under control. As far as the springs go, I wouldn’t worry about them if they don’t show signs of stress, such as deep groves in the hooks, or stretching. My 1978 Maytag still has its original springs, and the spin cycle is smooth as silk. I’m excited to hear how it runs.
Good luck,
Thatwasherguy.

Thanks. I am a little troubled that the old snubber ring was the same size as the new one. The old one had some dings and rough spots. We shall see what happens.

So why do you feel the machine was vibrating so badly was the snub ring oily or worn smooth.

I wouldn’t imagine the suspension Springs would ever wear out on a machine like this, the transmission the plastic motor pulley the water pump. The timer were all major weak areas of this machine. I don’t think a machine could ever last long enough that the spring would start to wear out, tension type coil springs in washing machine, suspension systems usually never wear out in the life of the machine.

John L

I just ran the first load through and both spins were vibration free! Lets hope it stays that way. I think the snubber ring had been replaced recently by someone, and in hooking up the suspension springs, they didn't hook them up correctly. I hooked them up so the end of the bottom of the spring came back up through the second hole... in other words, the bottom of the spring is shaped like a fish hook. That fish hook is pointed down through one hole but the end should come up through the second hole which is about 5/8ths of an inch away from the first hole. If you just let the end of that spring flop around without inserting it up through the second hole, it will affect the spring tension a little bit. Anyway, that's my supposition. Who knows, my idea may be accurate. Anyway, so far so good.

THANKS to all who helped me!!

I love that I saved this washer from the scrapper, and investing only about $40+ bucks, I have a Maytag what lets me fill the tub with as much water as I want.

YAY!! Glad to hear that everything went smoothly. It’s always a good feeling to be able to save a machine with a simple issue from the junkyard. I have a 1998 WCI Frigidaire window A/C that I bought from a scrapper for $10, that outside of having a mouse nest jamming the fan, was fully functional. I agree, I think that those loose springs were almost definitely the culprit. Remembering the springs on my Atlantis, 5/8” across all 6 of them would be a lot of force.
Thatwasherguy.

Combo52, I'm still not entirely sure why it was vibrating so badly.

Thanks. I love saving old machines. I first spotted this washer a good year & 1/2 ago, sitting outside collecting leaves and rain water. I spun the dial and realized it had a timer instead of a darn electronic gizmo-switch. I thought about saving it at that time, then got busy with other things. At that time I had a newer electronic Maytag that I had hacked to fill the tub a little higher, but I got so tired of always having to lift the lid to reset the fill depth. Then I saw an older timer-dial Maytag at the local ReStore, but it sold for $250 before I could snag it. So I remembered this one and asked, and the owner said I could have it.

3 washes under my belt with this Maytag, and it is even better than I had hoped for. With the electronic Maytag that I had before this one, even tho I selected "Extra Rinse" everything came out smelling like the detergent. With this oldie-but-goodie Maytag everything comes out really fresh with no detergent smell. I LOVE IT! My jeans get cleaner too.

Great moves reviving the old Atlantis. I've had mine since 2005 and it's serviced our family of 4 very well despite being overloaded frequently, needing only a new belt every ~5 years or so. It developed the same spin balance issue you described at year 15 during the COVID lockdown and made a great project rehabilitating it. Attached pic shows the factory snubber when removed, damaged from never being properly leveled. Replacing this and leveling the washer completely cured the spin balance.

The transmission center gear later failed as another poster described, but I scored a complete high-torque transmission/bearings/seals kit and did the upgrade along with a new drain pump.

Thanks OldSchool. Can you describe the process to replace the trans center gear? My machine is noisy in the wash mode--though I'm not sure what normal is for this washer. How did you know the center gear was bad?

I’m guessing the balance ring or the bottom suspension springs are bad

whirlpool862 said:

I’m guessing the balance ring or the bottom suspension springs are bad

Click to expand...

He's already fixed it....

OldSchool, do you have a part number for the trans rebuild kit?

The Norge washers that the Atlantis was based off of tended to be pretty noisy under normal operation, and the Atlantis machines shared that same trait. As such, it can be a bit difficult to determine what sounds are normal and what aren’t. On my machine, it always had a bit of a metallic clunk when it would switch direction on the agitation stroke, as well as an audible groan from the gears, similar to that of the Norge washers. However, before I fixed it, it also had a thumping sound that came and went that sounded like the gears weren’t meshing up just right during agitation. I believe this was due to the broken locking tabs just hanging out inside the transmission. It also had a strange whirring sound during the spin cycle resulting from the transmission not locking up. These both went away and never resurfaced with the new gear. Unfortunately, rebuild kits don’t exist for these transmissions. They were originally meant to be a throw-away item when they failed. As such, there was also no OEM gear available. They are still fixable, however. The transmissions can still be opened, as the top is crimped into position with metal tabs. The gear is available on Amazon through a company called MTC (Part # 20234). The center gear can fail in a variety of ways. I watched a YouTube video where one had stripped out teeth. On mine, however, the tabs on the side that lock the transmission up for the spin cycle had broken off, causing the machine to only be able to spin very slowly, and agitate at the same time. If you decide to replace your center gear, I would also bank on replacing the tub seal kit at the same time, as it will be next to impossible to remove without destroying. For the 2003 model I had, the part number was W10219156. Note that this P/N is only good for models equipped with the high torque transmission.

Hope this helps,
Thatwasherguy.

Thanks for that write up WasherGuy. I really appreciate your knowledge. I'll listen carefully on the next wash and try to describe the noises I hear. I see used transmissions on ebay, but I'm a bit reluctant to take a chance on one.

How can I determine my year of production? And how can I tell if I have a High Torque trans?