1949 Maytag AMP in the Hartford Metropolitan Area

[DADoES]

 
Pitman refers to the gear arrangement inside the transmission, specifically the (Pitman) arm (Photo 1) that drives the agitator oscillation.

Orbital is a different internal gearing design.

Both are helical drive, which refers to the spiral (helix, thus helical) cut into the input shaft (Photo 2) that allows the drive pulley to move up/down along the shaft (depending which direction the motor runs) to A) turn only the input shaft for agitation with the spin brake engaged or B) release the spin brake and rotate the entire transmission for spinning the basket.

This video (at 4:40) shows the internal gears of an orbital and how they function to oscillate the agitator.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Here is what the AMP looks like underneath...

And the transmission bolted to the bottom of the tub

 

[combo52]

AMP Pictures

Thanks Robert For the cool cutaway pictures.

 

The 2nd picture is the later AMP, the first one has the aluminum wash tub, the one we have at the museum has the earlier design where the top of the transmission was the wash tub, so much for ever replacing a transmission.

 

The original AMP did not give much thought to service, but that was true of other makes as well, I am sure the original bolt-down WP-KMs were no joy to work on either.

 

John L.