1987 Lady Kenmore 90 Series! Project/Restoration

[combo52]

Chipped and rusted wash basket

You can paint them with Epoxy paint, or marine paint but you’re better off looking for another basket in the long run.

 

[DADoES]

 
Doesn't seem bad at all to me but maybe my standards are low based on what's common around here, LOL.

 

[scantpear1985]

Tripple dispenser especially the detergent dispenser.

Hey yall, i have a washer model just like this and another washer that is the same but it is the kenmore elite version that has the triple dispensers similar to the calypso washers. I need help with customizing something on the older one, the lady kenmore i have which is not getting only hot and only cold in the tripple dispensers mainly the detergent dispenser. The reason why i am wanting to do this is because when i use a hot or cold water wash, the detergent dispenser flushes with warm no matter what. that means if i pause it a bunch of times when it is filling for the wash because of me remembering things at least several times that i forgot to add to the wash load originally, i would stop the washer each time i do so. When i keep having doing that a bunch of times, the warm water will start filling into the machine through the detergent dispenser each time i start it back up on a wash cycle fill and it will of curse give me warm water every time even if i have the water temperature switch selected on hot only or cold only. I need help to find what wires to work with for splicing and wiring in to make it flush with what temperature i have selected on the temperature switch. My 1999 kenmore elite which has the newer triple dispensers like the claypso has flushes the temperature switch selected water temperature through the detergent dispenser. Why not my older ldy kenmore. It should be the same as my kenmore elite. That means i will need help working in the wiring diagram to find out which wires to splice and wire cap with. I appreciate any help towards making that cosomization/repair work. I trued calling a friend and he was telling me just leave it as is. But thats not why i need to do this. Just because it is filling through a dispenser does not mean it needs to not give me the temperature i have told the machine to give me. I may have misspelled words because i typing hates me for whatever readon do bare with me as well.

 

[combo52]

First triple dispenser, direct drive washers

These machines had a different main inlet valve. All the water that supplied to the dispensers is always warm. There’s no way to electrically rewire this. If this bothers you when you’re doing a hot wash, turn off the cold water so the washer fills for wash if you’re doing a cold wash Turn off the hot water.

And of course don’t turn the machine on and off start it and let it go through the cycle. Otherwise, as you found out, it will keep adding water through the dispenser for a minute or two each time.

John

 

[dominic20]

hey nice find

dds are very easy fi fix except removing the tranie also a friend of mine had one like that a 70 series

 

[Chetlaham]

Interesting

As elegant as Kenmore's approach of having dedicated valves for the dispensers is, they should have placed the flood switch in the combined neutral of the dispenser valves vs the main incoming line. If someone kept setting the knob from the start of the cycle the machine could ever fill tripping the flood switch leaving the user with a tub full of water and no way to drain it out. Not very smart IMO. I wonder why they did it that way.

 

[combo52]

Early Kenmore, triple dispensers

Not really likely to overflow even at full water level you would have to set it through 10 more dispense Ashens to get the machine to overflow, and since this machine will operate with the lid open, you would see that you’re causing a mess and it wouldn’t be a big flood even if you did it, this would be like standing there and holding the little fingertip water dispenser models where you could wet an item for spot scrubbing, so long that the tub would fill up and overflow I don’t think it’s ever happened.

Reply number 34, hi Dominic, it’s actually very easy to change the transmission and a direct drive washer. It was the easiest modern washer ever to change the transmission in the only other machine that came close were the GE filter flows were quite easy to do it transmission swap

Probably the next easiest machine would be a whirlpool belt drive washer. They weren’t too bad to change. To change the transmission in most other machines were so labor-intensive it was almost never done generally when you had a Westinghouse WCI, Norge and several other machines transmission fail It was the end of the washer 90% of the time nobody wanted to pay for the labor for changing a transmission even Maytag you generally never changed the transmission on thankfully, for Maytag, they didn’t have much trouble in the early years of the machines life.

John

 

[jrsydevil]

5 Years Later..

Hey guys, hope you are all well. I still have this machine, sadly the last time I posted about this machine was the last time I had touched it. College life and other things got in the way. However, today I decided to make my move and put it back together!

So far, I had re-installed the outer tub, as well as the brackets/suspension springs. I also put the porcelain tub with the drive block and spanner back in.

I put some water into the machine as the drain pump completely dried out, I plugged it in and tested the spin cycle. Drained good, and it appeared to spin good, until it stopped, and made a buzzer-type noise, I also appear to have an issue with the brake perhaps?

I wanna guess this is some kind of overload safety this machine has? Any expert advice with these 2 problems will help!

Here's a video I took:

 

[combo52]

It looks like the basket drive block, came loose and disengaged from the spin shaft, make sure the drive block is down on the two little metal ears at the top of the spin shaft and tighten the lock nut ring tightly and see if it still does this.

There is no buzzer or overload system. That's causing that noise on this washer.

John

 

[jrsydevil]

Thanks John, that fixed the first issue!!

And I believe I just solved the second issue.

The front cabinet is disconnected, and the rear panel is moving freely during the spin test, triggering this little guy.
Perhaps an unbalanced load safety?

 

[DADoES]

 
Yes, that's an off-balance "kick-out" switch.

 

[combo52]

Kick off off ballot switch relay buzzer

Ha ha, Ryan you're absolutely right there were only about 4 Direct Dr. machines ever built that had an off balance switch. These were common on mid and upper line Kenmore belt drive machines whirlpool never used them except about once and I didn't even think about the fact that it could have one of these when you said it was cutting off and making noise, lol.

Hopefully you're on the way to nice working machine.

John

 

[combo52]

The second load in dishwasher number two

As usual, it's so nice to open the door and see everything spotless, my neighbor Miranda was absolutely amazed that I was putting those roasting trivets and a pie plate that was all in crusted where I overdid the crust directly in the dishwasher covered with food.

Here are the results as usual, makes cleanup, easy.

I don't even use the pots and pan cycle. I just use heavy wash with high temperature option 1 tablespoon of liquid cascade in the pre-wash cup one Costco tablet in the closed dispenser with air dry and everything comes out completely dry even with the door closed overnight.

 

[DADoES]

 
John, your post above presumably is in the wrong thread.

Ryan, I have the same model 110.82692820.  I fetched it from Appnut/Bob in April, he held it for years awaiting pick-up after he switched to a frontloader.  I haven't yet examined it for refurb.  Your serial number is May 1987.  The one I have from Bob was produced a bit earlier, serial July 1986.  Bob's experience with the aggressive direct-drive agitation at high speed led to his infamous dubbing of it as The Lady Shredmore.

 

[jrsydevil]

Found an original style agitator!!

I'll tell you what John it works alot better than the HE unbalanced load "feature", talk about saving water, lol.

Glenn, I'd love to see pics of this machine when time permits!!

I went looking for a new agitator as I ended up using it on my other machine. And I found this Dual Action for 35 bucks, it was built and kept as a spare! Really excited!! Stay tuned.

 

[jrsydevil]

99.99% Complete!!

Hi guys, I finally put the machine back together!!

I installed the new agitator as well as a new lid switch. Afterward, I put the water spout and the cabinet back on. I hooked the hoses up, plugged it in, and gave it a test run. It works and runs awesome!! The triple dispenser works, the agitator is aggressive, even the neutral drain works good too!! (Not sure if its been serviced at any point, the neutral drain on my other machine only works when its 2+ cycles in and it's 11 years younger, lol.) The exterior of the tub is not the prettiest looking, but surprisingly the inside shaft has no rust, and its the original style! One day I'll probably replace it.

Anyways, I have one more piece that's missing for this machine.

The triple dispenser comes with 2 of the staircase shaped spouts. I'm missing the one for liquid detergent, I have the cup, so it's not the end of the world if I can't a hold of one.

I don't believe they have parts for these style dispensers anymore. Is there anyone that has the piece I'm looking for? Anything will help, thanks!

 

[appnut]

It looks like.
You're missing the staircase plastic insert for the fabric softener dispenser

 

[ryner1988]

I've noticed the neutral drain mechanism on older direct drives, think late 80's/early 90's, is often still perfectly in tact and working great, whereas if you get a machine from the late 90's and especially the 2000's, the neutral drain is almost certainly not working right. I wonder if the components responsible for that function were stronger in earlier models.