57/58 frigidaire DW-DUZ repairs

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delco1946

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Original thread was too old to pick up I guess so starting a new one…

I’ve reassembled the motor and drain line and put new cork gaskets on. I think I’m ready to hook up the garden hose and temporarily wire it to see what happens. Some questions tho-

The heating element is crusted in white scale. Is there a way to clean this?

The door start switch doesn’t move or depress. The manual suggests that it should physically depress I think, anyone experience what it’s supposed to do? I’m afraid to pull or push too hard. I’d also be curious if anyone has taken one apart, can they be rebuilt?

What sort of detergents does one use in these since the wash is so short? Modern Enzyme detergents won’t be very effective, right?

The door gasket is crusty and damaged and WILL leak. Where do I find a replacement? TIA

delco1946-2023031323542600678_1.png
 
1958 Frigidaire spin tube dishwasher

Hi Christopher, looks like a fun project probably the easiest way to remove the minerals from the heating element is sandpaper, it’s so baked on that most chemical cleaners probably won’t do much to remove it, it also won’t hurt anything if you want to leave it.

The door gasket may or may not leak there’s really not much water directed forward in this dishwasher toward the door

Need a picture of the door switch this uses in most cases the door switch like that usually Hass to be replaced but you can try spraying some silicone lubricant into it and see if it works afterwards

Keep us posted as to how well this works out.

John.
 
Is the door switch stuck in on position? If so at least you can still test the dishwasher. That door switch should be simple to find simply google "120 volt microswitch". I found one on Amazon but it is a bit expensive... https://amzn.to/3ldzGpP

For the door gasket simply go to Ace Hardware or Home Depot and get a strip of closed cell foam self-sticking weather-stripping that you place right on top of the old gasket.
 
DaDoes - You found the old thread, yes (thanks!).

Since the start button is stuck I have no idea if its in the on position, off position etc. It just "is" haha. I guess i'll find out when i connect it. I'll try to fix it as I'm a sucker for stock and it should light up which is nifty.

Sandpaper is a great idea! once I get most off would something like CLR work?

The water marks suggest that it leaked a lot out of the door as there is a lot of gross white crusty junk in the door springs that i still need to clean.
 
Fixed the switch or at least got it moving. Everything is wired up and ready to hook up water and test it! Still need to clean it tho - pretty dirty and rust spots. Even the chrome has pitting. If it works well it might be worth fixing all that…..later haha
 
Well I plugged it in without hooking up water. The start switch might be internally stuck in the on position as I don’t need to touch it for things to come alive. The drain flapper activates (good) when it should be circulating water eg on wash cycle ( once again without touching the start - I just simply lock the door). It was noticably warmer on preheat setting while I was still fiddling with things so the element seems to work. However I’m not seeing the impeller move at all - which I would assume it should even when empty (?).

It motor does seem the buzz but as mentioned the impeller hasn’t rotated when I peek back inside. I wonder if it doesnt spin unless filled with water(?) but I doubt it - guessing my motor might simply be bad.

Open to suggestions as to how to proceed. Thanks.
 
More than likely the pump impeller is probably just stuck preventing the motor from turning. The pump may need some very hot water poured through it and then you may be able to loosen it so it turns. Careful though as I believe that impeller is made of Bakelite so it could break if you use a sharp instrument to try and get it to turn.
 
I’ve already removed the motor, put a new gasket in it, removed rust and painted it etc. the impeller rotates freely by hand. I’m looking at the schematic now and it does look like the drain solenoid engages regardless of the start switch being activated so maybe I just need to play with it more.

delco1946-2023031508420601681_1.png
 
Well I’m bummed. I’ve looked thru the schematic and checked the various parts. I’m used to antique radios which have a lot of resistors and resistance.

This dw seems pretty simple ( and yet I still can’t fix it haha). The drain solenoid works and only has around 5 ohms resistance. Generally resistance thru the motor and most parts is low but not zero. What should the resistance of the motor be - any thoughts? Also, my dw has a part that I don’t see on this schematic - some sort of switch that I think measures the water pressure to trigger the fill solenoid to cut out.

Either way I hear a loud buzzing so I think the motor is trying to activate. I will mention that there was a lot of rust on the outer motor housing from a leaking motor gasket so maybe the motor is rusted…..? But the impeller moves freely…..so what do I do with this paperweight 😅
 
Sounds like then the internal start centrifugal switch of the motor is stuck and needs some cleaning and lubrication which means you will need to take the motor apart and investigate. I suspect the start switch is near the top of the motor which means you will need to carefully remove the impeller which is probably stuck on the shaft. You can test the motor by taking the two wires off the connections and place a test electrical cord onto the two wires and plug the cord in to see if the motor turns or not.
 
May have found the issue. When I check resistance from the case to the black wire in the foreground I get infinite ( I would expect this). When I check resistance between the red and black in the foreground connected when the black spring gizmo is depressed I get a solid connection / 0 ohms. However when I connect the case to either the red or black in the background or to the red in the foreground then I also get a connection/ 0 ohms which shouldn’t be I assume. Perhaps the windings have shorted/ melted? Not sure if this is fixable or if replacements exist. Also worried now that if the motor was shorting to the ground, did I damage the timer or electronics?
 
Likely shorted, grounded motor windings

From your pictures and your testing it looks like you have some grounded shorted motor windings to start windings look particularly bad.

If you can find another motor or get a motor shop to rewind it, it might be fixable.

This would not have damaged the timer and there’s no electronics of course to damage in this dishwasher lol.

John.
 
I'm getting conductance thru the switch when activated, so I dont think thats the issue. Rather im suspect of the wound wires having only 2-3 ohms resistance to the motor casing. Can anyone recommend who might re-wire this? I'm in the Portland Oregon area. Without a re-wire i have a very large paper weight....:(
 
Patrick/Pdub - thanks for the suggestion. I called them and they looked at the motor. It needs to be re-wound which would cost $450. Thats seems reasonable considering the time he'd have to put into it.

Before committing to this, as its moderately crazy, I thought id ask if folks have parts or places to contact regarding replacement motors that i could simply swap out? I can't imagine anyone is sitting on a NOS motor or has a late 50s Frigidaire dishwasher laying around to part out....but figured it can't hurt to ask.
 
$450 to rewind the motor seems steep, but that's just me.

I'm sure these motors aren't just sitting on shelves anymore but it may pay to look around just in case.

Maybe give these people a call without mentioning your first price quote and ask what they would charge for repair. I also checked with Conrey once and they were very helpful. It's always good to get more than one quote!

https://www.conreyelectric.com/
 
I’m crazy cuz I had the motor rewound…..

Never did find a replacement motor so I went with Patrick’s recommendation. They took a couple months but considering the price I was in no hurry 🤪. He might have charged me the “I don’t want to do this price”, but I will say he did a very nice job, was very nice, and I get he needs to charge real prices to stay in business. I just mounted the motor and did a dry run - she came to life! Now that the the motor wasn’t shorting everything, The switch light came on, and after testing no current was passing thru to the cabinet I cycled thru the cycles and I could see and hear the drain valve opening/ closing. After turning the knob back to off I opened it up and the element had been heating too!

There are some minor repairs such as rust, gaskets etc but I’m pleased at the moment. I think the next test will be to hook it up to water. I am worried the motor shaft gasket will leak but I’ll cross that bridge soon. If I can get it fully operational then I’ll start to focus on the cosmetic stuff.
 
That's great news Christopher. I want to take a Frigidaire Unimatic washer motor in to have rewound and I too am expecting the price of a rewind to be much higher than when I had an Apex dishwasher motor rewound about 15 years ago.

Hopefully your shaft seal is good, there should be a generic number on that seal.
 
I worked at a television station in various roles over the years including Master Control, operating the satellite truck and equipment maintenance. Toward the end I was put in charge of building maintenance. I had many HVAC fan motors go bad and decided to have them rebuilt as they were real unicorns due to the voltage and mounting brackets. Most places won't touch a fractional horsepower motor (such as these or the one in a dishwasher) but I found a place in California, Eurton Electric. What you were charged was right in line with what we were charged for the HVAC motors, so don't feel like you overpaid. Just my 2 cents worth.
 
That’s good to know, thank you Valvadhon. Makes me feel better :)

So I boiled water and poured that into the motor based on past reads that it can help to soften up the old gasket under the impeller. It definitely helped, I can’t tell if it’s leaking (from there at least ) anymore so that is drastic improvement. It was very evident for the first 60 seconds that it was leaking.

Next problem - it leaked elsewhere at gaskets and bolt threads. I might use the yellow pipe dope which doesn’t seem to harden and has worked great on thread drinking water pipe. I’m all ears if others have a non silicone / ruins it forever suggestions!

I also realized I forget to tighten a motor- carrying bolt! Silly me. Well I tightened it and it just snapped. I’ll extract it on another day as I am not in the mood. However I need to replace that specially bolt. I’d ideally replace all three since they’re rusty but I’m guessing they’re rare/ not made anymore. Sooo…. Anyone have an extra they could spare/ sell? Thx - Christopher

delco1946-2023080513591704278_1.jpg
 
Edit to last post - shaft seal is leaking. I’m just going to take it back to the motor shop as they mentioned that they might have some better equipment to remove the impeller with. What kind of gasket should go in? Would they have that or do I need to procure that in advance because it’s unusual?
 
When you say the shaft seal is leaking, how do you know it is the shaft seal? Is water dripping out from the bottom of the motor or down the sides of the motor?

These Frigidaire dishwashers use an impeller that is threaded onto the motor shaft, but according to the manual it is a left-hand thread which means turns clockwise to remove.

The shaft seal is shown here with a red box around it...

unimatic1140-2023080517594207268_1.jpg
 
Water did appear initially at the bottom of the motor, however that’s mostly stopped from what I can tell. I noticed that the actual drain tube had rust/ salts in the bottom half indicating that it’s drained a lot of leaking water in the past. I cleaned out the drain hole with a small bristle brush and dislodged/ cleaned out some crud. It now flows freely when I put water in the impeller hole and out thru the drain hole. Happy that it’s now exiting thru the correct hole but it does mean the seal is shot! ( or something else is going on!)
 

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