A New Toy

[mistereric]

So, craigslist has snagged me this new little guy. Does not like to agitate and spin so methinks the solenoids are shot.

Model is LC4900XMW1. How do i find out an age for this beastie?

 

[mistereric]

controls

 

[mistereric]

missing lint filter... :-(

 

[gansky1]

Cool - a belt drive... It could be the timer contacts or a loose/broken wire too. Can you make out the serial number? Then we can narrow it down to the month it was made.

Best of luck with it!

 

[mistereric]

i'm thinkin timer.

I took off the wigwag and cleaned out all the gunk, relubed it all and put it back on. machine now agitates properly but does not spin.

so i flipped the yellow and red wires. its spins when it should be agitating, but no agitating.

bypassed the lidswitch, no change.

put a voltmeter on the agitate wire. set timer to agitate, and got 110v reading.

switched to spin wire and got no reading at all. so, the timer is not commanding the spin solenoid to engage.

whats next? can the timer contacts be adjusted and cleaned?

thanks!

 

[mistereric]

serial

is j54425396.

 

[magic clean]

November 1985 birth date!

 

[mistereric]

yay! i was eight.

how do you get that?

 

[Unimatic1140]

Hi Eric, very nice find! It's worth it alone for the Surgilator agitator!

Sounds like the timer is the issue and you certainly can fix it yourself by cleaning the contacts with sandpaper.

If you want, pop the timer out of the machine and take some pictures of it, we can walk you through the process.

 

[mistereric]

cool... i'm excited. if the little guy gets working again it will replace the world washer direct drive i have out in the garage. this machine is soo much more entertaining.

I get a kick out of how the guts look... just a teeny little version of the stuff in the frogeye from soo many decades earlier. stranger still is that i think the surgilator is the same!

i'll pop out the timer and look at it on weds evening. thanks for all the help soo far.

 

[jons1077]

capacity

Seeing this machine and thinking about my 84' Lady Kenmore Convertible...I was wondering. Does anyone know the official capacity of these machines? I think the current versions of these (DD models) are 1.5 cubic feet? Just curious!

Jon

 

[coldspot66]

There is a wig wag wire harness kit. Check to see if the red wire going from the lid switch down to the wig wag has continuity. There could be a break in the wire...have had that happen on belt drive machines.

 

[mayken4now]

I wanna come play with it.

Nice mahcine

Steve

 

[magic clean]

Eric, in this case you can decipher the location & date of manufacturing by the following:

The fist letter denotes J= St. Joseph Michigan

The #5= 1985

The next two numbers are the weeks of the year. 44= November

 

[mistereric]

Discoveries and Failures

Ya know, sometimes you ought to just actually look at the damned wiring diagram.

I had the water level switch jumped so it would agitate. So the machine thought it was full, and wouldn't spin. DUH!

Figured that out and it was right as rain, so I put her back together and loaded her up for the maiden wash.

Disappointment!

The machine had a hard time getting all the wash water out and was trying to spin with a bit too much water in the tub. The motor is overloading and switching on and off. I have a hunch that this is the reason why the little lady was tossed.

Next things to try are to take off the pump and make sure thats in good shape, and to replace the motor start capacitor.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks fellas.

 

[mistereric]

Another Q

Does this look like the lint filter? Mine is missing but I don't want to order one for $40 from repairclinic, yet I can't be sure this is the real deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/V-WASHER-LINT-F...ryZ20714QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

 

[jons1077]

filter

That looks like the right one to me.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Sounds more like a pump problem then a capacitor problem Eric. I would concentrate on the pump.

By the way, I can't tell you how many times I thought something was wrong because I forgot I electrically jumped a part out of the circuit LOL.

 

[mistereric]

Took the belt off the motor and plugged her in.

No matter wether or not the machine is on (pulled to start) the motor buzzes. If i carefully spin the motor pulley, it will turn slowly and eventually stop after a moment or two.

:-(

 

[Unimatic1140]

Eric, the motor start switch could have dirty contacts and need to be cleaned. This is a common problem with other machines, it could also be the capacitor but you might want to take the motor apart and clean the contacts first.

 

[mistereric]

Doesn't look good.

Oh well.

After repeated dickering, removing the motor and cleaning it up as well as I could, seeing the start switch seem to operate well, and cleaning the contacts on the timer, I am still not getting anywhere with this one. Still, the motor overheats and the machines symptoms are all over the place.

Looks like its for parts.

 

[panthera]

Eric,

Before you give up on her, check the resistance on the motor's windings. I don't have a chart here with me in Munich and I won't be in the US for another couple of weeks, but I'm sure someone here can tell you about what the measurements should come out to be.
The capacitor could be bad, of course...and don't forget that they can store a nasty jolt of electricity for some time...but this sounds more like a galvanic problem then an actual failure.
I just don't know that much about these machines, I was already in Germany when they came out and the DDs which I am familiar with came later. Again, be a shame to toss her before you get confirmation.
I think 'xploder has all sorts of stuff on them, Chad helped me right quick with a few questions I had back in January.

 

[exploder3211]

Yeah i have lots of stuff on them somewhere in a box.. i moved in febuary lol so.. lemme look up u r model number and such when i get home (car needs brakes) and will post what i find..
No don't let this thing become a parts doner... IF you don't want it any more, i will figure out how to shove into a Corolla and drag it home in July.. I'd love one

 

[exploder3211]

Ok.. Need some more info
After looking thorugh what i can find, i would either try a new capacitor or a pump.. The motor might be fried but may be a 3rd thing. The capacitor is $11.00 from sears and would be worth a shot, esp. given the age.. IF the motor is at fault thats around $100
The other thing i could think of is possibly the pump becoming stuck and causing the belt to freeze up and causing the motor to over heat, but i would think the belt would come off or something would be heard when the pump malfunctuned, did you check the pump for an obstruction or its proper operation?... The pump sounds like it may have fault in it
If i could put my hands on it i probably would be able to figure it out.