A suds-saver saga - the "rebuilding" of the 1957 GE suds system

[turquoisedude]

So it only took me 6 years to get around to restoring the lovely 1957 GE Filter-Flo automatic washer - and as usual, I had a fairly major "do-over" not long after the initial restoration. Well, the washer has been running fine since the transmission fix (and it seems to have outlived it's GE dryer mate...). Everything was hunky-dory, but you know me - I can't leave well enough alone!

This washer model is WA857 (Canadian equivalent of a WA855), so that means this is one of the first suds-saving models made by the good folks at Appliance Park in Louisville.

Recall that the washer was in regular use until about 1980, then sat undisturbed in a Guelph, Ontario basement until Phil and I rescued it in October of 2012.

Time took it's toll on the suds-saver....

 

[turquoisedude]

Most of the components were shot. The valve plate gasket was dried up, the maze of hoses was beyond salvage, and the valve control solenoid went POW when I tried to power it up...

On a positive note, I managed to get the return pump running!

I was lucky enough to have a brand-new replacement valve plate gasket (somewhere in washer heaven, Larry Olmo was no doubt grinning) but I had to find a replacement solenoid.

Finding a solenoid was not a big issue but the mounting bracket on the original solenoid was not something that you see on a typical replacement.
So I improvised! I cut the triangular brackets off the the dead solenoid and re-attached them with JB Weld.

 

[turquoisedude]

Putting in the new valve plate gasket was a snap. Needless to say, I was very, very careful not to tear anything when re-inserting those levers and valve caps!

 

[turquoisedude]

I studied the GE manual until my head hurt trying to figure out how to replace the original hoses. It took a couple of tries before I came up with this monstrosity.

I will never win a prize for prettiest plumbing.... LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

And being paranoid, I tried running water through the valve and hoses. I even tried running the pump and powering up the solenoid to direct the water through the return hose port.

Sure, there were a couple of drips, but nothing the turn of a screw didn't solve. It was looking good, so I popped the the valve assembly back into the washer.
I say 'popped' as it if was easy... LOL It isn't!

 

[turquoisedude]

What next? Well, the danged thing dripped...

The drip was coming from the valve plate where the base and cover joined. So, out came the assembly and my first attempt was to tighten the plate cover screws. I realized a couple were not tightening. I started to sweat at this point, panicked a little, then eventually came up with the idea of using a nut and bolt to hold the cover closed. Phil agreed that this was a good solution (I wanted to run this by another washer person, what can I say). So, off to the hardware store for the nuts and bolts I went.

When I got back I also decided to give the plates a coat of non-hardening liquid gasket before I tightened anything. It looked good and there seemed to be no further leakage.

 

[turquoisedude]

Naturally, when you install and remove something that you did a half-assed repair on, you can be guaranteed that something else will break...

My solenoid mounting solution went to hell in the proverbial handbasket. After a lenghty flurry of obscenities, I devised an alternate bracket to hold the solenoid in place. It was actually WAY better than my first solution!

Also, when I observed the dripping water from between the valve plate sections, I saw that water was hitting the danged solenoid. No wonder the old one went POW (and it was a 1966 replacement of the original...). I didn't show it here, but I added a shield just above the solenoid to keep water off. I figured I had all the bases covered now!

 

[turquoisedude]

The valve was back in place, hoses all hooked up, and the water supply hoses reconnected. I wisely did not move the washer back into the suds-saver slot in the laundry room, but I still managed to rig up a suds-return hose.

First part of the test - set the washer to a normal cycle start, with the suds-saver control in the 'SAVE' position. That all looked good and the wash water drained out of the suds return hose into the laundry tub!

 

[turquoisedude]

The moment of truth....

I stopped the washer after the wash-spin had completed, and set the machine to start a new cycle.

The washer started filling and I toggled the suds switch to the 'RETURN' position.

The Suds Return indicator light lit!! And the water started flowing back into the tub.

 

[turquoisedude]

HOWEVER....

Yeah, you just knew that was coming...

There was a trickle of water on the floor...

 

[turquoisedude]

The offender

Is the pressure dome on the suds-return hose into the tub... I didn't notice this when I tested the return hose because I was too busy looking for leaks where the hose squeezes through an opening at the top of the tub.

So... I'm not sure how I may be able repair this; perhaps some 'liquid rubber' type coating may do the trick. However I am not going to get back to this now for a while so I put the washer back in place with the suds-valve assembly removed. I'll probably have to pull the top of the washer off to get to that suds-return hose and that always stresses me out, given how easy it is to snap the fill flume or flub up the filter-flo hose...

I'm a little disappointed, but wow, did I ever learn a lot about the early GE suds-saver systems! Complicated like you wouldn't believe... LOL

The Inglis is still the suds-saving machine of choice. For now....

 

[pulltostart]

Paul,

Good story!  And thanks for sharing.  Always good to see an old GE brought back to life - and I love the indicator light on the console!

 

Be patient and go back to it when you're ready, and know that you've made more steps forward than backward.

 

lawrence

 

[Unimatic1140]

You said it Paul...

and as usual, I had a fairly major "do-over" not long after the initial restoration

Boy is that ever a fact of life with vintage washer restorations!

 

[ozzie908]

@ turquoisedude

Its so true when fixing these retro washers that " Necessity " Is the mother of invention and well done for coming up with an ingenious method of repairing the solenoid bracket.

Austin

 

[swestoyz]

Paul - you are a saint. I can't say I'd go to all of this trouble... look at that rats nest!

Is the flow switch used to "sense" when the machine is receiving suds from the suds system?

 

[turquoisedude]

Is the flow switch used to "sense" ....

Ben, yes, that's how it works. I really studied the electrical schmatics for this (especially after the miswiring and Water Saver button incident...) and it's marvel of overenGEneering for sure!

I got a little worried when I first tried the suds return system and found I couldn't keep the retrun pump running unless I held the switch, but once there was water in the pressure chamber it worked.

 

[yogitunes]

kudos for your improvisations.....

I know some boast that it has to be all original, but sometimes that is not a given choice, so we have to come up with our own ideas....if it works, who cares?...no one really knows but you...

then again, ideas need to be shared, as it may help someone else down the road with a similar issue...

 

[turquoisedude]

Time for an update....

I was bouyed by my recent successes with the repairs to my 2 fave dryers (the 59 Frigidaire Imperial and the 57 GE) so I thought I was ready to take a run at the '57 GE WA857 suds-saver system.

Last time round, I got the suds save/return system to work, but a leak from the suds return hose/pressure dome area put the kibosh on that... I went back through my notes and found, much to my amazement, that I had noted that when removing the tub in order to repair the snubber band brake pad I damaged the suds-return nozzle.

So on the weekend, I popped the top of the 57 again (never something I like doing as there are lots of things that can be damaged in doing so and I am plumb out of spare fill flumes...LOL). I was anxious to try out a brush-on rubber coating that PhilR had told me about (he used it on some dried up wiring and a turntable idler wheel); I gave the suds nozzle a generous coating.

 

[turquoisedude]

I reassembled the washer and (extremely carefully) matched up the loose wires from the timer/control panel to the patch panel at the back of the machine.
I tried a dry test first - no blown fuses, no smoke, and all regular machine functions worked. So for the sheer thrills of it, I tried to activate the suds saver solenoid. It worked. I tried the suds-return pump. It worked.

So I added water....