A washer story!

[compwhiz128]

Well today I got up from bed this morning, I heard a splashing sound comming from the bathroom, I thought it was just Mom taking a bath. Untill I sat around for a while and Mom came out with a bundle of laundry, she said, "The washer is broken!" I said, "Whats wrong with it?" She says, " It wont spin!" So I take a look at it and I start it up and all I hear is the noise that the motor makes. So Dad and I unplug it and take it out to the garrage. I then tell him how to take it apart, but he diddnt know how to so I did it instead. But I noticed that there were more steps to it than what others said.

Remove the 2 control panel screws, Take out the 2 control panel screws on the back,remove the pipe thingy for the water level switch, flip the control pannel back so it is out of your way, then unplug the lid switch from the control panel,Pry the 2 gold tab thingys off, tip the cabinet foward and rock it off.

When we looked at it, it looked really gross! There was fungus, soap, mildew, and mold, all of that stuff had been sitting there for years! But Dad and I went down lower to find the pump. We removed it from the shaft only to find that the drive coupling had broke (pic below). This was the reason why it made a vibrating sound durring spin. So we ended up going to the used appliance store to get a new drive coupling. It cost us $15.24 for a new one. So when we arrived back home Mom found pieces of the drive coupling in the laundry room. So then Dad installed the new drive couplings and put it back together, but then came my favorite part, testing it with the cabinet off ^_^
It was soooooooo cool watching the water fill up in the transparrent outer tub. When it went into spin, that vibrating sound was gone! Then everything smelled and looked better after Dad and I cleaned it. But the royal pain was getting it back together. It took a quarter of an hour (15-min) to get it back on. Until my dad forgot to put the motor screws back in. But then it was easier to put the cabinet back on. After this came the confusing part of taping the drain hose back in its spot. But luckily it diddnt take as much time as it did with the cabinet. Now we screw the hoses back on and re-level it with the dryer. Were still doing that right now . But I still had fun :-D

Well here is the old drive coupling

 

[fixerman]

Usually caused by overloading. Or it could be from washing shoes in it or something jammed the agitator. Or I have seen ones that were just worn out. The holes were elongated to the point where it just broke.

 

[compwhiz128]

No this is a faulty drive coupling. It was not very durable. the newer ones are Y shaped and thicker.

 

[goatfarmer]

I always thought of those drive couplers as a "fuse" of sorts. It will give it up before the motor or trans is damaged from overloading or similar.

kennyGF

 

[compwhiz128]

My dad says it is to protect the shock from the transmission going to the motor and destroying it

 

[westytoploader]

Ahhhh, the infamous drive coupler. In some ways I think they are better than belts (service, motor protection), and in other ways I think they aren't as great as belts (namely durability). It all depends on how you look at it. Incidentally, changing a drive coupler was the first major repair (it wasn't the Dual-Tumble or the 1-18) I pulled off.

After the plumber snaked the cleanout and eliminated the slow-draining standpipe problem (which resulted in a flood if you weren't careful), I pulled our '98 DD Kenmore out of the laundry room and put the "new" '03 Maytag, which pretty much sat in the shed for a year after we bought it and previously only washed 5 loads or less, in its place. Since the Kenmore was high-mileage and got 12-14 loads per week (and I did smell a burnt-rubber smell on more than one occasion), I decided to put a new coupler in. Since I had not previously done this, I printed up instructions and got to work. Removing the cabinet was easy, and after I unclamped the pump, the old coupler (which was the Y shape) had some wear but not as much as I had expected, which really surprised me. After that I proceeded to clean the grime off of the transmission and cabinet. Getting the old coupler off was easy, but getting the new one on was a little tricky, especially on the transmission side where there is limited space. After wrestling with it for 10 minutes, I finally was able to heft the motor into place and put everything back together. That went without a hitch (although I almost forgot the cabinet clips, and wondered why the cabinet was lifting off when I tried to tilt it...), and I hooked it up for a water test. The agitator came to life, and the machine had a nice, strong spin...I've only done a handful of washloads with the new coupler, which will definitely come in handy when I sell it.

--Austin

 

[gizmo]

Thanks for posting these pics.

Today I got asked by a friend to look at her machine - same problem. I tipped it back and looked underneath, enough to see the broken coupler. It is a bit different, instead of white discs each side it has three arms with the pins at the end - till they sheared off. This description, plus a look at repairclinic.com, makes me more confident to fix it - these machines are not really common here and I have never worked on one before.
An Aussie spare parts website advertises a coupling with "new design, less likely to fail". Does anyone know what the change is, and how I tell whether the one I am buying is the newer or older one?

Thanks

Chris.

 

[compwhiz128]

The newer ones are Y shaped and the older ones are disk shaped.

Austin I am not sure, but my dad thinks it is a bad idea to removed the factory sealed pump clamps, his reason, "Eventualy soap,water and high water flow will cause it to slip off and leak."

 

[fixerman]

It's true the older couplings are disc shaped and the new ones Y shaped but there are two options on the Y shaped ones, the standard duty one, part no 285753, and a heavy duty one, part no 285852. On the heavy duty one the rubber is plied, something like how a tire is made.

 

[goatfarmer]

Wonder why they need 2 different ones.You would think they all would be "heavy duty".

kennyGF

 

[repair-man]

Not sure I understand the "heavy duty" one. It's never the rubber disk that wears out on the newer type. It almost always breaks off at the motor or transmission shaft. Now on the older ones the rubber disk would wear out until the pins from the two opposing disks would hit each other and break off.

In my opinion (and experience- I replace 100 +/ year) the newer design fails much quicker than the original design.

Do you other repair persons find this true also ?

You have to love the Whirlpool design as far as ease of repair.

ED

 

[fixerman]

I don't quite understand the reasoning either. If the reason for them is as a circuit breaker to protect the motor, why make one heavy duty. If the "heavy duty" one takes more to break it seems it negates some of the reason for having one. I never replace them with the heavy duty one because I figure if they are designded to break when overloaded or jammed, they are simply doing their job. When I get call on this I always advise the customer about overloading and washing shoes or other objects that could jam the agitator.

 

[coldspot66]

I do find that the new coupling "breaks" in 2 but the pins never break and the rubber isolator might have elongated holes, but never wears through to cause the pins to strike one another. Too bad they didn't come out with the fabric isolator to fit the pin style coupling....then we would be out of business. For the $$$ you can't beat a W/P top loader for ease of service and dependability. WAIT is that a MAYTAG buzzword?????????

 

[magic clean]

The fabric and woven rubber isolater is used on the commercial version of the d-d washer. Can be used on any of them.

A deep socket can be used to help align and provide a "strike" surface when installing the coupler on the transmission and motor shafts.

Leslie

 

[fixerman]

That doesn't answer why there are two versions of the coupling. If the "heavy duty" coupling can be used on any of them, and still offer motor protection, why not just put the heavy duty in all of them. If it offers less protection one would presumably be taking a chance on burning out the motor if overloaded or jammed.

 

[compwhiz128]

OOO and apperently the washer is made in USA :-D