Clicking Sound
Hey Doug,
John's right. If one could find a NOS trans. setting around somewhere in town or not too far away, I'd go for it, but unfortunately one doesn't find these old style "Newton trans." setting around in boxes very often. I'd jump on one in a min. if I found it, but they're usually to far away or the owner wants too much money for it. I believe John probably ment to scavenge a nice one out of an older (maybe mid '80's) BOL machine that nobody wants and use it for yours. It's a great idea and I have one out back that I'm gonna do the same thing with. Who knows, I may try and sell some of the other parts to a member just for shipping, if anyone wants them. There's tons of old parts and machines out there. But some parts are specific to certain types of machines and if I can help someone out I would be happy.
I commend you on trying to rebuild your machine. It's quite a feat and satisfying when it turns out right. I take it from your first post that you held the tub to stop the tub from indexing and hitting the brake. That is usually a lower thumping sound. It may be that when tightening the mounting stem set screw you accidentally tightened it into one of the three water relief grooves on the trans. neck and during agitation the screw is striking the side of the groove. If this is the case, eventually the screw will sheer off and score the side of the neck and ruin it.
If that happens the tub and the trans. will no longer be locked together and during agitation the tub will index severely and during spin the trans. will take off, but the the tub will set still. The agitator would probably try to spin in a tub full of water and clothes. I've never seen it happen, but I imagine the agitator would throw out some water and the fins might break off and shred the clothes. There would probably be some strange noises, maybe a water leak, I don't know. It might happen over time as the set screw slowly made it's groove around the trans. neck. After the groove is complete I don't know what would happen. Probably the above. Others who have seen this, please comment. I would personally like to know what it looks like, but I don't want it to happen to me. It sounds very unpleasant.
Anyway, Doug, that higher pitched knocking sound I hear from you video sounds like it could be the old set screw in the groove problem, assuming the rest of your trans. looked in good shape when it was disassembled and you put it back together properly. I don't hear any of that high pitched whine during agitation that usually comes from worn bushings in the gear case cover. That's good. Out of curiosity, what kind of gear oil did you use?
I trust that you did a leak test w/o the agitator in place? You could try and take the agitator out, let the machine fill, and let it run with no load on the drive shaft. If the sound leaves, then you could reach down in the machine with something to protect your hands and try to stop the agitator shaft while it's turning to see if the sound returns. That might lead you to something. Or you could take the water level hose off the switch, blow into it until it clicks and clamp it with a pair of vice-grips. You'll have an empty run that way. That's an interesting thing to do.
Let us/me know what happens.
