Basket drive

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Jim,

You need, the 18.25-inch spin tube for your washer with green brake springs. The last all-encompassing release of basket drives from WP had part numbers in the 3839xx range. There were at least ten different configurations with three length spin tubes, various spring capacities for the brake drum (large capacity, standard capacity, and compact, etc.) and two different drive pulleys for the two different belts.

When I am home on Friday I will look at my catalog and let you know the part number to look for. These have been out of production for a while, as some of the most common drives were re-issued in the 2858xx part range but it was only two or three of the drives that were being sold in the early 2000s.

Ebay is a good source for these and there are at least four out there now.

Gordon
 
Gordon

Thanks... John suggested that as long as I had it torn apart it would be a good Idea to replace the basket drive.... there are several spots on it that are scored and grooved. That's why I am looking for one.... I found one with the longer shaft but did not know about the springs.. thanks for letting me know about that...Jim
 
Jim -

A few scores on the spin tube are fairly common and not a serious concern until the "digs" into the metal get serious enough to start chewing away at seals and bearings. A new basket drive however can really make a machine sound and work very well.

The 18.25 inch spin tube was available in the most variety. The capacity of the brake springs probably isn't a big deal or deal breaker, but you may as well get the right part.

383923 is the most common basket drive with the 18.25 spin tube (1950s to 1978) and this one is for standard tub machines. It is fairly often available on eBay --- if we don't find you the right drive this one would work and we could even swap the springs to make it right.

Gordon
 
Gordon

I was looking some on E-bay 383930, 383937, don't know if they would fit... mine has the narrow pulley... as does every other pulley on the machine.... Jim
 
Jim,

I wondered if you had the narrow belt on your machine. This sadly limits the availability of part supplies, as only a handful of models used that specific drive. I'll have a part number for you on Friday.

Gordon
 
Gordon

Yes is does have the narrow belt....I was told that was supposed to make it quieter, does it ??? does it limit the washer in any way ???? the water pump has the narrow pulley.... I wonder if I can still get a pump with that narrow pulley or could I just take the narrow pulley's off the old and install on the new ???? Thanks for your help and getting me that info... Jim
 
WP BD Basket Drives

Hi Gordon and Jim, Jim probably the easiest way to get the correct basket drive assembly for your washer is to just buy a new spin tube and use it with the components from your old one. This is easy to do when you have an old BD that is still in fairly good shape like yours. New Spin Tubes are still easy to find and if you can not find one I can sell you one.

Jim you are correct that if you want to replace the water pump you would normally just use the pulley from the old pump. Jim hows the project going, hope you are taking pictures.

John L.
 
Basket drive

Hello John.... for the most part it is coming along pretty good.... I cannot seem to find a baseplate... the one's I have found are not the right size center post..... I've looked for a doner on here on craigslist,the one I did find the person never got back to me..I've tried scrap yards etc still no luck.. that's what's holding me up.... The tranny is all rebuilt and ready to go, I've sanded down the little surface rust there was an put primier on that... as soon as I can find a baseplate I can put it back together.... Jim
 
Jim -

The basket drive part number for the whole assembly is/was 383927 for your exact configuration. If you're going to buy a whole drive, you want the 18.5 inch spin tube (its not 18.25 as I thought earlier), the green (for large capacity) brake springs, and the narrow pulley. This was not a high volume usage part in this configuration, as I can recall only the 1974 Lady K, the 1974 Kenmore 70, and the 1975 Kenmore 70 as having used it, in addition to your whirlpool and possibly a few others. Nothing in the Kenmore line used it that I know of in 1976 or 1977, and the spin tube length changed to 13.something inches in 1978 and thereafter.

You can follow John's suggestion and disassemble your working basket drive if you ever need parts, and you should be able to buy some components separately such as the clutch pads and drum, etc. in addition to the spin tube. If you've taken the rest of your machine apart this far, the further disassembly of the drive shouldn't be a big deal for you. You'll need clamps or a vice to re-seat the set screw. It was this set screw that prematurely failed (it un-screwed and ruined the spin tube) in our 1974 Kenmore, which started this fascination of belt-drive repairs for me.

As to a replacement base plate, the 4.5 year availability of your configuration (from later 1973 thru 1977) is going to make finding a good one 36+ years later kinda tough. You take a risk of finding the same conditions in a donor of the same age as yours. I think I would try John's suggestion and weld-on a stainless sleeve using your existing post --- from what John has said it worked flawlessly on his now very rare 1968 KM. To me it seems like the perfect solution if you want to use this washer for a LONG time as stainless is better than original in this case.

Talk to you soon Jim.

Gordon
 
Does anyone know what basket drive 383925 is for? Is there a list of the different configurations somewhere? It would be a great to have a resource for something like this as various incarnations come up on eBay now and again. Did red springs mean standard capacity and green springs mean large capacity?

These are the only ones that I know of:

383922 - narrow pulley, 18.5 in spin-tube
383923 - std pulley, 18.5 in spin tube
 
James -

383925 is the large capacity configuration, 18.5 inch spin tube, and the standard pulley --- the same as Jim needs except the pulley.

I have a chart of configurations from my 1992 Whirlpool catalog. Believe it or not there were 13 different drives for belt-drives available at the time. I can type them all out some time, maybe in a separate thread which would make searching archives easy.

The green brake springs are indeed for large capacity machines, while the red are for standard, though some standard drives used white as well.

383923 was one of the more popular basket drives, as it replaced drives in models from the 1950s through 1977. The most common though is 383929, which is the large capacity config, standard pulley, short 13-inch spin tube...which encompassed most of the belt-drive output from 1978 to 1987. This one went on to be superceded by 285897 before the drive finally went NLA.

Gordon
 

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