Clean up photos of Amanda and Dan's Whirlpool

[rinso]

Beautiful job of restoration, Rick. I can almost hear the buzz, click, snap of the wig-wag and cam engaging the spin clutch.

Don't worry about tossing the placebo passive lint filter. Had one in my 1987 TOL WP. Didn't catch anything but grunge.

 

[brettsomers]

very nice. ive really enjoyed this thread. love the all white interior. im a Whirlpool virgin. i see that massive agitator and imagine the transmission must be quite strong, to move such a heavy load as this surgilator would place on it?

 

[jasonl]

YAY!

Another WP saved! Great work! Looks like a brand new machine.

 

[DADoES]

The tranny is "standard" Whirlpool belt-drive issue.

 

[rickr]

Steve,the house is a newer home, so the dryer outlet requires the newer style four prong dryer plug. The four prong plug adds an additional ground source to the appliance.

David, the transmition in this WP is the same type transmition that was used in all the belt drive WP/KM from the 1950's until 1986, when the belt drive system was replaced with the direct drive design. The belt drive design transmition has beefy steel gears, case iron lower case, and cast aluminium upper case. They make for a very heavy,but sturdy and durable transmition.

 

[imperial70]

I love that machine. That is the spiting image of the one I bought in 86, complete with Winged Super Surgilator. Great machine. Workhorse. They are going to love it

 

[gelaundry4ever]

belt drive vs. direct drive steel gears

Sorry it's late, but how beefy are the steel gears in a direct drive compared to the older belt drive models? This question plagues me. I've always thought the direct drives were cheaper built.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #36

There’s no real comparison, the belt drive has all cast iron gears and the direct drive has a mixture of metal and plastic gears. The neutral drain pack has a tendency of going out, belt drives never had issues with the neutral drain unless the solenoid plunger for the spin got busted causing the tub to spin while agitating.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

direct and belt drive gears

What was Whirlpool's reason for using plastic in their direct drives? Why couldn't they use all steel? How thick is the plastic gear as opposed to the gears in the direct and belt drives? I hope all the gears including the plastic spin gear holds up very well and comparable to the thickness and weight to the belt drive gears in the direct drives.

 

[combo52]

Whirlpool top load, washer, transmission gears

Both belt drive and direct drive transmissions used to machined, steel pinion gear, the other metal gears were cast iron.

Neither design ever had any trouble with gears except the pre-1964 transmissions as pictured and reply number 36 the pinion gear used to tear the teeth off the first reduction cast gear whirlpool, beefed it up in 1964 and we never saw problem after that.

Plastic gears are usually stronger and last longer than cast-iron gears, that’s why Maytag used nylon for the pinion gear in their automatic washer transmissions, which never failed in normal use of the machine.

John

 

[gelaundry4ever]

gear thickness

So how thick were Whirlpool's gears? How many parts do the direct drives have compared to the older belt drives as far as their transmissions go? You would think that the gears would tolerate that much torque.

 

[kg2280]

Looks great Rick. I recently acquired almost the same machine.
Needless to say, I'm pretty excited. After cleaning and soaking the outer tub in CLR, I've got 99.9% of the buildup off, so now it's time to tackle the rust. I've attached a picture for reference.
I'm thinking I should do as you did and use POR 15 on the bottom of the entire tub and the short center post and a couple other areas along the rim.
I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions...
1. How did you prep the tub before painting? Did you use those 2 products in the kit, or did you just go right to painting after you cleaned it with CLR?
2. Did you paint over the 4 bolts and rubber things or just paint around them as close as possible.
3. How's the machine holding up?

Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

 

[goatfarmer]

Sad to say, Rick is no longer with us.

 

[thatwasherguy]

First off, welcome to the forum!

Second, congrats on the machine! Considering it’s age, the tub looks to be in excellent condition. I have used POR15 in the past on a Maytag outer tub with very similar rust to the one in your Whirlpool. I used the two products in the kit to prepare the surface on my machine. I didn’t have bolts in the bottom of my tub, but I can’t imagine it causing problems to paint them. I am unsure as to have a it will last, as I have only used the machine about 30 times since I rebuilt it. I imagine that it will hold up quite well, though, as the coating feels quite strong to the touch.
Hope this helps,
Thatwasherguy.

 

[rinso]

"Tragic Lint Filter" is indeed a correct reference to the under-the-tub passive lint filter. After 8 years of service, I gave my TOL direct drive a thorough cleaning, removing the tub because I thought the lint filter might need attention. I was so wrong! There wasn't a speck of lint in it after all that time. I agree that it probably doesn't do much to catch lint.

 

[helicaldrive]

What?

What happened to Rick?

 

[DADoES]

 
He died on 10/10/2022.  It was announced in the green section As the Tub Turns on 10/25/2022.  No details there on the cause of death and I don't recall anyone otherwise shared that information.

 

[helicaldrive]

OMG

Thank you.