Cracking Open My Westy

[3beltwesty]

With my rebuild to make inspection and work easier I raised the washer up via three pieces of scrap 2x6's under each leg. I had gobs of scrap wood after Katrina and used 2x6's so the washer's leg had more wiggle room when it was running. My washer I repainted the lower inside frame and bottom frame members. Raising allowed the work to be easier.

 

[takacedon]

Re-cording

Well I went to Lowes to get a new cord for the machine and the guys there refused to sell me one, claiming that you could NOT wire a washing machine to a normal 3 prong outlet.....funny, b/c my Bosch has a traditional 3 prong plug. I should have known better. They want me to cut the cord off so they can determine the gage....I need to find a real hardware store around here, guess I'm going to Berrings!

 

[travis]

Whatever

They have appliance and tool cords right by the extension cords. I would go with 16 gauge.

Take a pic of what you're working on and tell them to stick it.

 

[3beltwesty]

Lowes must be totally insane; OR they are in some pre WW2 time warp.

All the washers they sell have 3 prong 120 volt plugs; ie 1 hot; 1 neutral and 1 green wire ground.

16 awg is probably fine; even buying a 12 or 25 foot 14 or 16 awg grounded type extension cord will work.

 

[takacedon]

I told them

They were sorely mistaken as I had re-wired my ironrite which pulls a TON of current and that's just fine. Thanks for letting me know which gauge to get, I'm clueless on most of this stuff, so I'm learning as I go. Bozos. I just hope I can re-wire this w/o any disassembly....someone is sending me a service manual via e-mail later today, so that should help.

 

[takacedon]

Inspecting the pump

So I was able to get the cover off the pump, to inspect the front seal, when what should I find inside? An acorn, were Chip n' Dale wintering in my Westinghouse? The seal was actually in very good shape, still pliable and not dried out at all. I think the leak is coming from the back where the drive shaft enters. Not immediately seeing a way to access that I put it back together.

 

[takacedon]

Unfortunately...

There's always an unfortunately. As I tried to get the small air hose off, I broke the #$@%ing thing. Can this be fixed with an epoxy? I tested to see if the water level sensor was working, I blew in the tube and heard the click, so I'm good there.

 

[takacedon]

One last image for today

Here's how rusty the inside was before I got to work sanding and putting down a primer specifically for rusty metal, hopefully tomorrow I'll get to paint it up with an off white enamel.

 

[combo52]

WH FL WASHERS

WOW that machine is not very rusty for an old WH washer. The flat floor pan should be a light gray the cabinet should be white, you don't want to loose points during the judging LOL.

 

The pump impeller has serious cracks, the water seal is shot so the main bearing can't be too great and the cover is broken. As I said earlier get a new pump, I guess I am not very patient, but I hate to see some waste 5 hours fooling with a bad pump and yes if you can find all those parts you can fix the one you have.

 

[3beltwesty]

Not my auction; but a decent price if you want the older style pump as a collector for ie looks.

Your impeller's 4 driven vanes are also well bent; this drops the gpm/flow rate.

If the water tube nipple was bonded and it fails, you will flood the house!.

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[arbilab]

Thanks for that great nostalgia shot in frame 26. That must be the last of the gearbox slantfronts. I had no idea any of these had survived. That's hardly rusted at all for something ~60yo that runs on water.

Anybody remember the earlier Westys that measured water by how far down the bottom spring was compressed? Now THAT'S nostalgia.

 

[takacedon]

New Pump it is!

Ok ok, I'll get the new pump lol Does someone happen to have a service manual so I can see how to get it out of there? Modern Parts said they had some pumps for the L8 for 60 dollars, which seems reasonable to me. Is
there anything else I need to know about replacing this pump?

Most of the interior rusty parts have been primed with a rust inhibiting enamel, I'll probably pick up some white and light grey (i was just gonna do it all white until someone mentioned points ) enamel today.

 

[3beltwesty]

On a replacement pump the distance from the driven disc to the pump body may or may not be OK as I mentioned already farther up the thread in Reply #11.

If too long the spring is over constrained and will "whip" .

If too short the spring is in tension and the brass bushing on the disc will wear a groove.

Sometimes one has to move the shafts on the drive spring.

 

[3beltwesty]

The short hose that is the input to the pump or may not "be sort of bonded" to the old pump body; thus use caution when removing the hose so it is not ruined.

 

[takacedon]

Today's update

Well I successfully re-corded the machine, though looking at the wires I was really tempted to re-wire the entire thing....but thought better of doing something like that on a whim. I've done some painting, pictures to come tomorrow. Anyone have any tips as to where to locate belts? The autoparts store didn't have one small enough for my machine, and an actual hardware store in Houston is pretty hard to find.

 

[stan]

restoration

Cant wait to see whats next! keep up the good work, we're routing for ya!

 

[takacedon]

Thanks!

Thanks, Stan! I guess today I'll venture around for a belt, I also am wondering what people's thoughts are on painting the entire machine. The outward facing parts are in about 80% good condition, thusfar I've only painted the rusting parts....but I'm tempted to paint the entire thing a gleaming white.....however this requires some disassembly and removal of trim.....so what say you guys?

 

[3beltwesty]

With a repainting some others on this forum have repainted the entire frame on your type vintage machine. In some old searches in the past I remember seeing others paint jobs. One I remember on this or another sited used the same Rust Bullet rust prep that I used 5 years ago on badly rusted spots.

Of course with painting the bulk of the labor cost ie time is prep work and masking off things. A poor prep will have the paint fail quicker.

On the parts that are porcelain, paint will not stick as well. The tubs is typically poreclain; and sometimes some frame stuff to.

A partial paint job on the outside will often show and look worse than no repainting. Just painting the two sides tends to hide a repaint since the eye looses the effect due to the corners.

With my 1976 westy it really is a user machine, I repainted just the bottom 2 feet that went under salt water. To match the harvest gold via Home Depot/Lowes/Walmart/Paint stores was not close! I ended up using Almond colored Appliance Spray paint. A purist collector would cringe; a practical user would on mine may not care.

Here I sort of worry about removing trim that I have never removed before! I have often ruined things due to missing tabs etc. Thus here I tend to mask things!

 

[takacedon]

Well I'm licked for the day

While trying to install the new belt - I have no idea how to loosen the pullies or slacken them - I noticed that one of the snubbers was resting directly against teh tub while the other was resting against a piece of metal. I assumed the one resting on the metal was right and went to fix that, but in 90 degree heat and half bent inside a laundromat, I decided I was licked until I get the service manual on monday.

 

[3beltwesty]

Many times a belt can be placed on via leaving the pulleys all in place. One uses a thin 3/16" screwdriver's shaft between the belt and pulley and rotates the largest dia pulley by hand and the belt rolls over the pulley edge.