electrically isolating the alum from SS and boots too
Supreme; re the isolation electrically.
This might seem crazy but I was thinking of 3 or 4 mil (thousands of an inch) Polyester; like old manual drafting mylar or what floppy discs use. Some film negatives are mylar; but not many. ie Kodak films that had an Estar base.
Thus you would have to use Matt's idea too of placing some Mylar pieces in the spider through holes, so the screws male threads do not touch the spider electrically.
I am not sure what diameter your 6 bolts are; maybe about 1/4 inch say 6 mm since metric? ; maybe 8mm?
With electrically isolating some stuff for experiments I have used homemade mylar washers. A hole punch can be used. Or one can place several pieces of mylar between two clamped boards; and one bores a hole through it. Lord there must be a few million dead floppies somewhere! Floppy discs are mylar, I use to work at several places that made drives.
The whole idea is to somehow electrically isolate the cast aluminum spider from the SS drum; but still have good bolt preload. (tension over the life of the product) .
You really do not want a Marshmellow in the bolts connection; but a thin non conductive barrier. Thin is bad if one has High Voltage; but one has only a volt or two. If too thin any sharp metal feature can with time puncture the barrier . This is better too because of mechanical creep, where things with tension or compression get a set.
A 8mm bolt that has a 4 mil mylar washer added and in 5 years the washer has mushed out to be only 3 mils thick only lost 1 mil in thickness. A torqued up bolt/screw is really a spring; it has a spring rate of K=A*E/L
K is in lbs per inch
A the screw/bolts cross sectional area
L is the length of the part bolted together
E is a material property; it is about 30 million for steel; 10 million for aluminum. Mylar is roughly 1/3 to 1/2 million.
base plastic grades are not that stiff, thus they often add glass fill to bump up the stiffness.
Thus cylinder head bolts are long and made of steel, the head gasket is thin because the material is not as stiff. One wants the bolts to be still in good tension even if the gasket gets a tad thinner with time; after many many hundreds of hot cold cycles. With a thicker plastic gasket or washer in the same design; the bolts preload will drop more.
Supreme; re the new type boot.
It looks like *IF* one placed a new type boot on the old machine, the water would go though the boots drain holes, I guess on ones floor.
Thus I think the reason LG changed to a new tub front is to make this water go back into the tub, thus no water on the floor. I really do not have a clue as how much water would go into a pie pan if one had the new boot on and older machine.
Thus I think a factory retrofit to an old machine has one using the new boot with holes; the new bypass hose; a new tub front with a port for the bypass hoses. Since the added bypass hose cannot go through the old balance weight; the new weight has a cut-out for the new hose. Thus any machine can use a new balance weigh; a newer machine with a bypass hose cannot use the old weight.
http://machinedesign.com/article/structural-properties-of-bolted-joints-0217
