I wanted to add this reply I left in another thread related to diagnosing speed actuator issues.
"keepitclean, Having just gone through what you are describing. I'll give you a few things to check to verify the position of your clutch during operation.
**The GE workshop manual specifically states DO NOT switch speeds with the motor engaged**
1) All muti-speed GE flo's start out in gentle, then switch to regular agitate.
2) If your machine starts out in regular fast or won't engage gentle, your solenoid is not getting power or jammed. The default speed is regular if there isn't any interaction from the actuator arm.
3) This last one is the hardest. Get a very bright flashlight and verify the position of the speed actuator arm. If it's down and not making any contact with the clutch cams, you should have normal/fast. If it's in the up position with it's paw holding one of the 2 clutch cams, you're in gentle. If you have it switched to Normal/fast and the cam is still up, you either have a short in the wiring keeping the solenoid energized or the cam arm is sticky/bent to far upwards and isn't comming down low enough to clear the spinning clutch cams. (Which was what happened to me when a leak energized the actuator during the wrong time, bending the arm, I took a long screwdriver and rebent the arm back down to clear the clutch cams and restarted the machine with normal back in biz."
