From the West Coast to the Midwest - a Bendix restoration

[swestoyz]

Hello AW family! I wanted to share with everyone the recent completion of a restoration here on my end. But first, let’s start at the beginning.

Some of you may recall our RevvinKevin finding a 1955 Bendix Gyromatic about 12 years ago, stashed away in a storage unit in SoCal for God only knows how long, along with the matched Bendix dryer. From Kevin’s vantage the washer wasn’t in the best cosmetic shape but everything appeared to be intact at first glance in 2010. While he and a few other collectors did take a second look at the Bendix during his big wash in a few years later, things weren’t looking up for the little Gyro. They were able to get the motor to start, but it would quickly overheat and pop the breaker (sure signs of a Delco start switch stuck in start). The boot, while somewhat pliable, didn’t show signs of lasting more than a few washes. And from there the Bendix sat in the corner.

In 2017 I contacted Kevin and asked about buying the Gyro, and we both agreed that it would probably get the attention it deserved in my care. Just a few days before my wedding that July, a delivery truck dropped off the Bendix at its new home. On top of that, just a few weeks later I was lucky enough to stop by gyromatic’s house to visit his amazing collection. John was kind enough to donate a good motor/trans power unit and door boot for the cause! Things then were looking up for the little Gyro!

However, by the time school started that fall life was in a full swing of change, bringing us a new house in a neighboring town and our daughter in the late spring of 2018. While I desperately wanted to dive into the Bendix, the timing wasn’t quite right.

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?27700

Show photos from Kevin’s initial find, as well as a few from when I got it
[this post was last edited: 11/18/2022-15:55]

 

[swestoyz]

Time to fast forward through the next few years. My wife and I settled in at our new place in Cedar Falls, lots of bottles and diapers were cleaned and changed, house renovation projects to our 1932 bungalow were checked off, a few other appliance restoration projects were completed. By the spring/summer of 2022 it was clear that it was time to dive into the ‘55 Bendix restoration. Little did I know on April 18th that it would be almost six months later before the first wash would be done…

After pulling the top panel on the first day to see how things looked, it was clear this wasn’t going to be nearly as easy as the ‘61 Frigidaire restoration. EVERYTHING was screaming for attention and that attention was going to equal a lot of time.

Out of sheer curiosity the original power unit was pulled and the donor spare unit from John E was thrown into the machine to test the tub back bearings. While they were screamers things certainly didn’t sound great as it sounded like something was amuck with the rear tub seal.

A quick inspection of the original power unit revealed that it more than likely wasn’t actually original to the machine! The grey paint throughout the entirety of the motor, as well as a mostly flaked off ink stamp indicating some sort of rebuild service, revealed that I wasn’t the first person to tackle this particular Bendix. The original Delco motor would have painted black and had a green print motor tag with a date code ranging from mid 1954 through mid 1955. This rebuild had no tag at all. In fact, the capacitor cover wasn’t positioned correctly in relation to the brackets. Outside of the shoddy work and the leaking oil all over the belly of it, this thing was a mess and would have no business using as-is, even if it did start up just fine. It was pulling well over 8 amps during the quick test, far too high and a tell tale sign that it was stuck in the start position.

 

[swestoyz]

With the initial assessment out of the way it was time to tear the washer downto a bare cabinet. First step, after removing the spare power unit, was to remove the tub back/tub assembly from the washer. While the video clip earlier demonstrated that the bearings weren’t all that bad when spun at full speed, spinning them by hand using the tub back told a whole different story. Those bearings were toast. The tub back bearings for the bolt down B/S Bendix washers and Gyros are custom sized and thus are not easy to come by. More on that in a little bit.



With the tub assembly now out the next task that I faced was getting the tub back and wash tub separated. After several rounds of torch heat + PB Blaster + 2x4 + 6 pound mini sledge hammer, they were free. And, oh boy, the sins that were revealed!

Outside of the caked lint around the heating element and tub back, there were signs of water intrusion around the tub back seal that was also coated with lint. While it is possible that lint is what did this seal in, I suspect the fault of the previous tech is what ultimately caused the problem. The stainless holder didn’t have the necessary gasket installed between the holder and the tub back, allowing water to seep in between the tub back and holder. This holder and boot seal assembly is the revised style that I’ve seen with a Customline tub back seal kit, dated from the mid 60’s, almost identical to a Frigidaire solid tub mechanism seal. It is possible that Philco also offered a similar stainless seal holder, too.

And while the leak was ongoing and causing all kinds of problems, the boot seal was free to ride on the tub shaft hub, wearing it down almost a ¼ inch in some places. Thankfully there was enough material left in place on the hub along the surface where the bronze mating seal would sit. And yes, the baffling on the back of the tub was PACKED with lint. Oh so much lint.

While things were certainly not looking great so far, there was a bit of silver lining that came out of the tub back disassembly. Bearings and seals can be replaced but the heating element absolutely could not. And guess what, the element showed signs of life! Resistance was measuring out at 12 ohms - right in line with where it needed it be. This baby was going to heat some water again!

Having a working heating element was important to me due to this particular Gyromatic being the last model that featured the Magic Heater, as an option on the ‘55 models. Prior to the heater was available standard on the 1952 G-314 and 1953 WCG models, and optional on the 1954 WDG-H and 1955 WEG-H. Starting in 1956 the heater was dropped on the WFG-D and would soon be dropped on the Duomatic models after 1958.

 

[swestoyz]

With the tub halves separated the rest of the washer was torn down and cleaned piece by piece. First up were the wash tub items, and man was that green and red play-doh a real joy to deal with around the fill flume. The play-doh was used as a makeshift dam around the fill flume drain, which does appear in later factory service lit but I can’t imagine Bendix would suggest going down to your local toy distributor to solve for complaints of water being found at the bottom of the cabinet.

Years of caked on soap crud bubbled off with some Lime Away, and after a few hours of elbow grease the outer tub and tub back started looking decent again.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the cleaning process of the baffle on the backside of the wash tub. In the one photo I do have the lint and remains of a towel can be seen packed inside. Getting all of it out took several attempts over a few days. If left unaddressed loose pieces certainly would be heard rattling around during tumble.

Lastly, the heating element was polished up to a factory copper shine. Made new by Cutler Hammer, rated at 1190 watts over 115v.

In the clip we seem the top fill flume demonstrated. Bendix begrudgingly revised the fill method starting with the 1946 post war bolt down machines to comply with plumbing regulations. While the water isn’t forced on the clothes during the spray rinse it does do a great job of washing down on the door, cleaning off any excess built up soap between the door glass and boot during the assured spray rinse and rinse fills.

 

[swestoyz]

With the cabinet full stripped down it was time to give it a bath and attend to the excessive rust damage along the base of the cabinet. While there were no signs of water leaking from the tub back there were clear signs that water was leaking out from the soap diaphragm.

After a good degreasing and cleaning the base was treated with some time from the corded drill and various wire brushes. Sadly because of the damage the base would never look new again but I could prevent it from degrading further. Several coats of grey POR-15 were applied with a final top coat of some Rustoleum spray enamel.

Once inside, the outer cabinet paint along the service door opening was also cleaned up and treated to my paint rejuvenating processes. Prior to the restoration I spent some time with the cabinet paint to see if the original luster could come out. After buffing away all the old oxidation and dead paint with both rubbing compound and Turtle Wax chrome polish, the single stage coating was treated with some Meguiars Number 7 Mirror Glaze and finished up with some Collinite 845 Insulator Wax. The Meguiars rejuvenates the oils within the paint and brings out the original luster. What was original hidden for decades was finally popping and reflecting like a mirror, factory runs and all included. Knowing that the chrome was heavily pitted as well, the decision was made to clean up the cabinet and chrome as best as possible and not paint the cabinet, with hopes of bring home a best in the Patina Class award.

https://www.meguiars.com/profession...lazer-professional-show-car-glaze-m0716-16-oz
https://www.collinite.com/product/no-845-insulator-wax/

One last note on the cabinet. The original leveling legs were a complete disaster. After cutting them out the spring nuts were replaced with new ½-13 thread count spring nuts from Grainger. I went with the ½-13 so the leveling legs could be replaced with the commonly found larger sized Maytag automatic washer leveling leg. Grainger SKU 1LBF1. Paired with a large ½” fender washer between the cabinet base and the leveling leg nut, they worked perfectly.

 

[swestoyz]

With the cabinet and outer tub installed, next in line was finishing up the tub back restoration and installing the tub back/wash tub assembly within the cabinet. Rust issues in critical areas was addressed with POR-15 and the drain clean out case was coated with KDS Coatings Rust Seal. This stuff is great and I would highly recommend for applications where pot metal is exposed to water or detergents. I wish I had used this when the ‘58 Unimatic was restored as it would have been great for the impeller and the inner surfaces of the pump housing

https://www.kbs-coatings.com/rustseal.html

The drain clean out was installed using all new fasteners to replaced the rusted or broken brass/steel originals. I had to go to McMaster to source replacements. If anyone needs any of these I have a lifetime supply, LOL.

Bendix 17395 carriage bolt (long, 10-24 SS carriage bolt - ¾”, 5 ea) - McMaster-Carr 92356A245
Bendix 17396 carriage bolt (short, 10-24 SS carriage bolt - ⅝”, 1 ea) - McMaster-Carr 92356A243
Bendix 11173 bonded rubber washer (SS sealing washer, ¼” screw size, 6 ea) - McMaster-Carr 94709A214
Local hardware store for the necessary washers, lock washers, and 10-24 nuts

As for the tub back bearings, this is an area where things get a bit tricky. Bendix used a custom sized bearing for all bolt down and Gyromatic washers (1937-1958), which translates to a New Departure 77505C25, with the C25 designating that it is custom. The custom sizing is the ID at .9964 and OD at 2.0150, which deviates from a standard ND 77505 / SKF 6205 at 25mm x 52mm x 15mm (see photo 4 from the 1967 ND Bearing catalog). While the bearing is no longer being made there are some distributors out there selling the following NOS varieties:

Bendix 98293 = New Departure 77505C25 (double shielded) / Fafnir 205KDD9
-OR- = New Departure 97505C25 (sealed/shielded) / Fafnir 205PD2 (ND also can be listed as Z97505C25, Z meaning sealed)
-OR- = New Departure 99505C25 (double sealed) / Fafnir 205PP5 (ND also can be listed as Z99505C25, Z meaning sealed)

Bendix did use the 98193 from 1938 through the early 50’s for the wash tub side of the tub back. All sizing is identical except the inner race protrudes by 0.020~ on the sealed side. This was meant to push the bearing closer to the wash tub when pressed against the bearing spacer. New Departure did have a 87505B25 with the same dimensions and the inner race coming out further on one side, but it isn’t available anywhere. I suspect the 98293 bearing can be used on almost all bolt down tub backs for the inner bearing and I look forward to testing this theory on a future restoration project.

The rest of the tub back restoration was fairly straight forward. The seal holder/boot seal/gasket can be substituted for a Dexter 9702-119-000 seal kit, and the tub back gasket is the Dexter 9206-229-002 and would be trimmed for bolt down and Gyromatic washers. The 9702-119-000 seal kit can be used on all 1948 and later Bendix/Philco and Dexter washers using a bellows/boot seal. Previous bolt down washers from the late 30’s through 1947 models would use a National/Timken lip seal, number 473210.

 

[swestoyz]

With the tub assembly complete, the next step in the restoration is to address the electrical system. I knew going into this that some parts were not in great shape, and also that some improvements to the overall circuit design would be necessary.

First off, the timer itself had a broken mounting stud that appeared to have had a previous repair already attempted. As I was considering different options I even put a feeler out here on AW to get suggestions. Ultimately, I decided to fuse threaded rod to the timer in hopes that future removal would only require a nut to be removed from the rod rather than removing a screw from a weak point on the timer housing. To facilitate this a small piece of ⅜ vinyl tubing was cut to fit around the broken stud, in hopes to act not only as a fill in for the missing Bakelite but to also add rigidity to the overall housing and act as a cushion along the top portion of the mounting stud, up against the cabinet. 2 part epoxy was filled into the open cavity just moments before permanently threading the rod in. This ended up being the perfect repair and has effectively held the timer in place without any issue.

I also went through the timer and cleaned up the contacts for the heater and power unit/transmission motor, and cleaned up all rust from the really cool escapement, lubricated and made the necessary adjustments, per the service manual.



Next up, the pressure switch and temp switch bracket needed some attention. It was quite rusty from years of water and soap splashing on it from a leaky soap dispenser diaphragm. It was all torn down, all parts cleaned on a wire wheel, and painted with some mirror finish. While not perfect it does look a lot better.

Finally, the overall wiring harness needed a lot of attention. There were stress and heat fractures in the wiring for the Magic Heater at the temp switch, and the temp switch had part of the Bakelite housing busted out. The bad wiring was removed and the switch was wrapped with electrical tape to keep any moisture out. New wiring was added to power the Magic Heater via an auxiliary power relay, and new wiring was then added to the harness to power to control solenoid within the relay, from the pressure switch/water temp switch. The original tech who worked on this machine also removed the circuit breaker so the executive decision was to permanently remove the wiring provisions for the breaker. While not flashy and not seen by most, there was a lot of work done to get the electrical side of the washer in tip-top shape.

 

[swestoyz]

With the wiring now complete it was time to address the mess of the original Power Unit / Motor-Transmission assembly. I do plan on drafting a much more in depth thread on Bendix two-speed transmissions at some point, so for now the focus for this post will be getting the pump in tip top shape.

The decision early on was to use the donor Power Unit from John E, and substitute any items needed from the original transmission. Once everything was disassembled, all parts were cleaned and polished or received a new coat of black enamel paint. The interior pieces of the pump housing were coated in the same KBS Coatings Rust Seal used on the Drain Screen housing. While brush streaks are visible you cannot feel then by touch and they are impervious to water. The executive decision was also made to source new fasteners for the pump housing to the motor end bell. The original slotted screws were toast and are a pain to remove. Those were replaced with new Stainless button head hex cap screws with new internal lock washers, special sized flat washer, and new o-rings. All items were sourced from McMaster-Carr

Bendix 18484 / Dexter 8639-535-000 - Stainless 14-28 button head hex cap screw, McMaster-Carr 92949A563
Bendix 18510 / Dexter 8641-223-000 - ¼” flat washer, special sized, McMaster-Carr 90770A029
Bendix 461x7 / Dexter 8641-582-008 - Stainless ¼” internal lock washer, McMaster-Carr 91757A109
Bendix 16829 / Dexter 9487-018-000 - O-ring Dash Number 009, McMaster-Carr 4061T114

The new pump shaft seal is the full boot style seal from Dexter, PN 9532-094-001. I’m not sure how much longer Dexter will be selling these, so grab a few while you still can as the last Double Load pump model was made in the late 80’s/early 90’s - so well over 30 years ago. In fact, anything pump or tub back related should be sourced now for future restorations while items are still on the shelves of Dexter parts distributors.

The motor shaft was thinly coated with Permatex Anti-Seize to ensure the impeller does not get stuck to the motor shaft, and The Right Stuff sealant was used to seal the pump housing gasket, Dexter PN 9206-414-001.

Overall, the Power Unit assembly came out looking fantastic due to patience and lots of time polishing, prepping, and painting all the parts. John E certainly is the inspiration for this type of meticulous restoration effort.

 

[swestoyz]

While working on the Power Unit assembly, a side project was to get the water valve in order. While the original wasn’t in horrible shape I didn’t want to deal with the possibility that it would leak or the thermostat would be stuck in hot or cold due to hard water scaling.

A few years ago I ran across an NOS all brass Dole valve for a Norge washer on eBay, and instantly grabbed it for this project. While parts were required to be swapped between the original Bendix valve and the Norge valve (the all brass stems/plungers/springs, mounting brackets, and swapping the Douglass connector coils out for the encapsulated spaded versions), it turned out looking fantastic. A new flow washer was also installed from a cache of water valve parts I stumbled across a few years ago.

Overall, it looks great and the original Dec 1954 date coded solenoid coils are just too cool.

 

[swestoyz]

Shortly after starting this project I visited John E and discussed with him the door on this washer and their unfortunate door glass seal.

This particular door and boot arrangement was used on the 1953 WCG, 1954 WDG, 1955 WEG Gyromatic washers, and the 1953 CCR and 1955 CER Duomatic combinations. The door seal gasket on all the listed models above was the 17065, with the door boot diaphragm being the 18120.

Not only is the 18120 boot smaller in diameter by a ½” than the later 1956 through 1967 boots, the sealing side on the door is the 17065 gasket rather than the glass itself on the later models. The previous ‘flat door’ Gyromatics, the G311/G312/G314 all use the same 18120 door boot diaphragm but a different door seal gasket, the 14772.

This makes sealing up any pre-1956 non bolt-down Bendix somewhat difficult, if not impossible on this side of the year 2000.

In the case of this particular Gyromatic, John as kind enough to donate a good 18120 door boot to the cause, for which I’ll forever be grateful for. While the front lip of a Westinghouse/WCI boot fits perfectly on the 1955 and older Bendix cabinets, the WCI boot is too narrow in diameter to fit around the outer tub opening, by like a lot. I tried to stretch an NOS WCI boot on the Bendix outer tub to no avail. There have been rumors that a small door Speed Queen door boot will fit the 1955 and older Bendix washers, but I personally have not attempted this, yet. I imagine it is probably similar to the WCI boot in that it will fit on the cabinet but not easily on the outer tub.

With the door boot out of the way, I looked to find an alternate way to not only hold the door glass in place within the door, but also seal it up. I researched several options across all the major modern players and nothing seemed like it would work. However, this spring I took a field trip to a laundromat to look at some of the modern Dexter doors and their door seal arrangement. The smaller capacity machines had a single piece rubber seal that not only held the glass within the frame but also sealed along the front edge of the wash tub.

So, after figuring out what the door diameters were for the modern Dexter washers I landed on ordering a door seal for a T-300 washer, PN 9206-411-002. This was a 13” diameter seal with the inner and outer profile lips needed to seal up the Bendix door. After getting the seal I cut it down to size around the glass and sure enough I was able to get a nice seal around the frame AND around the glass. Sadly I undercut the gasket and had to order a second one, of which I made sure to oversize the cut to ensure that the gasket would press against itself to seal at the top of the door.

The extra flap on the backside of the gasket is not needed and can be cut off. Once removed and pressed into the frame, fit the glass inside the glass flap and press the frame into the chrome trim ring. Sure enough, it looked PERFECT! In fact, the backing on the flap side that would press against the door boot had a reinforcement that matched the door frame profile. It’s almost as if the engineers in Fairfield took a look at the old Bendix stuff from decades ago.

Lastly, the Gulmite socket size for the size Bendix and Philco used is number 14, which is one size smaller than the Maytag wrench or sockets fit. It is quite difficult to find and it took several years for one to pop up on eBay. Keep a daily search in place and be patient.

With the door nicely sealed up and a new 14” hose clamp holding the door diaphragm in place, this puppy was ready for a water test!

 

[swestoyz]

The last major part of the restoration was the part I was dreading the most - the top panel. While the porcelain top was in pretty good shape the rest of it was far from nice. All the chrome was pitted or missing the infill paint. The dials were missing a lot of infill paint. And the really neat instructions on the inside of the tip-top control panel were flaked off from years of abuse.

The first part that was tackled were the dials. Sadly, during the transmission cleanup process some brake cleaner got on the dials and caused the plastic and ink to turn into a total mess. In an attempt to fix the issue I found a plastic paint color that matched the green on the door boot, and infilled the lettering with a really nice navy blue. They looked fantastic, along with the cleaned up chrome and fixed infill paint. Sadly, I decided to spray the dials with a clear coat in hopes to preserve the infill paint, which ended up in a disaster. The clear coat pulled on the paint, but at least it did seal the dials up, LOL. At that point it was time to move on and just enjoy the machine with all of its flaws - include those that were generated by me.

The tip-top control panel was scanned on a flatbed scanner and I spent several evenings restoring the imagines and recreating letters that did not exist elsewhere within the text. Thankfully a lot of the verbiage was also used in the 1956 owners manual, which can be found on this site. That made the guessing game of trying to figure out what the missing sentences said much easier!

The paint was then stripped from both sides of panel with a fresh coat of white paint on the top on the top and almond on the inside. The raised letters were hand pained with a paint marker, using a dabbing method after attempting to do it with a brush. It’s not perfect but sure better than what it looked like before.

I then had the scans printed on overhead transparencies and used a spray adhesive to adhere the prints to the inside of the panel. While the scaling isn’t perfect on the right hand image it sure does look a lot better than what was there before.

Lastly, the soap dispenser diaphragm was complete dumb luck. I called on a few appliance distributors and found a place that had a few NOS in stock, Philco-Bendix PN 9118-024. I bought all they had left on the shelf and hoped this later style, which was used on the ‘56 and later Duos and the ‘57 and ‘58 Gyromatics, could be used on this ‘55 Gyro. The original was totally different and had a natural offset when new. Sure enough, while it doesn’t look pretty it works perfectly!

 

[gelaundry4ever]

Bendix!

That was a very nice washer! What cycles and options are available? What about dispensers?

 

[swestoyz]

With the machine just about complete, the last piece that would technically go back on a machine is the rear panel, after all the tests are done and the machine is totally leak free. The wiring diagram for this machine was in rough shape, so similar to the control panel instructions the diagram was scanned and touched up over several evenings while watching television. Again, it’s not perfect but it looks great on the freshly painted rear panel.

A keen eye too will notice that the cycle chart is slightly different than what your typical Bendix would have. Can any guess on what might be different? The answer can be found on the last photo. Here’s a hint - this Gyro has a Cramer/Kingston timer and NOT a Mallory timer.

 

[swestoyz]

With that being said and done, here is the final product! This has been a fun but challenging restoration and I’m glad that it’s mostly complete. I say mostly as they are never fully done and sometimes need a little bit of help later on down the road. I’ve included a few pictures of wash, as well as full length video for everyone to enjoy.



It certainly isn’t the prettiest appliance ever made, nor the most flashy. But this particular Bendix certainly has a place in history and is quite possibly one of the only fully functional Gyromatic washers in the US. Now, if a 1958 W487 ever showed up this one should be worried

Enjoy!

A huge thank you goes out to:

RevvinKevin - Kevin, thank you for saving this wonderful appliance and seeing it on to the Midwest!
Jetcone - Jon, your 1956 Gyro was a huge inspiration for me and was the impetus for this one coming to Iowa
Gyromatic - John, your knowledge, restoration skills, and generosity will always be what you are known for. Thank you for leading the charge on showing us how important these machines are
Jeff in Ohio - thank you for your help with the bearings and suggestions for the pump diaphragm. I’m looking forward to playing around with some of the alternatives you suggested that worked on your Bendix

 

[repairguy]

Ben your restorations are always amazing and truly inspirational. I am certainly envious of your amazing talents and the time that you have to complete these great projects. Enjoy the fruits of your time and labor and keep the restorations coming!

 

[peteski50]

Bendix!

Ben you did such a great job doing this restoration it is absolutely awsome
Best Of Luck with this gem
Peter

 

[pulltostart]

Beautiful!

Ben, once again, I'm gobsmacked over your attention to detail and your skills.

 

Congratulations on a job well done!

 

BTW, I covet the 1958 GE - an earlier project.

 

lawrence

 

[combo52]

Wow, Ben another great restoration

It’s too bad that Philco Bendix didn’t make it in the laundry industry with their front loading washers leaving the US really to only have Westinghouse and a handful of combination washer dryers.

Unfortunately consumers didn’t get used to the advantages of a front loading washer, you could never calculate the amount of water and energy and detergent we wasted in this country with top loading washers.

This Bendix design could’ve been updated enlarged a little bit and built for another couple decades.

What’s the next project Ben, I’m still working on the 71 lady Kenmore Combination restoration, Hoping to get one of the early whirlpool combos from you and take a crack At restoring a 61 whirlpool combination.

John L

 

[appnut]

Ben, thank you for undertaking this restoration project. This particular model has very special meaning to me. I had "grandparents" in Dallas that had this model (although I'm not sure if it was the model with Magic Heater or not--I don't remember that (I was 9-12 at the time) as well as a companion Bendix gas dryer; a Youngstown JetTower Electric Sink (with red-vinyl coated racks); 48" gas double oven range; and large bottom mount fridge from the late 1950s. As far as I know, she continued having the dryer until she ceased living there in the late 1970s/early 1980s. She only used that dryer during winter cuz she liked hanging out her clothes. The washer was replaced with a large capacity solid tub SQ and the dishwasher was replaced with a KDI17 and the sink area was remodeled too.