GOOD NEWS about the 1978 Kenmore 70

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harleybadger

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Messages
15
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
OMG I found another 70-Series BD for use as a donor machine!

The cabinet is pretty shot, there's a ton of gouges, dents and dings, etc, but mechanically it works fine and there's no rust inside. I'm gonna try to somehow struggle this 250-pound beast into the truck this afternoon.

There is a used appliance warehouse in Pittsburgh, they have mostly modern stuff, but I check in often to see if they have anything vintage. They had a LOT...I mean some GREAT finds... some of the items in our collection came from there. Just after my last visit, the whole place unfortunately burned down :-(

I checked back with them last week, as they are rebuilding, and the lady who I always speak to, well she pulled me to the side and said "psssst... we have a private warehouse that's not open to the public, where the guys disassemble and scrap what's too far gone to restore."

I went there (sad sight.. yard full of crushed cubes of metal, dumpsters full of copper wire, etc.. some of the cubes were fairly obvious what they were. I shed a tear.)

However, I met a nice guy who took my info and told me he would be in touch if a 70-Series BD came in with the correct tub. Three days later and...lo and behold, one did.

I'm buying the whole machine for $40.

As I mentioned, the cabinet is shot, but the internals are rust-free and shiny.
Gonna grab the basket (and will now have both Pentaswirl and Dual-Action agitators for the woo-woo,) and restore the rest of the parts. Gonna clean, oil, and check the motor, transmission, controls, and such.. and will have a nice box of spares for the 70. The cabinet and broken wash basket will go to scrap, and trust me...there's no hope for them anyhow.

Also, there is some good news.. this place saves, regardless of condition, anything that's REALLY worthy. There's a few 50s machines, a Westinghouse pair, a couple Maytags.. GE Monitor Top fridge, and stuff like that, which the guy sells to interested parties.

This place isn't public, but I'll ask permission today to give them a shout-out and reveal their contact information.

SO EXCITED right now! Thank you ALL for your comments and suggestions on the previous post and our YT channel.

Harley and Spats
 
Recycler In Pittsburgh

We have been there many times and have gotten a lot of cool machines, some of which are in the museum now.

 

This place processes about 1/2 of all the old appliances from Pennsylvania and Ohio and maybe a lot more. Ted and I used to  rent a 35 foot truck and drive up there and fill it up.

 

I also loved going there for the newer stuff to buy for parts, or many times for a fee they would let me strip expensive parts off newer refs etc before they get crushed, you can easily take $500 worth of parts off a newer ref and only remove a few pounds of weight so they still can crush the rest.

 

There is also tons of returned lawn care equipment, water heaters, lawn tractors Etc Etc, sometimes I would buy two and make one new one out out them.

 

This place is a great resource, its just a good thing I don't live closer, LOL

 

John L.
 
That's great!

So glad to hear you found a donor machine!
Hopefully, there will be a video, once it's back to life.
Oh...and some pics or videos of the repair job!

Barry
 

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