HA806 Lives Again!

[d-jones]

I've been going through this machine for my parents for a while now and have already posted some of the earlier work here, so I won't bore you by repeating anything. I left off with the cabinet repainted and the tub and agitator cleaned up, so we'll go on from there. I had mentioned that a gap had opened up all the way around the tub between the ballast and the inner porcelain coated skin, and that some corrosion had formed there. Not knowing what else to do about it, and wanting to make sure it didn't have an opportunity to grow, I cleaned it up and sealed the ballast while overlapping the adjoining porcelain by about an eighth of an inch. I know some of you will think I'm nuts and tell me I wasted my time, but nobody spoke up when I asked about it so I did the best I could. And to be honest, I think it looks pretty nice this way.

 

[d-jones]

Damper pads lubed

Prior to lubing the damper pads I cleaned up the base plate, and something odd happened. The top layer of dark gray paint let go in quite a few places, revealing an apparently undamaged lighter gray paint underneath. It looks terrible, but I couldn't find any corrosion or bare metal anywhere on the base plate, so I decided to leave it this way. After all, this won't normally be seen, so I'm not going to fret over it. At this point, the damper pads have been lubed and the cabinet is about to go back on.

 

[d-jones]

Cabinet install

The cabinet is back in place with four screws(just in case it should need to come off again)and the top panel is laid in place to check the color match. I think everyone will agree that the guy at the Sherwin Williams Automotive Paint store did a pretty good job matching the original harvest gold. Here you can see the cleaned up bleach dispenser bottle. I ended up scraping away as much gunk as I could with bent pieces of wire, but for the remaining deposits that wouldn't let go or couldn't be reached, I poured some coarse sand into the bottle and shook it for a while. That finally did the trick.

 

[d-jones]

Corrosion!

Here I had to make a decision about the top panel. The original one looked nice from the outside, but underneath I found some heavy pitted and scaly corrosion formed as you can see. I was tempted to clean this up and use it, but on the top side right above the bleach dispenser fill port, some corrosion was beginning to form under the porcelain. I'm pretty sure it's the same corrosion from underneath that's eaten its way clear through, so I went to have a look at the top panel on the donor machine.

 

[d-jones]

No Corrosion!

This one looked fantastic underneath, but it had an annoying and prominent chip on the left edge. In the end I decided a chip is easier to fix than the severe corrosion, so I traded top panels.

 

[d-jones]

New top panel intalled.

Here the new top panel is in place, chip and all. I actually think the color match with this panel is a little closer than it was with the other one, and the control panel and chrome trim are in much better condition on this one as well. Since I took the whole top panel, I now don't have to waste my time moving them over. So in spite of the chip, I'm happy with the choice I made.

 

[d-jones]

Light check

This is the first time power was applied to the machine since I got it, so I checked to see that the lights were working and the spin cycle worked. Everything seemed fine at this point, so it was time for ops and leak checks. But that would require that the machine be moved closer to the house. The only way to get it there was to carry it,(too many rocks and other obstacles) so that would have to wait.

 

[d-jones]

On the back porch at last.

My nephew helped me carry it up here. Now it's finally ready for testing, but that would have to wait for daylight.

 

[d-jones]

Small load test

The first test was a check of the small load fill. At this point it was obvious something was wrong, so I shut it off. I had a pretty good idea of what I'd done wrong though.

 

[d-jones]

As I suspected

The problem was right here. In my haste to check the lights earlier, I d forgotten to connect the little tube you see here to the diaphragm. The build up of air pressure in this tube as the water rises is the only way the machine knows what the water level is. Without this tube the water will keep rising until it spills out on the floor. DOH!

By the way, I noticed something else while I was in here. The small load button doesn't actually do anything other than release any other button that may have been pushed. When pushed, each of the other buttons pushes down on the angled bar in the switch, the larger the load size being selected, the more the button bushes down on the bar, which in turn pushes against the diaphragm. But the small load button doesn't even touch the bar, so if all the buttons were out at the same time(which is possible) the washer would still fill to the small load level.

 

[d-jones]

Successful small load fill test

This time it worked. Funny how having everything hooked up correctly make problems go away. The little floaties and sinkies you see were apparently trapped in the outer tub and took this opportunity to come out and visit, but they were all swept away by the spin cycle that followed. For the remaining checks the water was perfectly clear. Note how the lint filter can't possibly work at this setting.

It's getting late now so I'll finish this in the morning.

 

[frigilux]

A great machine---all that work and you're going to give it away, LOL?! Congrats on a successful water test. She's a beauty.

 

[d-jones]

I'm back, so let's continue where we left off.

When I picked up the machine back in October of last year, it had the ugliest V band clamp I've ever seen. The drain holes in the tub cover were all thoroughly plugged up, so my guess is that water that splashed onto the tub cover must have rolled over the edge and down the side. Before I cleaned it up there were lots of streaks down the outside side of the outer tub that would seem to prove that. It had to go.

 

[d-jones]

Spin cycle

Here we are merrily spinning away the water from the small load test. I was a little surprised at the force of the water coming off the pump. I was able to stand there by the machine holding the drain hose and water some nearby plants growing in the yard. The new V band clamp is in place, but for whatever reason I still hadn't gotten around to replacing the missing button in the control panel. If you look closely you can see the blurred image of the power unit spinning by.

 

[d-jones]

Fill tests finished.

Here we are at the large load fill level after having stopped along the way at medium and normal. The medium fill level just barely covered the first hole on the barrel of the agitator, while the normal fill level stopped midway through the third. As you can see, the water at the large fill level is high enough to float the empty fabric softener cup. I hadn't expected that, but I'm told that's how it's supposed to be.

 

[d-jones]

Front panel reinstalled for good.

The washer was put through its paces pretty thoroughly, and did everything it was supposed to do. No leaks were found anywhere during the tests so the front panel is finally reinstalled for good, or at least until needs to come off again for maintenance. As you can see, I've finally gotten around to installing the missing button. I'm really pleased with the way this turned out.

 

[d-jones]

The control panel is almost perfect

This photo speaks for itself.

 

[d-jones]

Data plate reattached

One of the last things done prior to moving the machine inside was to pop rivet the data plate back on. Since the guys at the body shop painted the entire back panel as carefully as they did the sides, I think it's fair to say that this is now one of the nicest backsides on any Maytag out there, so I thought I'd sneak in this photo of it.

 

[d-jones]

In its new home at last

Here it is installed in its new home. The process began back in October of last year and took longer than I'd expected. Not because of the machine, but because of the limited time I had available to work on it. Everything I did could have easily been accomplished in a couple of weeks worth of serious effort, perhaps even less. Fortunately, the G.E. Filter flow held on long enough to finish the project, but as we moved it off the porch to make way for the Maytag, we found evidence of more new leaks, so my dad is greatly relieved to not have to go in and find them anymore, and my mom thinks the new Maytag is beautiful. So in the end, everyone's happy, including the Maytag.