everybody, thanks so much for your help. it turns out it was the armature that needed a clean, ive cleaned this and now ive done a wash cycle in the machine and it worked fine. spin cycles are still a little slow but by slow i mean the 500rpm is about 400-450rpm and the 1000rpm final spin starts off at that and ends up at about 950rpm. i only know this because i can just hear it dropping slightly. but its good enough, everything comes out dry enough and it doesnt struggle very much at all.
thank you all so much really appreciate it.
cheers, george.