when i ended my last post on my 1965 custom imperial rollermatic that i am tearing down for a complete overhaul i could not get the tub out! got the tub nut off fine, the bellows out, even the hub nut removed without a hitch. but the hub of the tub was stuck to the spin shaft and no amount of pulling by me would do it.
i had perviously made a puller out of 2x4's to remove a wash impeller from my g.e. mobile maid and it worked great. so i went to home depot for some more wood and attempted to create a wash tub puller. here are the pics! it worked great!
to fit under the top rim of the tub and drilled a 1 inch hole in the center and smaller holes to each side. the center hole will have my socket extender thru it and the outer holes will have the bolts that will do the pulling.
goes thru the center hole and has a socket on it's end that goes on the tub nut (which is screwed on the shaft).
the other end of the socket extender rests against the upper board. this keeps the spin shaft from rising with the tub and enables the lower board to pull the tub off the spin shaft.
first the left side, then the right, turning them till they were very tight against my wrench.
the vice grip in this pic was used to hold the top of the bolt itself to keep it from moving as i put the pressure to those bottom nuts.
at first i thought it would not work then all of a sudeen the tub gave and it made a creaking sound and moved up about 1/4 inch on that shaft. i knew i was home!
i kept turning those nuts and it indeed lifted that tub right off that spin shaft! but it was on there tight and took awhile to do so!
with the star shaped hub bolted on with those 8 stainless steel bolts that i cannot for the life of me loosen. was gonna pull that hub off but decided to leave it. tub is not rusted so no need to.
at the center you can see the bronze mating surface to the water seal and it also looks like new! it comes out and has a rubber gasket on the back side of it.
is nasty looking and full of dirt and grime but again very little actual rust. the rusty areas are around the screws that hold the center support in place.
i put a empty 2 liter coke bottle over the water seal to prtect it from flying drills, lamps, wrenches etc. it's perfect looking, don't want to screw it up!
gonna get em out and remove tub support itself. then gonna clean and paint the entire water container area with rustoleum primer and paint. especially the bottom area!
some came out easily, others i am having to grind off with my dremel. will then drill out hole in support where screws go and replace all screws with stainless steel bolts and nuts.
am working on that now, just took a break to do this post.
started grinding at all so you can see some of these screws are pretty much eaten away by rust already. they have to be gotten rid of and replaced by stainless bolts!
this whole area will clean up very nicely when done!
i am also going to add another drain port to bottom of tub using a swimming pool plastic fitting and 1.5 inch drain hole to really allow that water to drain out quick! will keep first drain hole hooked up too so this washer will never have enough water in that outer tub to even reach that water seal.
it's an experiment that i want to try on this one!
on this restoration of this great old rapidry rollermatic!
funny if i hadn't dropped it off the truck and ruined it's top i probably would not be doing all this. i would have simply brought it home and done a few minor things to it, afraid to mess it up!
but after ruining it's pristine appearance forever i decided this washer will get the full restoration treatment! everything is being checked out! motor will be off tomorrow, outer tub will start it's paint job soon. this washer will run again and be great!
it wasn't quite so beautiful so i intend to pull that warped lid off and replace it with plexiglass.
i will also remove entire top portion of back of top and create some type of control panel myself, mounting timer on it and having switches that do exactly what the origionals did.
unless ofcourse i can find a replacement top for a 1965 custom imperial. that would be a miracle but hey, miracles do happen on this site i have seen that and experienced it myself! so who knows!!!???!!!
will continue this rollermatic chronicle as i get more done!
