My Hoover 455 is now up and running again, and I’ve done my first couple of loads. The delightful spin sound can once again be heard by all the neighbourhood, so everything is good.
It hasn’t been totally plain sailing, but what is life without a few setbacks. Hopefully some of this may even be of help to others, as the assistance and experience on this site has certainly helped me during the repairs. So many pictures were taken, it’s been divided into three parts.
Thanks to all again.
Cheers
John
Disassembly and Diagnosis
Removing the backplate revealed the usual rusty flange, but the rust near the drain tube didn’t look too promising.
There is a hole about 20mm long and 5mm wide, right where the drain tube attaches to the drum. This probably wasn't helped by the machine having been stored in my garage for six years. The rust around the heater element support is quite minor.
This looks like it was brought up from the Titanic!
The back plate was brand new in 2001, and the machine was retired in 2007. I don't understand why it looks so bad. Perhaps I've been under-dosing washing detergent.
The spider needed to come off the drum, one way or another. The rivets have been drilled out and the support is being popped off the drum. This needs to be done gently as the vitreous enamel cracks easily.
After initial wire brushing, the awful truth about the drain tube is revealed. It's rusty and razor sharp in part (tetanus anyone!), but the metal is still solid.
Following a thorough vacuum with my trusty Dynamatic, the base appears to be pretty good after inspecting. As mentioned in previous posts, the brown stuff over everything is fish oil based paint used many years ago to keep the rust away. It has mostly worked, but it will not clean up easily.
I decided to drill out the pop rivets holding the module supports, so the shield could be replaced.
Unless it's absolutely necessary, I wouldn't recommend doing this as the rivets just ended up spinning, as they were only holding soft plastic to the chassis. I was waiting for one of the supports to break.
Flipping the cabinet over, the base is good, except for some slight rust near the corner to the right of this image. The other 'rust' is the fish oil paint.
The two rubber back wheels are very flat, not helped by having stuff piled on the washer while in the garage. I have one pair left of new rear wheels, but I'll leave these as the location for the washer has a noticeable drain slope, and the flat rear wheels will level it out (well that's my plan anyway).
