they are fantastic machines. I love the heavy spotting cycle and miss it terribly! And the only machine I know of --CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG--- that you can load dirty , set cycles walk away and come back to clean, bleached , softened AND dried clothes!
I agree it's a cool looking machine! How does the boot look? Is it still pliable and useable? I know you saw it run dry but how was the spin? Quiet? Enquiring minds must know...
God love you......your collection grows by leaps and bounds....glad you saved this machine. I remember these from my high school days......your much braver than I am as I recall these are a b...h to keep running....can't wait to see it.
Well, all right, Kevin, now I don't feel so bad about scrapping my '65 Doeskin Lady Kenmore Combo after all. So happy for you and that it was right in your own backyard! Enjoy!
I believe Combo52 said in the original thread about this machine that the lower panel should be the same as or similar to one from a Kenmore gas dryer from the 1960s - 1980s.
A reasonable price, just too far for me. Probably needs some repair. Les. Somebody get this before he parts it out. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221319863385&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:3160
Look under the flap door for the additives to see cycle charts--description. Water temp is tied into the minutes on the timer dial. WnW and Whites are 10 minutes. colors 8. Delicate may be 6 minutes or could be 8. The only difference being a cold rinse. Cold water wash is 6 minutes or 4 minutes. The buttons control wash time as well as warm or cold rinse, depending upon cycle. Dryer is auto dry timer advances when gas is turned off until gas is needed to add heat during dry again.
Actually the gas burner NEVER shuts off until the timer advances to the cool-down period, the timer only starts to advance when the modulating burner flame reaches a minimum size which is determined by the user set dryness setting on the control panel. This was a great non-electronic system that really worked, it did a great job of compensating for not only load size but also exhaust duct length and ambient room temperature.
The Electric combos and the basic gas models also did not cycle the heat on and off, on those the timer just advanced when a user set exhaust temperature was reached.
This Lady is not well, but I suppose I wasn't expecting it to work perfectly when I got it unloaded (though I was secretly hoping).
* The water inlet valve doesn't close.
* The pump... doesn't.
* She leaks.
* The front diverter valve is seized and the solenoid smoked itself, during testing.
On the up side, it looks like someone has cared for this thing over the years. Material was put between certain thing to insulate one from the other. The entire bottom panel / base plate has been repainted inside and out with something black... POR 15 perhaps?? Who knows. A rebuilt transmission / compressor assembly has been installed at some point.
Well, that's the news from Lake Wobegon... where the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average.
I know how you must be feeling, Kevin... When I found that '56 GE Combo in Syracuse this summer and it 'worked' when I first tested it I was elated. However, there were lots of other problems with it and I wound up parting it out...
Your 'Lady' sounds like it's in good overall shape, though - you might be able to score another parts donor machine and get her back in service again! You do seem to have a knack for finding these machines, after all...