Joined the 806 Club...

[danemodsandy]

William:

Don't believe everything you read about Darnell. While it's certain she died of burns, there are many versions of how that happened, from dying trying to save others (the Fox version when she died) to being too drunk to escape (tabloid writers). It was a tragic thing, and we lost her too soon, and I prefer to remember her talent instead of her death.

The lint filter is soaking in Lime-A-Way. The crud is a combination of limescale and lint, very very stubborn!

 

[danemodsandy]

Cub:

"I love almond.. Love almond.. LOVE ALMOND... "

Excellent. As soon as I find white cabinets, the almond ones will be available to you!

 

[mistereric]

Wow! Lovely set. Good luck with getting the filter clean. I clean mine with a toothbrush every hundred loads or so, but that one is spectacularly crusty.

 

[cadman]

Sandy, I'll keep my eyes out for some white donor panels. Still plenty in these parts.

The almond sheetmetal may need a refreshing but you've got to admit, those porcelain tops will make someone very happy!
-Cory

 

[danemodsandy]

Coming Along:

Cory, if white panels ever do turn up, I'd be grateful to you!

The lint filter is now about 95% clean; I hope to have it finished by tonight. It's now soaking in a heavy solution of Lime-A-Way and boiling water; the buildup is like cement. In fact, it could be cement; in this part of the country, people do have shop and farm projects, and cement dust would definitely be a factor for some folks.

I really ought to mention: Cory found this pair and rescued them. Ben was the one who connected me up with them. None of the stuff going on with these jewels was done by Ben or Cory. Neither of these guys is even capable of treating a washer like this!

 

[goatfarmer]

Nice set, Sandy, the Iowa contingent comes through again!

Don't like almond, eh? If it were closer, I would trade you the harvest gold 806's I picked up a couple of weeks ago, if you were interested. But if it's gotta be white.....

 

[danemodsandy]

Kenny:

Yup, white appliances are my thing, though I'll admit, Harvest has more charm for me than Almond. I learned a long time ago, with Coppertone, that colour fashions (and metal finishes) in appliances come and go, but white is always with us. Unless I had very deep pockets, I wouldn't even go for the colour that appeals to me most, Turquoise; it's just very hard to keep a matched set of coloured appliances matched for very long. Which, of course, is the idea, to stimulate sales.

 

[danemodsandy]

Behold!

Well, it took all day (during breaks from work) and half a bottle of Lime-A-Way (I am not kidding) - but it's done. The lint filter is clean!

Every time I am around a Maytag, this is the first thing I tackle, and in a way, it's often the worst, because those thousands of little holes are just made for trapping crud and building up limescale. I thought the filter on my old A108 was bad (extreme linting), but this one was much, much, much worse, as if it had been dipped in cement; that mass at the bottom of the filter in the "Before" picture was hard as a rock and bonded onto the filter like it'd been SuperGlue'd. Anyway, it's done, and I hardly recognise it myself:

 

[swestoyz]

Congrats again Sandy - I'm sure you'll love them ;-)

Ben

 

[tlee618]

Wow Sandy, you did a fantastic job on the filter. Congratulations on your 806's!!

Terry

 

[polkanut]

Hats off!!!

 

[westingman123]

Determination pays again! Wanna come help me with the rust in my Westy dryer tub? LOL That's a most impressive change.

 

[danemodsandy]

Thanks and Coming Attractions:

I appreciate the kudos - where else on this planet but AW.org can you show something like that off and have other people understand what it represents in terms of work and progress?

Next up is the agitator - that has to come out and get the same treatment. It shouldn't be anything like the lint filter - there's not nearly so much detail or so many crevices to deal with. There's a lot of crud down in the agitator's detergent-dispensing column; the lint filter does not yet drop smoothly into place, the way it's supposed to.

 

[jasonl]

I'm in the "the oil leaked all out of the transmission A806 club". That's right, a puddle of goo in the storage building when I moved it. Poor thing.

I can't get to fix it right now but do I need a new trans? Or is this repairable?

 

[mickeyd]

Light-hearted chuckle, Sandy,

thinking about how you must have absolutely shuddered when you saw the extreme condition of the lint filter. The transformation is so intense, the color has changed ;'D.

 

[danemodsandy]

Mickeyd:

"The transformation is so intense, the color has changed ;'D."

Well, that and different lighting, LOL.

What I don't understand about this 806 pair is the same thing I don't understand about all the things I own that are someone else's cast-off luxuries: How in the hell do you spend the money for one of the most expensive TOL machines made at the time and then proceed to beat the crap out of it? It seems to me like you'd want your money's worth, not to throw something out way before its time because it looks like it's been dragged behind a car since it was made.

I have tons of Farberware - very expensive new - that is the same deal. I have to clean pounds of gunk off nearly every piece. I have a TriStar vacuum, which was around $800 new in the late '80s, same thing - it was beat to hell and filthy. I have lots more examples, all with one thing in common: Once they were very expensive things to buy new, and someone treated them with such indifference and/or disrespect that they became almost valueless without major intervention and repair.

HOW DO YOU DO THAT???

 

[mickeyd]

Sometimes it's just lust and greed

An inveterate under-loader, I started overloading my Unimatic just because of peer pressure, and I wore out a heretofore perfectly good bellows. I just HAD to see how much the Uni would take, something I never did before, and had to have more more more huge loads. When the bellows broke, so did my heart. Now, I would hang myself before overloading that precious gem again. More later on how I added insult to injury because I did not know any better, but right now I have to catch a bike ride before the rain.

Here, Friend, is your favorite color--excuse me, colour;'D-- to brighten your day and make you happy for the care it has received.

 

[mickeyd]

So then,

unable to get either a new bellows or the wrench to re-install the O-ring, I moved the machine to the deck for winter storage, careful to drain all water systems. Now, I want you to note that I have successfully stored machines in the garage for 15 years now without any problems, a 72 GE, a 77 Whirlpool, a Hoover TT and a 60's Easy Spin. They all still work; the garage is insulated only in the wall that it shares with the house. And although the deck is colder, both spaces freeze deeply.

After getting the parts for the water bellows, I very carefully removed it, not knowing that there was yet another bellows beneath it, an oil bellows. I guess it's only on the earlier models, since the 58 Tech-Talk book Terry so kindly sent me shows no oil bellows. Something caught and snagged on the way up as I gently pulled. Next, after an instinctive yank, up comes a perfectly preserved well-oiled oil bellows, now perfectly BI-SECTED, exposing a pristine metal screw-like shaft. I almost threw up after this mistake... But there's more......

And here's the real kicker. I finally get both bellows and the Nutcracker Suite of tools to install; everything is perfect until the water started flowing. Old rubber does not like northern winter deck accommodations. Two splits in two hoses. I kicked myself in the butt "real hard" for that ridiculous boner.

I know this is hardly what you're talking about, but I wanted to tell the story somewhere, and you gave me a nice opening. Thank You.

Michael

 

[goatfarmer]

Well, Sandy, that set is over 25 years old. The original owners may have held them in high esteem, but they may have been passed down to other family members, or been traded in 10 years ago on a new set, and those sold as used. Or maybe the house was sold, and they were part of the deal. No way to tell for sure.

Except for the lint filter, and agitator, they look to be pretty darn nice. You should see some of the washers I pick up, that are less than 5 years old! As Ricky Ricardo would say "Ay yi yi"...

 

[danemodsandy]

Kenny:

Yes, those are possible explanations for this set of 'Tags. I still can't figure out who bought my sterling silver new and let it end up on a grab table at $7 per piece, scratched and blackened. I can't figure out who would have let an $85 Farberware electric skillet become so fouled with grease it ended up at Sally Ann for $3.50 with no takers but me. I can't understand who paid nearly $300 for my food processor and sent it to Value Village in a condition so bad even I (the King of Clorox) had second thoughts about it. And the list goes on. It just seems that there are some nasty, abusive folks out there.

Is a puzzlement! Oh well, it makes some nice things affordable for me.