KitchenAid KDI-21A drain problems

[combo52]

Removing the motor and pump from a KD 21 or 22 dishwasher

Once you remove the two or three clips, simply take a board or a prybar and put it underneath the motor and push up on it it will pop the motor up into the tank slightly and then you lift the entire motor and pump assembly out from the inside of the dishwasher from there. You disassemble the old pump and reassemble the pieces on to the replacement motor

You’ll probably need a new main shaft seal at a minimum and you may have to replace the gasket around the pump assembly that fits into the tank of the dishwasher depending on what shape it’s in you might be able to reuse it.

 

[bcorey]

Thanks for the tip.

 

I don't have a motor gasket, so hopefully mine is re-usable.

 

My main shaft seal looked ok.  I do have a spare in case though.  Are you suggesting mine is likely bad because of what you saw on my motor or that they're often bad?  Incidentally, The pump top gasket was completely thrashed so I had replaced that when I was checking the impeller.

 

[combo52]

The pump shaft, seal at some point definitely leaked a lot for the motor to look that bad, but maybe it was replaced and that’s old damage I don’t know.

But unless the shaft seal looks as good as a new one it’s always a good idea to replace it.

John

 

[bcorey]

Success!  Draining well with the new motor.

 

It occurred to me that I should do the shaft seal regardless since the new motor might need a different amount of shims.

 

The kit has a tool which you adjust the shims, and once it's in spec, add another on top.  I had .030" too many shims to meet the spec.  I went back to the old motor to see if that was the difference, but it wasn't.  Seems someone had too many shims.  No idea why or if the recommendation has changed over the years.

 

[bcorey]

As another followup, does anyone have any motor clips (since I'm missing one) and/or have a source for someone who rebuilds motors?  Given how rare the motors are, seems like it's worth rewinding it.