Lady Kenmore washer issue with agitation

[caliscott]

I picked up this washer last year from someone local, and I just hooked it up recently. The first few washes seemed fair enough.... I had to clean the water inlet valve, clean out the pump, and had to clean the valve and solenoid for the detergent dispenser. It is pretty quiet and seemingly smooth. NOW the issue? See videos: Now when I wash, the agitator won't always spin. I give it a little movement and it will usually start up strong, OR if I stop and restart or stop and change the keys to a different wash.
Is this an issue with the transmission? Or maybe as simple as the WigWag assembly? I hate to go through all the work of pulling the transmission just to have it be something simple.
Visually, I don't see anything wrong.
I thank you!

 

[combo52]

71 lady Kenmore washer not agitating properly

That doesn’t look good, agitator it self could be stripped inside the agitator or there’s something wrong with the transmission, you can look at the wigwag assembly and see if the cam bar moves toward the rear of the machine when it engages in the agitation and then moves forward when it disengages again.

Unfortunately, a washing machine of this age needs a complete rebuilding unless it had almost 0 use for most of its life, you’re no more likely to use a 71 washer as a daily driver then you’re gonna go pick up 1971 car that’s been sitting in a garage for 40 years and drive it every day to work without doing a lot of work on it.

Let us know what you find. There are lots of parts around for this if you wanna rebuild it.

John L