Like a phoenix rising from the brake dust, The Hotpoint - Part 2

[swestoyz]

Hi everyone! It's time for a really exciting update that is almost 16 years in the making!

I would have never imagined writing Part 2 of this story so soon, considering where things left off only 18 months ago. For those who may recall from Part 1:

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?77893

The brake pad assembly was missing the brake pads themselves, rendering the machine pretty much unusable. Think of a solid tub GE without the snubber band holding the solid tub in place - all the water would be thrown out of the tub during wash. If I had put the machine back together it would have spun the tub while attempting to agitate.

There were suggestions to try to use the original metal and putting a coat of JB Weld in place and then adhering some new brake material, or possibly cutting a new piece of metal and bending it into shape on a metal brake. I was planning on going with the latter at some point in the future, but decided it would be low on the priority list. As of December 2018, this is where things were left at.

Fast forward to earlier in the year when a random email notification from ebay popped up with a funny looking part on a random Sunday morning. As I was cruising through the emails I almost skipped right past it... but wait, could it be? Yes, someone was selling a WH1X5015 brake pad assembly! BIN was pressed as fast as possible and in just a few days, the NOS part arrived. The Hotpoint had just received priority status!

 

[swestoyz]

With a few other smaller projects now out of the way after the '58 GE restoration, last week I tore back into the bottom side of the clutch assembly. All of this was unfortunately very familiar.

 

[swestoyz]

The NOS assembly is about as simple as they come. All the pads appear to be exactly the same, suggesting that the service manual is either lying or I can't tell the difference in brake material.

The service manual indicates that all surfaces need to be cleaned of any rust.

Check.

 

[swestoyz]

The 1970 JC Penney Service manual on AE suggests an installed clearance between the transmission housing and the brake pad assembly to be 1/16" (0.0625). The 1973 GE/Hotpoint manual suggests 1/4" (0.25). That is a significant difference in only 3 years, considering this portion of the positive brake assembly didn't change at all in that time frame.

A quarter inch seemed as though it would be a huge gap, so I went with about 0.20 inches.

The rest of the photo sequence is similar to the tear down of Part 1, with most of the parts cleaned up on the wire wheel.

 

[swestoyz]

At this point the new assembly worked perfectly! The washer would agitate and spin just fine.

The next day I wired in an external bi-pass switch for the lid switch and adjusted it to allow the lid to properly engage the lever mechanism. With the top off I just couldn't believe how clean and minty everything was.

This washer was honestly only ever used a few times.

 

[swestoyz]

With the new bi-pass switch in place it was time for a water test! And the Fountain Filter did NOT disappoint. Take a look!

What was a disappointment was what happened next during the spin out. There must have been something in the outer tub that got lodged in the pump and caused the housing to split open! Water was pouring all over the floor. Rather than bailing the water I just let it leak and pump out what it could. [this post was last edited: 6/1/2020-22:55]

 

[swestoyz]

For years now, John L has talked about how much of a PITA these pumps were. I'm here to tell ya, the man is telling it to you straight.

It all seems easy until you actually try to pull the impeller off. I've never had to resort to so much destruction. Eventually I melted the impeller itself off the bronze insert, squirted some PB Blaster through the threaded hole, and heated the insert with a torch until the PB Blaster was boiling. After a few rounds of heat and boiling PB, a few strategic tugs with a vice grip and the insert popped off.

While the machine saw little use, what I suspect happened is the remaining water in the pump must have gotten past the seal and rusted the insert to the shaft, or belt dust from the top side of the pump worked its way in, or gremlins love to screw with Hotpoint pumps.

 

[swestoyz]

Thankfully I had a new belt on hand a few NOS pump kits. May as well replace the belt while it's accessible. The original was pretty dry rotted from sitting all these years.

The instructions that come with the kit are pretty straight forward. They have you replace the washers that hold the motor to the mount plate with threaded washers that allow the tension on the plate to remain positive regardless if the pump is in place or not (see the large hex washers in the first photo) and not allow the pump nuts to be over tightened.

I cleaned the motor shaft with some emery cloth and put a light coating of some synthetic grease on the shaft, after I had centered the bottom half. This is just in case I need to pull the pump apart again sometime in the future. The boot seal got a light coat of blue RTV on its base and the set screw was sealed with some blue loctite.

The housing gasket was a real bear. I went through three of the kits I had on hand to get one to work. They really want to twist back into their resting state, which is a figure 8. [this post was last edited: 6/1/2020-22:36]

 

[swestoyz]

I'm going to take a moment to pause from the rehab job and document some of the learnings I had that were separate of working on the machine. Our friend Ken will love this post.

Earlier this winter I stumbled upon a really nice gentlemen that had recently retired from the repair business and was selling his remaining stock of parts, tools, etc. He happened to have a complete set of GE and Hotpoint Appliance microfiche part lists that he was willing to sell. I jumped at the offer in hopes that the Hotpoint microfiche might shed some light on what in the heck this washer is.

Sure enough, about 40 cards into the Hotpoint stack I randomly ran into this amazing piece of documentation. Dated July 1968, Hotpoint officially converted all 1968 model washers over to the positive brake design. I found this document recycled within the literature in early 1970 with the same model numbers, so in fact all 1969 2LW Hotpoint washers were recycled 1968 LW model year washers with the positive brake transmission! In 1970 the updated WLW models came out leaving the 2LW model code only being used for 1969 model washers.

It also dawned on me that this washer is using a GE serial number rather than a Hotpoint coded serial. So, with the code starting "AE", it would place this washer as having been made in January, 1969. They either made this change starting in '69, or in July '68 with the positive brake transmission change. Also note that by July 1968 Hotpoint had converted all part number usage over to the GE alpha-numeric PNs! Hotpoint parts are easy to spot as they start with a 5 on the number part of the sequence: WH1X5000

More to come from this amazing GE/Hotpoint documentation find. I plan to spend time this fall to scanning more of the GE and Hotpoint parts lists. Hopefully they may find their way to AE sometime soon [this post was last edited: 6/1/2020-22:47]

 

[swestoyz]

Ok, with the 2LW info out of the way, what happened next?

So, with the new pump in place I had the machine fill itself for a test run. However, when it went power the motor for agitate the torque arm for the clutch sipped off the transmission hub! Good grief. I didn't swear... out loud.

After bailing all the water out of the machine and tearing everything apart again for the umpteenth time, the cause was the brake lining in the bottom of the cone. It must have come unglued from the cone due to the torque of releasing the brake spring, and caused all kinds of problems.

After using 2 part epoxy to reset the lining on the cone, reassembling the clutch (which is a mighty fun time I might add), re-tensioning the belt, and getting that god forsaken cross brace back on, it was time for wash![this post was last edited: 6/1/2020-22:39]

 

[swestoyz]

So, without further delay, presenting the 1969 Hotpoint automatic washer!

 

[swestoyz]

And of course, there's a video!

All in all, I'm really quite pleased with how this turned out. It's nice to work on an almost new washer, rather than dealing with busted, rusty bolts and dry rotted rubber parts. The top seal is leaking a bit which can be solved with some blue RTV.

Also, the fountain filter is really quite impressive. Hotpoint's filter system is genius and functions well. They claimed 5 gallons a minute in the 1965 service manual, which after a few minutes of wash could theoretically be the entire tub of wash water. The spray rinse during the initial spin is also dramatic and so unorthodox in terms of how other MFGs handled rinsing on their solid tub makes.

For the video I used a load of laundry from my 2 year old daughter, Vivian. It's fun to see small, colorful laundry be tossed around gently by the spiral agitator.

Overall, I give Hotpoint two thumbs up. This is a hell of a washer.

Until next time, enjoy!

Ben

 

[mayfan69]

Lovely restoration

What a lovely and fantastic restoration!!!

Cheers
Leon

 

[yogitunes]

Ben, you never cease to amaze......Fantastic Job!

love the water spraying from the agitator, in both directions no less.....I prefer watching without the filter in place....a thing of beauty....

 

[appnut]

Been, you never cease to amaze me!!!  Beautiful machine.  

 

[Unimatic1140]

Wow Ben!!! This is such a rare and super cool washer. Two firsts for me this is the first time I've ever seen a Hotpoint with a WORKING Fountain-Filter and the first time I've ever seen a Hotpoint with a tub brake. Very impressive!

 

[lesto]

What an amazing restoration. I love Hotpoint washers from the 50's and 60's. My mom had an early 60's model which was so much fun to watch. That was before Hotpoint added a tub brake. Ours just coasted to a stop. I believe the me was called Hotpoint Silhouette.

 

[pulltostart]

Beautiful washer and great job, Ben.  That 'fountain filter' is neat, wonder why it wasn't used longer and by other manufacturers.

 

lawrence

 

[peteski50]

Hotpoint!

Ben this is a really beautiful washer. I had never realized Hotpoint added a brake we had a 60's HP BOL model and it didnt have a brake.
Best Of Luck with this Gem!