Maytag A106 - Slow Agitation

[drummerboy928]

Hello all, I have a relatively small question to ask for today. I ran the first load of laundry through my 1969 Maytag A106 today, and noticed it seemed to be agitating rather slowly. Without clothes in it, it starts off agitating rather slowly but picked up to full speed in a couple seconds. I’m thinking it may be a worn out belt.

I lubricated the motor slides too, but thought I should at least ask some experts their thoughts on it before I made any purchases. Is anyone able to confirm or deny my thoughts on a worn belt being the issue?

-Henry

 

[tomturbomatic]

Have you tried removing the front panel and using the toe of your shoe to pull the motor back in its carriage while the machine is agitating to see if that speeds up the agitation? You might have over-lubricated things.

 

[maytag85]

Belt could be worn or is simply dry rotted from sitting for many years. As Tom mentioned, probably some oil got on the belt/over lubricated.

 

[drummerboy928]

Over Lubricated

This problem was popping up before I lubricated the motor slides. When I pushed the motor back (before I lubricated) it would increase the speed. My thoughts were that since the motor slides were basically dry, it wasn’t able to slide all the way back and tension correctly. However the problem persisted after I lubricated. I made sure to wipe off any excess before it made its way to the belt.

 

[mayken4now]

Henry,

Have worked on MANY of those types of Maytag machines. Helical drive transmissions.

I have to bust your bubble. The transmission has old oil in it (it turns very thick and is almost like grease). The warmer the transmission is, the more speed the agitator gains. Needs to be taken apart, cleaned thoroughly. I have used mineral spirits to make sure all old oil has been removed. You will need several parts (NLA) to do this project. It's a complete tear down and put back together.

--Steven

 

[ryner1988]

Henry,

Does your Maytag washer make like a grinding, scraping sound when it first starts up agitating? When I had one of these washers for a short time, it did this and the noise would go away as agitation picked up speed. I never did figure out what the issue was because the machine started leaking, and given that my wife and I are both disabled, I decided to get rid of it before the problem got worse. I was given the washer for free after my VMW died, so no harm, no foul, and we got a Whirlpool direct drive instead.

Hopefully you can figure this out.

Ryne

 

[drummerboy928]

Reply #4

I was thinking that the gear oil had at least thickened somewhat but I am not entirely convinced it is 100% the issue at hand. A week prior to posting this (2 weekends ago), I had run an empty cycle with just a full tub of water. The machine started off slowly, but in about 4 seconds had picked up to full speed and continued to stay the same speed and operate as normal. However, once it came time to run a load (1 bath towel, 1 shirt, and 1 pair of pants) (1 weekend ago), the machine seemed sluggish. It agitated very slowly at first, and only picked up a little speed on its own. However when I nudged the motor, it picked up to speed perfectly fine. Then when it came time to spin, it didn’t seem like it wanted to get up to full speed, or at least took a bit longer than I would’ve thought with a load that light. I’m definitely thinking more towards the belt, and will try swapping the belts for it with one of my other Maytags to see if that makes a difference this weekend. I would’ve tried that last time but I did not have a lot of time and didn’t think of it at that point.

 

[qsd-dan]

If the washer is sluggish on the spin cycle, the problem is one or a combination of....

 

 

Worn belts.

 

Worn/missing rollers/glides on the motor carriage tracks.

 

Dirty motor carriage track(s) (For the love of God, do NOT use oil to lubricate them).

 

Weak or stretched out motor carriage springs.

 

Pump bearing seizing up.

 

Pump belt tension adjusted too tight.

 

Dirty/oily belt pulley(s). Use brake cleaner.

 

Tub bearing may be seizing up but it'll let you know audibly.

 

Motor crapping out (it doesn't sound right in your clip).

 

[cadman]

Old Oil

Dollars to donuts it's old, congealed oil. And as mentioned above, it's a full teardown to get the trans apart to drain and fill. I did this job an an 806 of mine that's been a daily driver for years, but when winter would hit, agitation was pathetic. I replaced the oil with Redline MT-90 and it's night and day. Temp makes practically zero difference now. Video below.

Now I'm wondering if there's a spot on the trans where a guy could safely drill a hole to drain, thread with a tap, refill and plug. Might be worth investigating.

 

[qsd-dan]

The only reason I think it may not be/solely be oil or upper housing bearings is that the spin is sluggish. Transmission is out of the equation during spin.

 

[good-shepherd]

drill a hole to drain,

It the trans oil has thickened to the point where it affects agitation good luck trying to drain it.

That stuff is like molasses, even using gasoline it takes some elbow grease to get it all cleaned out.

 

[mayken4now]

Reply #8

Spot on with the tranny oil. It's a must!

Henry, As far as spin being sluggish The items listed above are all correct, could be one are all.

Beautiful agitation with the A806! Thanks for posting. My A608, same thing! Still love to watch and listen to that Humble Maytag sound!

--Steven

 

[drummerboy928]

Revisiting the issue

I did some testing this weekend. I am beginning to believe that a seizing pump may be the issue with why it takes a while to spin up to speed. With the pump belt on, after a minute it never felt like it got to full speed, while with the pump belt off, the machine seemed to spin up to full speed in about 40 seconds, give or take. On these old style pumps, is there a way to oil them or free them up, by removing the screw in the side, or would I need to put in a new pump? I’d love to keep the original two piece pump in, but if not, I would just have to deal with it. As for the agitation, I have not gotten that figured out yet, but I think it may be a combination of 50+ year old transmission oil, the pump issue, and old belts. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

-Henry

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

Reply number 4

So with this in combination with a bad belt/Pulley where it doesn’t slip would that be the cause of potentially my problem with my Maytag 612? As it’s motor starting capacitor blew up, It did that when I first brought it and I thought it was a one off, but it did that recently as well, Because I’ve noticed that when it was cold it always seem to be quite sluggish starting up, while when it was warm in summer it seems to be a lot less sluggish,

 

[DADoES]

 
The purpose of the side screw on the pump, for those that have one, is to oil it.

 

[drummerboy928]

Thank you for your quick replies. At this point I am feeling 99% confident that all the issues with it spinning slow and agitating slow are caused by the pump beginning to seize. With the pump belt removed, the washer agitates perfectly, and spins well too. Once the pump belt is put back on, the spin starts to feel slow, and the machine struggles to agitate. I will attempt to add some oil to the pump bearing, and if that doesn’t fix it, make the call and put a new pump in the machine.

 

[qsd-dan]

Did the start capacitor blow up during the agitation or spin cycle?

 

Sluggish agitation is caused by many things as I pointed our earlier in this thread. Everybody is looking for an easy fix without putting in any time and effort getting dirty and learning how make these machine run properly. If this is you, sell it and go buy a new front loader.

 

Time is running out and parts are quickly drying up and it's only going to get more difficult. Either get busy properly fixing these washers now before it's impossible to do so or stop wasting your time with them and go buy something new.

 

[drummerboy928]

taking the pump out of the equation definitely improved the situation, especially with the spin, which is why I believe that it’s at least part of the issue at hand. I fully intend to replace the oil in the transmission at some point, but in the meantime, I don’t have the time to set aside to doing it, so that will be a project set on the back burner for now, until I get a large chunk of time I can spend working on it, and am able to find and get a hold of all the parts I need to do it. I do want to learn and get better at being able to take care of these machine as well as keep them running for as long as I can.

 

[drummerboy928]

Some Videos

In the process of testing, I also took some videos. I have gotten them uploaded and unlisted so I will link them here. There’s both agitation, with and without the pump belt, as well as spin, with and without the pump belt.