Maytag A407 - Spin Cycle Doesn't Stop

[liveworkplay]

Aloha,

I’m a new member, however have referenced this site a lot when I acquired and restored a Harvest Gold Maytag HA407. My wife and I wanted a washing machine that just planned worked after experiencing fancy new washers that washed clothes horribly. Found our HA407 in a mom and pop’s appliance store. It belonged to one of the owners of the shop. She had some problems (she forgot what they were) with the machine and parked the machine in the back of the shop, where it sat for years. She gave me the machine for free and I gave her a box of mangoes, which were her favorite. I brought the HA407 home and named it Eunice after the owner. Eunice was in excellent condition on the outside. Using this forum I repaired a leaking injector unit, mounting stem, tub bearing, shaft seal, brake and belts. I removed the tub and found moss on the outside of the inner tub. Not sure how that happened and figured that was culprit to why she gave the machine up, because it had a horrible smell when washing. I blasted the moss off and reassembled Eunice and she worked like a charm for the last 4-5 years...absolutely a fine workhorse machine.

Several weeks ago we noticed Eunice wasn’t advancing past the first spin cycle. She would get stuck and spin forever. We had to manually turn the dial to advance the machine to the spray/rinse cycle. I figured Eunice needed a new timer. Peeked in and noticed a Kingston timer. Found a new one on EBay. Installed the new timer, which was a perfect match wire for wire. Started Eunice up with the new timer and she got stuck on the first spin cycle again! Checked the new timer wiring and reset the cycle and same thing...stuck on the first spin cycle. The dial doesn’t advance to the next spray cycle. I’m wondering if the new timer is a dud because it’s an Ebay purchase or I have two perfectly good timers but the problem is something else. There is little to no information on this problem on the internet.

I’m at a lost and any advice would be greatly appreciated. We’ll continue to just advance the dial when she gets stuck, but it would be nice to get her back to top shape.

Mahalo (Thank you) in advance,

 

[tomturbomatic]

What about the rest of the cycle; does it advance through it OK? Does it do this when the other two cycle buttons are selected also? I think the water level pressure switch has to reset before the spray rinse will start. Try putting a small hose on the pressure switch nipple and blowing into it. When you remove the hose from your mouth, or quite blowing into it, you should hear a click as the switch resets. I believe that this is the only portion of the cycle where the ability of the pressure switch to register an empty tub might have an influence on the timer advancing. You don't have a separate Permanent Press cycle to try this theory on and I could be as wrong as two left shoes. At the most, all you have to do is remove the control panel cover to check this out.

 

[arbilab]

Hmm, moss eh?  You spoze it's grown into the pressure sense tubing?  The fly in that ointment, is that when you advance the knob it immediately goes into rinse-fill.  If it still thought it was full, it would immediately go into agitate.

 

Two timers do the same thing.  Unfort'ly that doesn't rule out the timer.  More data is needed.  Try setting the timer to the place where it sticks, with the tub completely empty.  Does it still stick?

 

Meanwhile, verify the sense tube is free of obstruction.

 

[rp2813]

I agree with Tom that the replacement timer is highly unlikely to have the exact same issue as the original, and that the problem lies somewhere else.   We have enough Maytag fans and experts here to help you get to the bottom of this.

 

[liveworkplay]

Thank you for the replys.

I will check the water pressure switch. I’ve tested the old timer on the various water temperature and load size settings and it gets stuck during the 1st spin cycle after the wash and before the spray cycle, which led me to getting a new timer. The rest of the cycles work fine and both timers advance fine once we manually turn it past the stuck spin cycle. I actually can’t hear the timer motor advancing during the spin cycle. Sort of like it waiting for something else else to occur in order to advance to the spray cycle. So maybe it is water pressure switch that’s not releasing and allowing the timer to advance. I do miss the spray cycle...that was one of my favorite cycles on these old Maytags. In fact come to think about it, when I advance the stuck dial, it goes past the spray cycle and to the tub fill/rinse cycle, bypassing the spray cycle entirely if that makes sense.

Hoping it’s the water pressure switch. Will do some research on this switch because I haven’t serviced or changed this switch in the past. Fun times.

My fall back plan is to also send my old timer to get serviced, since we now have a spare timer in the machine so we can continue to wash our clothes. Just can’t imagine two timers having the same problem at the exact same spot though, but you never know...especially with an almost 50 year old washer!

On a side note. I was just amazed changing out the timer and seeing the inner workings of the control panel. Just makes you appreciate the engineering and thought that went into making the machine. Kind of like appreciating a automatic mechanical watch...just amazing.

 

[lowefficiency]

Do make sure you check the small stuff first!

For example, there's no reason to send the first timer off for servicing if it might actually not need it. And there's no reason to replace the water level switch until you've verified that the tubing between it and the tub isn't blocked or leaking.

You might not need any parts at all to fix this one.

 

[d-jones]

Scott

This is a real puzzle. I don't have my manuals in front of me since I'm currently at work, but these machines are incredibly simple mechanically speaking, which is one of the reasons they last as long as they do. This shouldn't be that hard to figure out. Once your machine is powered up the tub begins to fill, and as it fills, water begins moving up the inside of the hose that goes to the fill level selector switch. As the water level rises, air trapped in that hose acts against the fill level selector switch diaphragm until the water reaches the selected level, at which point the contacts in the switch are made. At that point the timer will begin to slowly advance and the agitation cycle begins. It continues to agitate until the assigned cam opens the agitation contacts thereby cutting power to the motor. The timer will then continue to advance a little further until it closes the spin cycle contacts and the spin cycle begins. This is why there's a little pause between the two cycles just mentioned. From this point on, without my manuals I'm unclear as to what happens next. I thought the spin cycle would continue until the timer opened the spin cycle contacts, but the fact that it's running endlessly makes me wonder if (as others have suggested) there's some sort of interface between the fill level switch and the timer that stops the timer from advancing to the rinse fill cycle. I'll pull the manuals out and have a look at what's going on as soon as I get home, but by that time someone else may have already found your solution. We'll see.

 

[liveworkplay]

Thank you for your post and detailed description of how the fill tube works. I don’t have any my machine’s manuals but rely on the great information on this site, YouTube and just plain old intuition.

When the machine is spinning, all the water has left the tub. Does Maytag assume there’s no water in the tub based on #1. Time (say in minutes) or #2. There there is a no water in tub switch that triggers the timer to advance and trigger the spray and rinse cycle.

#1 Timer is bad ( but supposedly new timer...hmmm)
#2 Switch is bad (maybe water pressure switch)

I’ll assess the tubing and water pressure switch first, but would be interested to hear what the manuals say also.

Mahalo

 

[latchlock8111]

Stop the spin

Same issue on all load size settings ?? I would make sure hose from tub to water level switch is 100% clear. This includes outside tub nipple. Where the hose attaches. Also, remove water level switch and blow out with air.

 

[combo52]

Sticking Timer In A A407 Washer

Does it do this on all three cycles ?,

 

This washer has cycle buttons for regular, WnW, and delicate, you could have a bad push-button cycle switch.

 

It does not happen that often,  but we used to see some very strange electrical problems with MT washers and dryers once in a while.

 

John L.

 

[d-jones]

Scott

Your washer fills properly, and once filled to the selected level it agitates, so we should be able to rule out the fill level selector switch since each of those two functions make use of one side of the switch, the two sides being the empty circuit and the full circuit. As you've stated that the problem starts when the machine enters spin(and won't leave), as I see it the only way this can happen is if power to the timer motor is being interrupted somehow. Can you verify that the timer motor stops during spin? If so, in the A407 spin circuit it looks like during the spin cycle the timer motor is powered through a switch between terminals 13 and 15 on the timer. That power also passes through the fabric switch at terminals 13 and 16. If you have an ohm meter you'll want to check for continuity between  those points. The fabric switch seems like a good suspect since the switch at terminal 13 isn't in play during the previous cycles. In other words, the spin cycle is its first opportunity to mess things up. By the way, the orange bar I added to the drawing indicates the period in the cycle when the initial spin is taking place.

 

[liveworkplay]

Aloha.

I haven’t checked the other cycles. Come to think of it...we only use the wash since we got the machine.

Thank you for schematic. I’ll definitely use a ohm meter and check terminals 13 and 16 this weekend. I can also verify that the timer motor is not on during the spin cycle. I can’t hear it whirring/clicking like it typically does. I’ll check those two terminals and follow the wires to their respective switches. Fingers crossed!

We’ve just been advancing the dial during the cycle. We set a timer on our phones when we put a load in. Not optimal but works. Just can’t put a load in and run errands. I’m afraid to burn the motor if we left it spinning for a long time.

 

[d-jones]

Just as a heads up, if you're going to keep this washer long term it'd be worth your time to visit the Automatic Ephemera site and download the various manuals for it. It's an incredible resource and it'd be a shame to not take advantage of it. The link is below and in the upper corner of every page of this site to the left of the sign in tab. Good luck with the machine. Let us know how it turns out.

 

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