Maytag A512 getting stuck in the preliminary rinse cycle

[darylv6]

Hello,
I have a Maytag A512, which I figure is a little over 20 years old. It came with the house when we moved in just over a year ago.
We have a baby, and are using cloth diapers, which I collect in a tub filled with water until we’ve run out of clean ones. To get a good wash, I generally run them through the rinse part of the cycle, and then through a whole full cycle.
To do this first part, I dump the contents into the washer and turn the dial to the (1) preliminary spin (after the wash). When everything works fine, there is the (1) preliminary spin, followed by the (2) continued preliminary spin with rinse water, followed by the (3) full-fledged rinse and (4) final spin.
What started happening few months ago was that the machine would sometimes stop after (1). When I lifted the lid and closed it again, it would continue where it left off, and may or may not make it to (2). It usually went after a few tries, but the odd time I’ve had to manually get a preliminary rinse going round each time with the dial or just skipping the preliminary and twisting the dial to (3). Not ideal considering the contents.
When I have been washing regular clothes, the machine runs smoothly through the wash and rinse stages. Until today – it stopped mid-cycle at the very same spot described above.
So – with no real washer experience, it seems to me to be one or more of the following: lid switch, timer or timer motor. Can anyone help me with a more educated diagnosis? And how complicated will it be to replace these parts? I’m pretty handy (so long as no soldering is involved), but I’ve never had my own washer before…
Thanks very much,
Daryl

 

[darylv6]

Maytag A512 getting stuck in the preliminary rinse cycle

One extra piece of information (and an indicator things are getting worse) is that the load I'm running just now got stuck between (3) and (4). When I lifted the lid and closed it again, it continued to the end of the cycle.

 

[qsd-dan]

Are you sure the tub isn't going out of balance? That will cause the machine to stop. Cycling the lid re-sets the out of balance and lid switches (they're tied together). Usually, when the lid switch becomes intermittent, the machine will fill but won't agitate at the beginning of the cycle.

You can bypass the lid switch and see if your problems disappear.

 

[combo52]

MAYTAG WASHER STOPPING

I also believe that it may just be getting off balanced. You have to be very careful when you dump wet clothes in this washer to load them very evenly around the tub if you are going directly into the spin-rinse part of the cycle. It may be better to just start at the deep rinse part of the cycle and then run the clothes through a full cycle. When I was washing diapers I would run them through a cold deep rinse then a hot wash with a little bleach added in the last two or three minutes of the wash and a cold final rinse to keep any remaining bacteria from multiplying till they are completely dry. As a repair person I have done at least 5 service calls this year for MTs that stopping in mid cycle only to have to instruct the user that the machine was just off-balanced. When I was working as a sales person selling maytag and whirlpool washers in the mid 1970s I would some times ask a customer if they wanted an automatic washer or a Maytag washer. I would warn them that they may have to make two extra trips to the basement get one load through the a cycle if they had a Maytag and were washing a small or odd load.

 

[darylv6]

Thanks for these. I will be more attentive to the balancing and see if that makes a difference... I'll keep you posted

 

[lebron]

ask a customer if they wanted an automatic washer or a Mayta

loooooooool!