Maytag Atlantis Out of Balance Spin

[kenmore_elite]

Combo52, I'm still not entirely sure why it was vibrating so badly.

Thanks. I love saving old machines. I first spotted this washer a good year & 1/2 ago, sitting outside collecting leaves and rain water. I spun the dial and realized it had a timer instead of a darn electronic gizmo-switch. I thought about saving it at that time, then got busy with other things. At that time I had a newer electronic Maytag that I had hacked to fill the tub a little higher, but I got so tired of always having to lift the lid to reset the fill depth. Then I saw an older timer-dial Maytag at the local ReStore, but it sold for $250 before I could snag it. So I remembered this one and asked, and the owner said I could have it.

 

[kenmore_elite]

3 washes under my belt with this Maytag, and it is even better than I had hoped for. With the electronic Maytag that I had before this one, even tho I selected "Extra Rinse" everything came out smelling like the detergent. With this oldie-but-goodie Maytag everything comes out really fresh with no detergent smell. I LOVE IT! My jeans get cleaner too.

 

[oldschool88]

Great moves reviving the old Atlantis. I've had mine since 2005 and it's serviced our family of 4 very well despite being overloaded frequently, needing only a new belt every ~5 years or so. It developed the same spin balance issue you described at year 15 during the COVID lockdown and made a great project rehabilitating it. Attached pic shows the factory snubber when removed, damaged from never being properly leveled. Replacing this and leveling the washer completely cured the spin balance.

The transmission center gear later failed as another poster described, but I scored a complete high-torque transmission/bearings/seals kit and did the upgrade along with a new drain pump.

 

[kenmore_elite]

Thanks OldSchool. Can you describe the process to replace the trans center gear? My machine is noisy in the wash mode--though I'm not sure what normal is for this washer. How did you know the center gear was bad?