Maytag lid switch

[akronman]

Folks--I'm a good electrician and can wire around the lid switch to be able to watch, but I think that the same overall switch is also for unbalanced load shutoff? So I shouldn't wire around the lid switch? It's a Maytag A608 from Dec 1979, the outer tub top has some metal strips that seem to correlate with a metal tab from the underside of the lid switch, making it a single unit stopping the machine entirely if lid open OR if the tub gets out of balance.
Some expert please confirm that I should leave the switch wired correctly? So far, I've been sticking a clothespin between the open lid and that white switch, but that makes it harder for me to stop/start/watch the dial, etc. Ya know, play with my toy!!
Thanks
Mark

 

[toploader55]

Hi Mark

I had e-mailed qsd_dan about the same question.

Yes it can be done, but you're right. It will defeat the off balance control as well as the lid switch. His advice was to make up a "stick" or something to put between the lid and the switch. He advised against defeating the switch as if the machine goes off balance and no one is around to attended to it, the Cabinet won't get dented from the tub banging against it.

Hope this helps. Eddie

 

[akronman]

Lid switch

Toploader and Dan--thanks, I thought it was a combo piece, unsafe to undo. Turns out the clothespin trick will have to be good enough, 'cuz I ain't gonna just close the top and listen!
Again--Thanks!

 

[combo52]

MT LID SWITCH

Mark and others I would add a toggle switch on the back of the control panel or other inconspicuous place and just wire across the lid switch. Then when you want watch you just flip the switch, but if you are not going to stand there and babysit the machine you just re-flip the bypass switch and the machine is back to factory normal operation.

 

[queeny77]

my mom used to use a credit card and to hold the lid up a spray and wash bottle between the bleach dispenser and the lid,at one time i rigged up a rubber band out from under the control panel to the drain hose.

 

[redcarpetdrew]

I agree with Combo. The toggleswitch (not to be confused with Toggles...) will work for those midnight clotheswatching sessions but make sure it's heavy enough rated in terms of amps since this switch will be controlling the motor. If you don't want to drill a hole, use some wire and make a little box to mount on the wall behind it...

RCD

 

[tomturbomatic]

Or you can make the 55 cent switch: two quarters with a nickel sandwiched between them and all taped together. There is plenty of room for this thickness with the lid in the fully open position. I would make one every time I went home and as soon as I left, my mom would take it apart. I've never understood people who don't want to watch what's happening inside the washer. The window in the door of Hamilton dryers was put there by a famous industrial designer to increase sales because a clothes dryer was a new appliance and people needed to know what happened inside it when they had entrusted their laundry to the machine. But only the first brands needed to do that. Think of Youngstown, James and Apex dishwashers. Except for some demo models, windows were not needed to sell them after a couple of years.

 

[laundramatt]

A book of matches works great.

 

[qsd-dan]

Or you can make the 55 cent switch: two quarters with a nick

Boy, does that bring back memories! 2 quarters and a penny is what I used on the Maytag as a kid.

 

[tomturbomatic]

"2 quarters and a penny is what I used on the Maytag as a kid."

It gives a whole new meaning to the term coin op laundry.

 

[yogitunes]

Thats why I hated Maytags as a kid, they were about the only machine that did not at least wash with the lid open.....and I loved my sisters ST SQ with the lid switch in the front corner that my finger fit into to watch it spin....stupid as I was I thought the water was sucked out from under the agitator during the spin because of the gurgle it made as the water was actually sucked out from under the agitator, flowing over top of the tub......brain dead

 

[toploader55]

Yeah... But...

I remember after they stopped putting the Center Crown in the Middle of the Front Panel, The lids were like Westys that had Lock and Spin.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Oh yes, I hated the AMP machines for that very same reason. No way to watch them until Robert rigged his so I only had to wait 44 years and then I got to see that big old float bobbing around like something tumescent being walked around as the machine agitated. The only interaction I could have with that machine was to push the float down and cause water to sort of gush up around it sort of like the later Norge lint filter. Did you know that the safety spin lid switch on early Norge washers was a $10 option? Then Maytag replaced the float with that damn cap that did nothing. I broke a friend's mother's machine when I lifted the chrome cap and separated it from the diaphragm at the top of the Gyrator. The friend said, "I don't think you are supposed to do that." I thought of that years later when I was reading some service literature. It said that if you had to put the cap back on the diaphragm, you first had to fill the center of the Gyrator with ice cubes so that they would hold the diaphragm up securely. Then you put the diaphragm on the Gyrator and then pressed down on the cap to lock it to the top of the diaphragm. That was also in the instructions for installing the water level selector kit in older AMP machines. I wonder what they did with all of those chromed brass floats?