Dick,
Dick,
One of my jobs as lowest on the shop totem pole was rewiring washers and such. Maybe some of the things I learned back then well help you out a bit.
1) It never hurts to check twice that the power is off. Not just because you can kill yourself, but because you can easily destroy a hard to find part.
2) A cheap VOM (I would plead for a digital one which beeps or whistles at you when you have a connection, 'bout 25$ at Homo Depot) will make your life enormously easier by saving lots of stooping, bending and such.
3)It pays to take pictures, pictures, pictures. Back then, digital cameras weren't realistic so my boss paid for Poloroid instant photography. Boy, was it worth it. I still make lots of sketches and write things down...if you remember, back in 2006 that really helped when my niece let her daughter pull all the wires out of the timer block on the Maytag I was fixing...and boy was I glad I had locked away the machine's 120V plug...). A side bonus of those pictures: Someone here has always worked on the same or a similar machine and can usually diagnose the problem for you from a picture very quickly.
4) Always test one run of new wiring at a time.
With a VOM, you can do most of that testing very fast and easily. Just never wire up more than one functional group at a time.
A functional group would be, for instance WATER: Timer block, water pressure sensor, water level switch, water temperature, solenoids. Definitely the scariest of all the wiring in the washer...but also easy to work out logically. If it would help, be glad to describe this group in detail with wiring in another post...unless I am so confusing here you'd rather eat broken glass.
The whole neutral, grounded and live thing. Sometimes "live" is called "hot". Sometimes it is called "potential" or 120V or "phase". Same with neutral; sometimes it is called "return" or simply "N". Some folks get upset when we don't use the absolutely proper term for things, but I suggest you stick with whatever Whirlpool called them...
Here's a quick run down on the whole neutral thingee for you.
Let's start at the beginning.
When power comes into the machine, there are three wires. One is to ground all the metal parts of the machine. This one may be a floppy old bare or green wire running from a screw on the frame to a cold-water pipe clamp, or one of the three from the three prong plug. Some older machines have only a two-prong plug, never mind for now. We can ignore this grounding one for now (but be sure it is in place before the machine goes into use!).
The second wire is called the "live" wire and this is the one which all the switches and pressure valves, etc. get to play with. It is usually black and often called "L1".
The third wire is called the "neutral" wire and this one will, in the end, be the easiest for you to deal with.
In order for the timer, the water pressure valve, the water temperature switch, the light switch, etc. to control all those things, you only need to switch the power on and off at one of the two wires involved. Oh, I know - there are like a billion wires going to and from everything...but in every case, the actual switching on and off is not as complicated as you might think. All that really gets turned on or off as the control wire is that live or hot or phase or L1 wire...
The neutral wires, because they do not get switched off and on, are usually grouped together and all hooked up together at points through the washer. Some machines, Maytags for instance, did this on the timer block - it made things pretty easy. Others do this at various places you might not think of.
Some German machines used the water solenoid as a good junction for all those neutrals...why not? There was room and it was roughly in the middle of everything, which saved on wire. Regardless...those neutrals are not mysterious or problematic. In wiring things up, they are just like any other wires.
Here's an example:
If your look at the water solenoid valves, you will see that there is one less wire going to them from the harness than you would expect. If there are two solenoids, you will find three, not four wires - two control wires - one for hot, one for cold and the third for neutral which is attached to both solenoids. If there are three solenoids, you will find three control wires and still just one neutral.
You will probably end up having to get wires from several harnesses to build your own wiring. The whole point of a "harness" is just economy. As long as the wires are mechanically and electrically safe, you can run them one-by-one if you have to (and it sounds like you may have to). No big deal. You will probably find that there are at least three different kinds of connector in that machine. If you absolutely have to make a wire from scratch, use a 14AWG appliance wire, be sure the role says: “UL1230 - Complies with UL style 1230 and CSA style AWM Type 1” (you can buy these at Radio Shack or Homo Depot, ask for help to be sure you get the right stuff) and be sure to read up on how to crimp the connectors on right. It isn't hard, but most newbies crimp the hell out of them and then wonder why they break...(The anal retentive crowd would now suggest appropriate colors and a range of wires from 12AWG to 18. Ain't necessary, don't trouble yourself. I really, really, hope you are able to find wires from other machines to do this. I don't recommend splicing wires together, and hope to hell you don't have to make up any yourself, but you may have no choice when you get to that motor.)
I think it would help a lot if you posted some photos of the various control devices and their mechanisms. As folks have pointed out, nothing has really changed here in the last fifty years or so and someone can probably post a picture or diagram right back showing how these are wired together.
