need motor switch for maytag

[stuftrock1]

Don’t give up on them yet

A smoking motor doesn’t necessarily mean the motor is bad. I remember when I was rebuilding my A512 I bought new cheap belts and they were too tight so the drive belt couldn’t slip when it went into spin. Smoked that motor real good. Put the old belt back on it and worked just fine. If your other washer spins just fine but smokes when it tries to agitate, I’m thinking it’s something wrong with the transmission. Possibly a seized agitator shaft. Not that difficult of a fix if you know what you’re doing.

As for your GA310, I think the belts are just not tensioned properly. I ended up not being able to use the new belt I bought for my A512 because it was too small to allow the motor to slide enough on the carriage. Told the washer backwards so the weight of the motor pulls it towards the center and loosens all the tension on the belts, then hold the motor pulley in place while trying to turn the transmission pulley. If the belt cannot slip on the motor pulley, then there’s your problem and you can’t use the new belt.

To properly tension the belts. Loosen the screws to the pump so that it slides freely back and forth. Push the pump as far to the right as you can, then pull the motor as far to the left as you can to fully tighten the tension. This should pull the pump a little to the left. Then pinch the pump belt in the middle with your finger in the middle to act as a spacer to pull the pump even closer to the left. Once your finger in the middle meet both sides of the belt, let go of everything and tighten the pump screws exactly where the pump is. It is very important the pump doesn’t move again after squeezing the belt. This should have the belts properly tensioned.

 

[combo52]

Removing a Maytag Agitator

It’s either a quarter inch head screw or a torx screw.

The one that won’t agitate probably has it locked up transmission, take the motor off that one and put it on the other machine.

The first machine is a 1982 machine so it’s got some age on it so you may have to do some fairly serious repairs on it,

John

 

[jacnorectangle]

the one that won't agitate is a LAT8650AAW extra large capacity. Do you think the motor is interchangeable? Also this one was in a flood, 3 feet of water, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. For all I know the ga310 may have been in a flood too, this being Louisiana. I got it on craigslist a few years ago, pretty clean looking.

 

[stuftrock1]

Take the front panel off the LAT8650 and see how much rust is inside it. The flood probably rusted and seized up the lower transmission shaft. I would personally do a full teardown of this machine and clean/repaint all the rust I find. I'm surprised the motor still works at all to be honest.

But to answer your question, yes, the motors are interchangeable. Maytag kept the same basic design for like 50 years, and they are very easy and intuitive to completely disassemble. Think you could post some more pictures of your LAT8650?

 

[jacnorectangle]

I'll post some pics later. Yeah it's pretty dirty in the one that got flooded. So what do you mean when you say the belt should slip? What does that look like?

 

[jacnorectangle]

here's some pics of the flood victim lat8650. I can turn the transmission pulley counterclockwise if I try hard but the agitator doesn't move. I might take the start switch from this one and put it on the ga310, since that's what the repair guy originally said was wrong. The ga310 motor slides fine with the belts removed, the belt tension to the pump might be teeny bit loose. Would a belt slightly loose cause motor tripping? I don't know what the ideal tension is from the motor to the transmission pulley.

https://imgur.com/gallery/pK2NIBL

 

[stuftrock1]

Belt slipping

The motor is on a carriage that moves back and forth with springs keeping tension on the belt. This isn't just to keep the belt properly tensioned, it also acts as a clutch to protect the motor from being overloaded. When the washer goes into spin, the motor needs to get up to full speed as quickly as possible to avoid burning out the starter coil, but a big tub full of water and clothes cannot accelerate to 618 rpm that quickly, therefor there needs to be something to serve as a clutch between the motor and tub to allow the tub to slowly ramp up speed with the motor already at full rpm.

What happens is the motor will start and immediately go to full speed, but the belt will be unable to do so. This will pull the motor on its carriage closer to the center, loosening tension on the belt which allows the motor pulley to "slip" or spin freely while still applying a force on the belt. As the tub picks up speed, the force pulling the motor towards the center will weaken, allowing the springs on the carriage to pull the motor and tighten the tension on the belt, increasing the force applied to the belt and accelerating the tub even more. Eventually, the tub will reach full speed and the belt will stop slipping on the motor pulley.

This is how it's supposed to work, and it's quite ingenious actually because it gives the drive assembly the functionality of a clutch without using an individual clutch part. If you use cheap belts that aren't designed to slip like this, or the pump and drive belts aren't tensioned together properly, the drive belt will be unable to slip on the motor pulley like it is supposed to, and the motor will overload and smoke.

Hope this explanation helps.

 

[stuftrock1]

Reply 24

Does the tub turn at all when you turn the transmission pulley?

The inside of that LAT8650 honestly doesn't look nearly as bas as I thought it would. I would still clean it out as best you could though. I love old Maytags and I'd really hate to see one head to the scrap yard.

refer to replies 12 and 19 on how to properly tension the belts. And make sure the carriage can move back far enough for the drive belt to be loosened up enough to slip, because that's what went wrong on my A512. I bought cheap new belts and the drive belt was just too small, so it pulled the carriage too far back to give it any room to move any farther back to loosen the tension and slip, so I couldn't use the new belt at all.

After properly tensioning the belts, and cleaning up all the pulleys, put it on spin and watch the motor closely. Watch the rotor from the vent holes on the top. If the motor does not instantly reach full speed, then immediately turn the washer off. You cannot use the new belts. You'll need to order genuine Maytag brand belts, which are a bit more expensive but they're the only thing that'll actually work.

 

[jacnorectangle]

I made a video of the drive belt turning. This is with the older belt. The new one the repair guy put on I could hardly turn it at all.

 

[jacnorectangle]

And the motor gets up to full speed immediately on spin. So I guess the belts are fine after all? Next I wanna try switching out the start switch from the other machine. I don't have it hooked up to water so I'm not sure how I'm gonna test the draining part after the first agitation. Could I just fill it up with a bucket or something?

 

[stuftrock1]

Yeah if you could barely turn it at all with the new belt then you can’t use it. Just leave the old belt on for now. Get the belts properly tensioned and put the centrifugal switch on it from the LAT8650, then hopefully your GA310 will be working fine again.

These old Maytags very rarely need new belts. If it runs properly but feels a little sluggish (slow agitate, takes forever to reach full speed on spin), then order only genuine Maytag brand belts.

 

[stuftrock1]

Could I just fill it with a bucket?

Yes. When I’m working on a washer I don’t have a separate washer hookup to use, so I just fill the tub manually with a garden hose.

Test it full of water before swapping the switch. If it works, then you may not need to swap it.

 

[jacnorectangle]

wellp, the switch from the lat8650 doesn't fit onto this one. The little pegs don't match up to allow it to seat properly. I guess I could swap the motors but the other one is so dirty looking I'm scared it's gonna end up failing too. So is there a way to find out if the start switch is really bad? Would a multimeter reveal anything?

 

[jacnorectangle]

ok looks like I got it working. All I did was tighten the belt from the pump to the motor. Hooked it up to a garden hose. It now drains after agitation, no motor tripping. Though I ran it without any clothes, set the load size to small. Perhaps a heavier load would make it trip.

 

[stuftrock1]

Ok that’s good. Fill it up full of water and make sure it works. If it does, then you’re all set.

As for your LAT8650, it’s possible the nylon gears in the orbital transmission are stripped and need replacing. Pieces from the gears could be jamming up the shaft from turning. Try to turn the transmission pulley counter clockwise and see what happens.