New Member: Just bought a Maytag Wringer Washer and wondering what I've gotten myself into

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Yep. I forgot to upload a picture of the serial number yesterday but I can add one when I get home tonight. I know it's around 100,000 from when I looked up a serial number chart with ages but I'll get the exact one this evening. Now I feel better about not having the maytag letters if they were never there to begin with.
 
Just used the decoder

And believe Larry is correct on the date!
So...it probably had the MAYTAG decal on the front, but the script may have been a little different than mine, not sure. If Geoff comes by, he will know.
If it the same as mine I might be able to hook you up. The NOS decals available on line are just too old, and nit worth the time. IMHO.
Larry, how's your tub? Have you figured out what you can and can not use, to keep it from darkening ?
I give up! I just S.O.S mine and use 2000 grit when I'm tired of looking at it!
 
Me too Stan

It's a washing machine! If I need to use bleach, I'm going to use bleach! It doesn't look like it did right after I polished it all up but it's not bad. Plus I know if I ever want to attack it again with the fine steel wool, SOS, or Mother's Mag Polish I can get it back to almost showroom new quality. I expect mine looks like any of them did after "normal" use for over a year.

I agree about the on line decals. I bought that red one for the back and it was so brittle it broke into 10 pieces! The guy took exception to my comments and sent me another one, Told me I didn't soak the first one it in water long enough. So I tried again and it tore into about 3 pieces so I just sort of patched it together. It's in the back so I don't really care. I read how Brad Ross re-created his decals for his classic Kenmore and those looked awesome! Maybe he has some ideas for the Maytag one as well.
 
hey homesteadgal....

i was just wondering how you were coming along with your maytag wringer washer?? how does everything seem to be coming along.

hope everything is falling into place for you!!!

;o)
 
Update

Well I've hit a bit of a slowdown waiting to get the power unit back. My brother in law tells me it's almost done so hopefully I can reassemble the old girl soon. I did intend to sand and paint the body of the washer yesterday but it was storming off and on and I'm not thrilled with the idea of trying to spray paint in the house. I'm hoping I can at least get her sanded and primed tomorrow if the weather cooperates. I'll post more pics as soon as I can get started on the painting. Glad to see you got your washer too.
 
Good idea

to NOT spray paint in the house. You'll suffocate! I did some in the garage and that was a little too much. I did most of my painting in the back yard. For my wringer and some of the skirt and legs I sprayed with Rustolmuem White Appliance Epoxy. It worked really well. Like any spray painting, it's in the technique. Lots of light coats. Sanding and priming was easy. I bought a Black and Decker mouse sander. And BOY!Did that make the job easier. It gets every tight space. Money well spent if you don't already have something like it. And I painted the leg extensions and the metal on the casters with a flat aluminum silver. Same paint I used on the Rally Wheels on my 71 Chevelle. It works very well!
 
Well she's got a new coat of paint!

Finished priming and painting the body of the washer. I used the appliance epoxy as well and I must say it went on very smoothly and it covers very well. I still have to do the wringer but I'm gonna wait on that until tomorrow. As far as the legs and wheels I'm waiting to see what they look like after being media blasted. I figure if they're still a bit pitted then I can always paint them but if not then I can save a step. Also I'm supposed to get the power unit back today so I could be doing my first load of wash soon :)

homesteadgal++5-11-2014-11-58-4.jpg
 
Oh and I forgot to say:

I did make use of a nice little dewalt sander that we had handy and it does make the job go so much quicker!
 
Got the wheels and power unit back

Both look good. The power unit is all cleaned up and ready to be greased. What type of grease/oil should I be adding to the power unit? Do I need something different for the wringer shaft?
 
WOW!

I told you it was going to look good! The power unit and the wringer shaft use different lubricants. They still make the power unit oil. It's called Heavy Duty transmission lubricant. Whirlpool part number 6-0560800. Someone here sent me a link at Amazon.com and it cost $20.91. I had so many false starts that I went through the quart so then I just used 80-90 WT gear oil I bought at Auto Zone. I couldn't tell any difference and a year and a half later my washer isn't complaining. For the wringer post I used Multi-Purpose, Heavy Duty synthetic grease I bought at Ace Hardware. I packed it as full as I could get it and I figured it came to about 4 oz.

Did you get new gaskets? You'll need 2. One that goes between the power unit and the center plate and one where the horizontal drive meets the wringer post. Phil [email protected], sells that set for a few dollars. He has a set on Ebay now for $8.95

Keep us posted on how you're doing.

Larry
 
Maytag Wringer Washers!

Those who have known me for a long time know I DO NOT like Maytag Automatics...The Maytag Wringers..though, Especially the square ones, are IMHO the very best wringer washer ever built....even better than a Norge, which I think was the best automatic ever made....There was something about that square tub that just plain washed better!It doesent seem it would, but trust me, when you first use it, you wont believe it!!
 
E2l-arry,

Thanks for the info about the oil and grease. I'm thinking I'll just get the ones you mention from the auto parts store and ace rather than order them online. Also I did email Phil about gaskets. I looked at the listing you mentioned on ebay but I wasn't sure if that set included the gasket for where the power unit meets the tub or not as I couldn't tell from the picture. Thanks for all your help. I'll post updated pictures in the morning since I just finished putting the wheels and legs back on.
 
Good point on the gasket

There is a gasket that seals the tub to the center plate. On yours is should be a thin black rubber gasket, It fits in the groove that goes around the center plate. You don't want any leaks once it's all back together. I'd probably replace the seal for the agitator shaft too. That's how water works it's way into the transmission and causes oil leaks out of the vent eventually. With a water tight seal this thing it good for another 20 years!

Larry
 
Gaskets

I went ahead and bought the gasket set Phil had on ebay as I need all of those gaskets too but I'm pretty sure it doesn't come with the gasket for where the power unit meets the tub. I did search a bit online and I found that autozone sells the gasket material that can be cut to size so I may just end up getting a pack of that as well and making the round gasket that I need.

E2l-arry, what did you do when you reassembled yours? Did you replace that gasket?
 
I DID

Replace the tub gasket. Phil sells them. Maybe not on EBay but he sells them. It's the tub gasket, part number 15641. It was $2.50 last time I bought one.
 
Tub Gasket

Yep that's the one I ordered. Fingers crossed that should be the last part that I need so hopefully as soon as I get it in the mail we can reassemble the old girl.
 
What will you do for tub bolts?

I had to buy a special gulmite wrench to get the old ones out but I replaced them with the 1/2" with washer and rubber gasket from Phil as well.
 
Bolts

We already removed the gulmite bolts and I got a set of the replacement bolts from Phil. We used a reverse thread bolt extractor to get the gulmite bolts out. It actually worked really well, we figured we'd give it a try before ordering the special wrench.
 
Late to the party

I'm a bit late to this thread but wanted to know how your E2L rehab turned out? I have rebuilt 2 Maytag wringers, a E2LP & J2LP and use them both frequently. I'm kinda hit and miss on checking the posts here. Seems I get preoccupied with other projects.
I'm glad Larry, Stan and the others were able to help you out.
Post a pic of your machine if it's finished....

Steve
 
Update.... Sorry I can be a bit ADD

So we technically "finished" the washer (cleaned everything out, redid all the seals, added oil and grease to the appropriate places and she still won't agitate faster than a crawl. At some point we're gonna try to tear apart the power unit fully and rebuild it but we've had so much overtime at work over the past few months that we honestly haven't gotten anymore done. I did buy another maytag wringer washer that works perfectly as is and just needs the cosmetics fixed up so I've been using that as a daily driver in the mean time.

Here's a link to that thread:
http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?53562

And here's another thread with a more thorough update of the problems with miss e2l:
http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?53527
 

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