RCA Whirlpool matching washer/dryer set

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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Magic Clean filter is the recirculating, self-cleaning lint filter. The red (neon?) light above the water level control is supposed to light up during wash and rinse agitation to indicate the filter is doing its thing. It back-flushes during drain to clear the collected lint. Look under the machine, this one may be a disc mounted at either the left or right rear corner.
 
Bakelite agitators mount on a hexagonal drive block which is pressed onto the agitator shaft. The drive block may be either metal or plastic, not sure which on this model. Early models used a metal drive block and a keyed shaft. Later the tranny drive shaft was splined all the way 'round and the drive block was possibly still metal for a while, then changed to plastic or nylon. Unscrew the cap and pull the agitator to see it. The double-threaded nut for the agitator cap may unscrew and come off as part of the cap, or the cap may come off with the nut left in the drive block. When agitators changed from bakelite to plastic, the hexagonal drive block was eliminated and the agitator pressed directly onto the splined tranny shaft.
 
The Good News:

I just put the washer through it's paces, in the courtyard. Cold water, but Cold Water Tide came through quite nicely (although I over-dosed the throw rugs, and had to run a second rinse). Timer advanced normally, agitation normal, neutral drain and spin normal.

The Bad News:

It's a LEAKER! LOL. Looks like a fairly major leak from the front of the machine. I couldn't quite see what was up there from the back, but I'm guessing it's the pump area. Hopefully it's just a bad hose connection or something, but I'll have to open the washer up (or turn it on its face) to see what's up with that.

Will post photo of the wash action in a bit.
 
Leak is at drain

At the front of the machine (I tilted it back) there's a rubber fitting that connects the outer tub, through a sheet metal support, to a sediment trap (looks like one, at least) and from there to the pump. The sediment trap is an opaque plastic cylinder about 2 inches dia and about 8 inches long. Where it attaches to the tub, the rubber fitting is rather thin, and it has obviously cracked and is no good any more.

I'm not sure, but I'm thinking that replacing the drain rubber fitting will involve two challenges:

1) Finding the replacement part

2) Installing the replacement part. I'm suspecting the tub will have to be separated from the support to allow the new fitting to be installed, since it looks like it gets compressed between the two.

Alternatively I might be able to find a plumbing fitting that will fit around what's left of the rubber drain fitting and also the sediment trap, with two hose clamps to hold it all in place. But I think that might be a dodgy fix that could be prone to sudden failure.

Anybody have a clue as to how to proceed?

Thanks!
 
Rich

That's a great set; looks like it will have illumination.
Maybe it's leaking from the lint filter and will just need
hoses or gasketry. I know what you mean about "the city"
being easy to get lost in. I was there for eightteen years until '96 and it don't look like the same place too me. I
hated that the earthquake made all them big ugly elevated freeways get torn down. You better have a washin soon!!!!
 
Wash action

Three small all cotton round bath throw rugs (gecko style)...

Cold water, low level, Cold Water Tide. This is actually the rinse, showing I added waaay too much detergent for the load, but it shows the wash action pretty well.

12-29-2006-20-13-59--sudsmaster.jpg
 
Frontal,

Thanks. I took off the back of the control panel and there's lots of room in there for a flourescent light. It is on my list of things to add... and I'll probably include some sort of switch so it can be turned on or off regardless of washer state. I figure the top of the line machine (probably the Imperial 90 version) had the light installed.
 
Way cool machines! My niece had one in avacado in the basement of a home she bought which was a few years newer than this and was not in service for about 10 years. I hooked it up and filled it and it ran fine through agitate and neutral pump but spin was slower than slow and soggy clothes. We put it aside for a few years and hooked up her A608 Maytag. She is now moving and taking the Maytag with her. I re -hooked up the Whilpool Super 80, but took off the back panel to see the belt was coated with dust and pushed and pulled on the belt to manually turn things. After hooking up, and after two loads, the spin worked fine, in fact fast and slow as required by the cylce. These old Whirlpool machines need time to get up to speed it seems on the spin, and once they do, they seem to remember next time. I am sure the damn dust on the pulleys, wig wag spring and belts didn't help. I was used to a really crisp Maytag startup and spin, Whirlpool is more sublte, and we were alomost going to trash the machine, now we cant decide which machine to leave in the home she is selling.
 
Way cool machines! My niece has one in avacado in the basement of a home she bought which is a few years newer than this and was not in service for about 10 years. I hooked it up and filled it and it ran fine through agitate and neutral pump but spin was slower than slow and soggy clothes. We put it aside for a few years and hooked up her A608 Maytag. She is now moving and taking the Maytag with her. I re-hooked-up the Whilpool Super 80, but took off the back panel to see the belt was coated with dust and pushed and pulled on the belt to manually turn things. After hooking up, and after two loads, the spin worked fine, in fact fast and slow as required by the cylce. These old Whirlpool machines need time to get up to speed it seems on the spin, and once they do, they seem to remember next time. I am sure the damn dust on the pulleys, wig wag spring and belts didn't help. I am used to a really crisp Maytag startup and spin, Whirlpool is more sublte on the uptake and we were alomost going to trash the machine. Now we cant decide which machine to leave in the home she is selling.
 
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