Sears Kenmore Belt-drive Transmission Rebuild

[WasherMan52]

Well I got the seal and spring but misplaced my smaller spring Im annoyed on the fork assembly.Would you know a P/N cant find anything.I know the older transmissions didnt use them at all as I think it was an upgade. Looks to be the same wire thickness .105 but two coils shorter then the main agitator spring. Anyhelp would be appreciated ...Glenn

 

[swestoyz]

The spring PN for the fork is 16015, still readily available and all over eBay.

Fun fact - that PN is the original PN for that particular spring, going back to the first belt drive transmission in 1947. It is one of the very few items starting with 16xxx that remained through the last of the belt drives in the late 80's.

There was a brief period from 1959 thru 1964 where Whirlpool omitted the 16015 fork spring, in favor of the new agitator shaft seal spring, 92815, and a revised fork that no longer interfaced with the lower section of the gear case. The new agitator shaft spring was intended to replace the tension applied to the fork AND hold the the gear securely against agitator pin. Thankfully Whirlpool went back to the full length fork and added back the original 16015 fork spring paired with the new agitator shaft seal/spring assembly with the heavy duty gear case revisions in '64.

Ben

 

[maytag85]

You need 80 to 90W gear oil, that’s what I put in mine when I rebuilt the transmission back in the spring of 2021. Has been holding up so far.

Have another Whirlpool transmission I plan on rebuilding at some point, however I am going to experiment with putting corn head grease in than one since corn head grease turns into a heavy gear oil when mixed around, turns into a grease once it settles.

 

[WasherMan52]

The spring PN for the fork is 16015, still readily available and all over eBay.

Fun fact - that PN is the original PN for that particular spring, going back to the first belt drive transmission in 1947. It is one of the very few items starting with 16xxx that remained through the last of the belt drives in the late 80's.

There was a brief period from 1959 thru 1964 where Whirlpool omitted the 16015 spring, in favor of the agitator shaft seal spring, 92815, and a revised fork that no longer interfaced with the lower section of the gear case. The updated agitator shaft spring was intended to replace the tension needed to hold the gear securely in place, but thankfully Whirlpool went back to the full length fork and the original 16015 spring paired with the new agitator shaft seal/spring assembly with the heavy duty gear case revisions in '64.

Ben

Ben,your saying the fork spring is the same as the main spring which is P/N 16015 also. In the pictures here of this post it looks to be smaller then the main spring with the seal. When I took mine apart initially I remembered the fork not the driveshaft spring was shorter by an inch or so......

 

[swestoyz]

Not quite. The springs are not the same. 16015 is a smaller spring, both in diameter and height. The 92815 spring is much taller and stronger than the 16015 spring. A photo calling out both, as installed in the transmission, may help.