More details.
Hi, thanks for going to so much effort to find this out for me.
Looking at the back of the heater element, it has markings: IRCA 09 90 230V 2500W.
Could the 09 90 indicate the date of manufacture of the element? Late 1990 or early 1991 would make this a very late model. It has a normal perforated inner drum (cleaned up nicely!) (no chevrons or spincare).
Comparing the new schematics with the old one, the new one shows a felt washer.
My machine has a felt washer see reply 23 photo 4.
My machine does not have a collapsible washer like the one in the centre of the photo in reply 5.
So, you may be right that the bearing sleeves cannot be removed. I did not hit them that hard, but it was using a small lump hammer and should have been enough force to dislogde it a little if it was just tightly pressed in.
The inner sleeve is very rough but the outer one is quite smooth and the outer original bearings looked OK condition.
Looking at the old and new bearings, it could be just my eyesight but the original ones look very slightly more angled but it might be just wear and tear? (they have all the same numbers/markings old and new)
Look at this photo below, there is a ring of darker dull grey material (might be metal)around the centre hole where the bearing sleeve is fixed. The inner sleeve is in poor condition with a very rough surface. There was a lot of limescale inside the hole so I used limescale remover and it has dulled the sheen on the outer sleeve but at least that one is still smooth.
Good job I checked with you guys before demolishing it trying to remove the sleeves!
