Super DD portable/parts sources

[davek]

I was on a personal leave day today, so I thought I would go around a few places and try to scavenge some of the parts that I need to make my portable into a "Series 90." The features that I'm interested in adding are the ones that would make my portable more like my stored UCII. I refuse to rob parts from my UCII. I would like to have an automatic extra rinse option, pre soak that goes straight to wash (not on the auction panel), adjustable speeds (present through various cycles on auction one, dedicated knob on my UCII), and/or the long Super Wash cycle.

I spoke with the folks at each place that appliances are sold in town, and all don't permit that "for liability reasons." Same story at the main county waste center.

On I went to eBay. I found a lead on a good start with most of my wanted features(see link), but it's expensive. I figure that I need the control panel and wiring as that auction has, plus a 3-speed motor ($75 on eBay), a service manual (about $18), an extra portable control panel so I don't destroy mine ($?), a printed vinyl sticker to match the new controls to the narrow control panel ($20?) and a weekend. I would probably go ahead and change the coupler while in there, too.

What other sources for parts are there? I really would like to do this, but I would rather not spend $250 to do it (though I will if I have to).

Anyone know of any issues which would keep this from working before I buy any of this stuff? Does a 3-speed motor use the same mounting points as a 2? Will it fit inside a portable and clear all surroundings? Can I use the current 3-pos. water level switch with a fancier timer to avoid having to calibrate an infinite level one to the small tub?

Does anyone on here happen to have any of these parts that I need to get underway that they would like to part with? I'll gladly pay for them whatever we can work out. You can see the baseline that I'm looking at from the eBay listing and I would like to pay less if I could. If not, I would still rather buy from someone on here.

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Well, I still have the black Electronic Lady Kenmore DD machine that I was trying to dump on someone here. I replaced the main board with a reconditioned one from sears in 2007. It has a 2 speed motor, touch panel, light. From what I see, you would need a water guard to protect the main board, touch panel, wire harness, and line conditioner. I think your idea is definatly possible. Only if I had known about this site and your idea 2 years ago, I had a replacement front panel for a DD portable.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Three-speed motor?

Now that I think of it, I may just have a DD three-speed motor. I will check later today.

 

[davek]

Cool idea, but a couple of questions:

1: Are you sure that the digital Lady K is a 2-speed? If so, then I don't need to change the motor. I believe that the "Special/Limited (not sure) Edition" that I had to trash in 2003 was a 3-speed.

2: If I change to the digital panel, then I don't need to ruin an extra portable control panel, as it would have holes too far apart for the digital panel to cover. I would need to make one, as it would need only the rectangular hole in the middle for the controls, no timer or other switch holes at the edges.

3: Is the wiring on a digital one the same and use the same plugs as a regular one? Can the digital controls more or less plug in where the others went? Can its water level be easily calibrated to match the smaller portable tub?

Thanks for the help. If you've got the parts and aren't doing anything with them, I think we could work something out. I was going to go with dial-type for the conversion because of access to parts, but I'd certainly do the digital one if possible. My email address is in my profile.

 

[everythingold]

a 3 speed motor has an extra wire (or 2 on the older style) so you cannot utilize a 3 speed motor unless you have a 3 speed wire harness. i have all these things but shipping would kill you. matt

 

[davek]

Shipping.

Matt, I'm not allergic to paying for shipping. I don't even mind paying for parts. I just feel like some of the people on eBay are parting out a worn-out washer and getting enough money to buy a brand new one if they're patient enough. Good for them, but not so for me. I noticed that one person was charging over $50 shipping for a control panel with the timer. I've shipped things all over the world, and I know that it doesn't take $50 to ship something that light across 4 states.

Anything that I can do to use factory wiring without splices would be sure to increase reliability. If the timer, switches, motors, and whatnot are all exactly as before but in the smaller washer, they won't know they're in the small washer. If that means transplanting the entire harness from the old 3-speeder, then that's probably the way to go. It's like engine swapping in a car-the more stuff you move from one car to the other, the better it all probably works.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

davek,
Here is the machine that I am talking about. It is a black console Kenmore 90 series with quiet pak, and three speed motor. It has a second rinse option and agitation/spin speed selector. There is high/high, high/low, extra low intermittent/low, extra low/low, low/high.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

that connector I was talking about

 

[supremewhirlpol]

The motor nameplate. I have only seen one type of DD three speed motor.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Have you considered...

Have you thought of looking for this machine or one that has a three speed motor in your area? This particular Kenmore model has been around since ~1996. You may be able to find a machine at a used appliance store for ~$100 give or take. Just a thought.

 

[davek]

That's perfect

That's exactly the set of stuff I was hoping for. I've looked around, but I've not seen a deluxe machine that cheap. Around here, it's easy to find Estates and Ropers for about $100, but a fancier one could easily top $200. I also don't have a pickup truck or a place to disembowel a machine and dispose of the hulk.

If you don't want to take that one apart, that's ok. I understand. It looks like a perfectly good machine as-is. Unless it was rusty or leaky, I wouldn't want to bust it up, either.

 

[everythingold]

The motor pictured is the "old" style DD 3 speed. The new ones have a single wire from the harness that plugs directly into the motor. I don't think you should have any trouble finding a motor at a used appliance store, repair man service, scrap yard etc. Makes sure it spins freely and check for bearing play. hold the motor to the ground with your knee, and see if you can move the shaft either up or down, or in and out. Bearing play = bad motor. matt

 

[kenmoreforever]

Be ready to splice no matter how much you resist it. Never seen undertaking like this without at least one spice. good luck.

 

[davek]

Kenmoreforever

Thanks for the good luck. I will take pictures and keep people posted on this project as it goes. Once I get the parts in hand (thanks, Supremewhirlpol!), I'll start making clearance measurements and figuring out where I can mount stuff. Having looked inside, I may have to build the control panel out from the front an inch or so to allow tub movement to clear controls at the center of the machine. I'm kicking around some ideas in my head, and I'll have more once the parts are in hand.

I know that I can make this work. I once built the components of a modern computer into an Apple IIGS case. I still have that case...hmmm.

 

[davek]

Wish me luck

The parts came yesterday. I'm going into the belly of the beast later today. I'm just going to plug the new wiring and panel in and run it one load that way to make sure that it all can work right before I start building a mount for the controls. I can add the temperature sensor into the water stream (not that it'll do anything for now), but I can't add the dispenser tray from the fancy washer, so I need to make sure that the cycle will go on without its valve plugged in. I've also got to see what to do about the water level switch. If the one in the portable is plug-compatable with the new panel, I'll probably use it since it's already set up for the right levels.

If I have the success that I hope to getting it to work, there'll be a video on YouTube later.

 

[davek]

Tests

It went better than I had even hoped. I can't get it photogenically going, but the wiring was relatively easy. The digital panel refused to fill without its full set of dispenser valves hooked up. The 3 speed panel worked properly all around. The next time it's handy, I'm going to pick up some wire ties and go ahead and mount the wiring. It all reached very easily where it needed to go. The components, as expected, don't know that they aren't mounted in the right washer and functioned properly.

Now I have to design and build a mount to hold the panel. Now that I know the setup worked like I thought, I want to do that quickly. I can't mount it flush with the front like I wanted, because there isn't enough clearance behind the panel for controls at the middle to clear the tub when things get violent in there. It will have to stick out, and probably put the controls at a very Whirlpool upward-facing angle. Any ideas for materials?

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Good!! You got the parts! I was starting to worry for a bit. Won't fill without the dispensers? You can try putting the machine on soak or prewash to get around this issue, unless the control board senses for the soleniods. It should work on rinse too, the fabric dispenser kicks in after the agitator starts. I think the 1999 Kenmore 90 series electronic version has a button to stop or cancel the dispensers.

 

[davek]

Yeah, I could get it to spin with the digital board, but when I set it to fill, the water valve would buzz but not open. I'm going to play with it some more this week, but I found in all of my workings that the rattly noise I had been hearing during agitation is the pump. It turns smoothly one direction and sticks a little when turning the other. I'm going to get a new pump before I play any further since it seems likely that it would quickly leak out a full soapy load on the floor with little warning soon. I better not do any more loads at all without a new pump first.

As for the 3 speed, I got it to work perfectly except that the motor didn't want to turn "slow" speed. It would click and run occasionally, but threatened to go all "en fuego" and stank. I tried a couple of capacitors and that wasn't it. You had mentioned that motor being iffy, so I chalked it up to that. It ran 100% perfectly set on "fast/fast," and I ran 2 loads that way, one with extra rinse, which also worked right.

A 3.2 capacity control board's water level set to the middle fills a portable to the top of the slash-shaped holes.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Are you sure that you did not have the speed setting on intermittent extra slow? There are 2 extra slow settings. One is intermittent(on for a few sec then off), while the other extra slow setting is constant.