Wow Ben, you've done it again. Congratulations on another amazing and thorough mechanical restoration. Once again we prove the guys wrong at that appliance parts stores telling us it will be "impossible to fix this and it's time for a new washer".
Taming a Rollermatic - Custom Deluxe style!
- Thread starter swestoyz
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WOW! You are incredibly talented and ambitious. It must be good genetics and the fact that you have the patience for tackling such an complex job.
test run
I'd love to see a test run on youtube.
I'd love to see a test run on youtube.
mickeyd
Well-known member
Dear Mother General Jon Charles Jetcone~
A big warm hello and Thank You for the insight. I bet you're right; furthermore, that is one truly beautiful agitator--love the higher head.
The action of the three ring pulsator in a 12 pound tub differs from that of a 10 pounder: In the classic 10, everything goes round and down at once while in the 12, some articles sort of "wait their turn" to take the plunge, just like in the 1-18 and the rollermatics. I'm sure you've noticed.
Myself, well, I spent way too many hours watching our rollermatic's jetcone peel the articles off the load and pull them down when I should have been out playing SPOOORRTS. Ha ha ha.
A big warm hello and Thank You for the insight. I bet you're right; furthermore, that is one truly beautiful agitator--love the higher head.
The action of the three ring pulsator in a 12 pound tub differs from that of a 10 pounder: In the classic 10, everything goes round and down at once while in the 12, some articles sort of "wait their turn" to take the plunge, just like in the 1-18 and the rollermatics. I'm sure you've noticed.
Myself, well, I spent way too many hours watching our rollermatic's jetcone peel the articles off the load and pull them down when I should have been out playing SPOOORRTS. Ha ha ha.
Thank you!
Oh guys, thank you for your kind comments and responses. I wish I could say there was a natural talent that goes along with diving into a project like this, but I truly believe that everyone is capable of learning how to work on our mechanical wonders. They really are the best place to start in terms of building up mechanical knowledge and touch, IMO. I've always felt that coding or electronics/microelectronics are far more difficult to master than turning a wrench and reading through a service manual. Anyone can do this if they put their mind to it and are okay making mistakes and learning along the way.
Ok - a few answers to some of the questions:
Mickeyd - Jon and Dan are spot on. The cleaning ability of the narrower 1963/1964 three ring agitator column seems to be better than the 1965-1969 Deep Action/Jet Action agitator. The side by side shot above of the two shows how the narrow center of the earlier style will swallow items into the circulation, vs. the later style relies on zones of current on the periphery of the tub to turn items over. I'm also proving that the later, narrower pulsators work just fine to turn over big loads, and even slow things down just a bit compared to the earlier 1955-1964 pulsators. And yes, Dan is correct. The earlier agitator is MUCH quieter.
As for writing. I cringe when I read back through my posts. At typos and grammar issues. I often have a great narrative in my mind of what I want to say but I don't have a lot of time to get it down on paper, let alone having time to go back and read through my thoughts with the lens of a proof reader/editor. Throw in shooting video footage on my phone, editing it over the course of an evening, and trying to be a husband/dad with a full time job. It's a wonder any of this actually gets accomplished.
Patrick/Agiflow - I really need to shoot a full cycle video of the 350 Blackstone. Coming soon!
John L - While I do love a good Rapid Dry Rollermatic, I really warmed up to to the idea of saving/restoring a middle of the line machine, especially an early one. Considering how unique the design and engineering is of these, restoring the bread and butter version felt just as important as having the fastest car/spinning washer off the show room floor.
And - to follow up on a few things I mentioned during the thread. I did measure the agitate wheel spacer gage for both the Rollermatic and the 1-18:
Agitate Wheel spacer gage 12934-1 - Rollermatic - 0.125 / 1/8"
Agitate Wheel spacer gage 14405 - 1-18 Rollermatic - 0.060 / ~1/16"
Also, the piece of steel bar stock that I used to help press out the agitate wheel bearing was 1/8" x 1", cut to about 5 inches in length.
Otherwise, the only specialized tools that are an absolute must would be the bellows pliers and the tub nut wrench. Outside of those, all other tasks technically can be done without any other specialized tools, baring that a shop press makes bearing removal and assembly so much easier, as well as a gear puller for the drivers and motor upper bearing. [this post was last edited: 2/21/2025-16:14]
Oh guys, thank you for your kind comments and responses. I wish I could say there was a natural talent that goes along with diving into a project like this, but I truly believe that everyone is capable of learning how to work on our mechanical wonders. They really are the best place to start in terms of building up mechanical knowledge and touch, IMO. I've always felt that coding or electronics/microelectronics are far more difficult to master than turning a wrench and reading through a service manual. Anyone can do this if they put their mind to it and are okay making mistakes and learning along the way.
Ok - a few answers to some of the questions:
Mickeyd - Jon and Dan are spot on. The cleaning ability of the narrower 1963/1964 three ring agitator column seems to be better than the 1965-1969 Deep Action/Jet Action agitator. The side by side shot above of the two shows how the narrow center of the earlier style will swallow items into the circulation, vs. the later style relies on zones of current on the periphery of the tub to turn items over. I'm also proving that the later, narrower pulsators work just fine to turn over big loads, and even slow things down just a bit compared to the earlier 1955-1964 pulsators. And yes, Dan is correct. The earlier agitator is MUCH quieter.
As for writing. I cringe when I read back through my posts. At typos and grammar issues. I often have a great narrative in my mind of what I want to say but I don't have a lot of time to get it down on paper, let alone having time to go back and read through my thoughts with the lens of a proof reader/editor. Throw in shooting video footage on my phone, editing it over the course of an evening, and trying to be a husband/dad with a full time job. It's a wonder any of this actually gets accomplished.
Patrick/Agiflow - I really need to shoot a full cycle video of the 350 Blackstone. Coming soon!
John L - While I do love a good Rapid Dry Rollermatic, I really warmed up to to the idea of saving/restoring a middle of the line machine, especially an early one. Considering how unique the design and engineering is of these, restoring the bread and butter version felt just as important as having the fastest car/spinning washer off the show room floor.
And - to follow up on a few things I mentioned during the thread. I did measure the agitate wheel spacer gage for both the Rollermatic and the 1-18:
Agitate Wheel spacer gage 12934-1 - Rollermatic - 0.125 / 1/8"
Agitate Wheel spacer gage 14405 - 1-18 Rollermatic - 0.060 / ~1/16"
Also, the piece of steel bar stock that I used to help press out the agitate wheel bearing was 1/8" x 1", cut to about 5 inches in length.
Otherwise, the only specialized tools that are an absolute must would be the bellows pliers and the tub nut wrench. Outside of those, all other tasks technically can be done without any other specialized tools, baring that a shop press makes bearing removal and assembly so much easier, as well as a gear puller for the drivers and motor upper bearing. [this post was last edited: 2/21/2025-16:14]
Agitate Arm adjustment
Okay, this is good tip for anyone to check when working on a '64 thru '69 Rollermatic. None of the original Tech Talk service manuals for these washers discuss rebuilding the agitate arm as GM did not supply the repair kit for these until the mid 70's. The instruction sheet that comes along with either the 9957111 Rollermatic or 9957112 1-18 rebuild kit contain the same instructions.
The important part to note is the torque "drop test", discussed in bullet number 14 below; screen shot taken from the 1972 Tech Talk for the T-Line washers. After cleaning everything and lubricating the wick, I adjusted the nut to what I felt was pretty close, then did the 45 degree drop to center and adjusted the nut until I could reliably get the same result after a few tries.
All of the used arms I had on hand were terribly loose. This adjustment in itself would help quiet down a noisy Rollermatic, and would ensure that the ball bushings have a nice long healthy life.
Okay, this is good tip for anyone to check when working on a '64 thru '69 Rollermatic. None of the original Tech Talk service manuals for these washers discuss rebuilding the agitate arm as GM did not supply the repair kit for these until the mid 70's. The instruction sheet that comes along with either the 9957111 Rollermatic or 9957112 1-18 rebuild kit contain the same instructions.
The important part to note is the torque "drop test", discussed in bullet number 14 below; screen shot taken from the 1972 Tech Talk for the T-Line washers. After cleaning everything and lubricating the wick, I adjusted the nut to what I felt was pretty close, then did the 45 degree drop to center and adjusted the nut until I could reliably get the same result after a few tries.
All of the used arms I had on hand were terribly loose. This adjustment in itself would help quiet down a noisy Rollermatic, and would ensure that the ball bushings have a nice long healthy life.
So many rollers, oh my!
Another mystifying thing I wanted to help shed some light on are the many, many, many different part numbers GM used from 1964 thru 1979 on all Rollermatic mechanisms.
The late '64 through early '66 mechanisms used what I like to call the spring style rollers, that have a wire wound spring that wraps around the center bushing and has tension held by a near by stand off on the motor frame. It didn't take long for GM to update the newer "retractor" style rollers on the 1 and 2 speed mechanisms, starting with the mid-year introduction in 1966 of the Sure Spin clutch, and on the '67 L through '68 N line Rapid Dry mechanisms.
As I read through the various Tech Talks, Tech Tips, and the annual Tech Tip digest that GM called the Tech Talk Miscellaneous, I got a sense of information of the updates and revisions that GM was working to achieve during the early years. There were some repair kits available for some years, red stripes vs. yellow stripes on spin rollers, Impact Clutch vs. Sure Spin, and then all of the 1-18 changes that happened over the course of a decade.
For the last several years I've slowly been working on a cross reference table that I was originally inspired by Greg N and some of the research he had done, as well as some of the tabulated summary information GM was trying to present in Tech Tips. This table focuses mostly on rollers/clutches/agitate arms, but it does include a few other small details.
As for the restoration on the '65, I used a 6597633 agitate/spin roller kit, that provides a 7533507 agitate roller and 7533505/0631407 spin roller, and one roller screw. Since I ended up using a motor base from a '66 sure spin I didn't need to modify the motor base, but all 1964 and early '65 mechanisms will require a hole to be drilled into the bae in order for the roller tab to fall into the notch/hole on the motor base frame.
If anyone spots any errors on this list, please let me know and I'd be happy to make any updates/corrections.
Happy parts hunting!
Ben
Another mystifying thing I wanted to help shed some light on are the many, many, many different part numbers GM used from 1964 thru 1979 on all Rollermatic mechanisms.
The late '64 through early '66 mechanisms used what I like to call the spring style rollers, that have a wire wound spring that wraps around the center bushing and has tension held by a near by stand off on the motor frame. It didn't take long for GM to update the newer "retractor" style rollers on the 1 and 2 speed mechanisms, starting with the mid-year introduction in 1966 of the Sure Spin clutch, and on the '67 L through '68 N line Rapid Dry mechanisms.
As I read through the various Tech Talks, Tech Tips, and the annual Tech Tip digest that GM called the Tech Talk Miscellaneous, I got a sense of information of the updates and revisions that GM was working to achieve during the early years. There were some repair kits available for some years, red stripes vs. yellow stripes on spin rollers, Impact Clutch vs. Sure Spin, and then all of the 1-18 changes that happened over the course of a decade.
For the last several years I've slowly been working on a cross reference table that I was originally inspired by Greg N and some of the research he had done, as well as some of the tabulated summary information GM was trying to present in Tech Tips. This table focuses mostly on rollers/clutches/agitate arms, but it does include a few other small details.
As for the restoration on the '65, I used a 6597633 agitate/spin roller kit, that provides a 7533507 agitate roller and 7533505/0631407 spin roller, and one roller screw. Since I ended up using a motor base from a '66 sure spin I didn't need to modify the motor base, but all 1964 and early '65 mechanisms will require a hole to be drilled into the bae in order for the roller tab to fall into the notch/hole on the motor base frame.
If anyone spots any errors on this list, please let me know and I'd be happy to make any updates/corrections.
Happy parts hunting!
Ben
Amazing!
Ben,
This was such a satisfying thread to read. As always, you do great work.
Patrick
Ben,
This was such a satisfying thread to read. As always, you do great work.
Patrick
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your restoration and the excellent videos
Frigidaire!
That is a nice Frigidaire! How does it sound with the lid shut with nothing but water in it? It's a shame what GM and WCI did to them.
That is a nice Frigidaire! How does it sound with the lid shut with nothing but water in it? It's a shame what GM and WCI did to them.
I
Just love the Rollermatic Cross Reference Chart !
Ill sleep well tonight !
Just love the Rollermatic Cross Reference Chart !
Ill sleep well tonight !
cycla-fabric
Well-known member
Ben, all I have to say is that you are super talented in the restoration of this washer. You really should pat yourself on the back for the time and effort to get this machine up and running again. My hats off to you.
Doug
Doug
Well done, Ben! Great work and thanks for documenting it -- I often refer to these "tutorials" to help me fix my own machines!
Mark
Mark
Amazing work
Ben, you do the finest restorations, I swear. I am terrified of Frigidaires and particularly of this multimatic.
Ben, you do the finest restorations, I swear. I am terrified of Frigidaires and particularly of this multimatic.
How Wonderful!
Ben, this is one the finest tutorials on Rollermatic restoration I have ever seen here. I would love to know if you have any advice on how to tame the Sure-Spin Rapidry clutch. I have ran into several issues on those machines, including my own where you can get it to develop torque and spin the tub on takeoff but then loose torque when it shifts the solenoid on for the middle and high speeds. Numerous adjustments and tear down and reassembly efforts have proved no result, and it is not the rollers slipping... It's even too tight to start and throws the overload or presents the condition I outlined above.
Congratulations on a beautiful restoration!
Ben, this is one the finest tutorials on Rollermatic restoration I have ever seen here. I would love to know if you have any advice on how to tame the Sure-Spin Rapidry clutch. I have ran into several issues on those machines, including my own where you can get it to develop torque and spin the tub on takeoff but then loose torque when it shifts the solenoid on for the middle and high speeds. Numerous adjustments and tear down and reassembly efforts have proved no result, and it is not the rollers slipping... It's even too tight to start and throws the overload or presents the condition I outlined above.
Congratulations on a beautiful restoration!
Again, job well done, as usual. I appreciate your talent, hard work, and your sharing this with us
Was the early machines more reliable than the up and down agitator models from the 70's?
If by early you mean the 1964-1969 Rollermatics vs. the 1970-1979 1-18 Rollermatics, I'd say they both have their strengths and weak spots. Many of us have found both versions that just needed a bit of cleanup and were able to wash without issue. The pot metal base of the Rollermatic water pump can easily corrode and the seal fail; spin roller issues on some of the earlier Rollermatics; noisy rollers on both platforms, water bellows issues on the 1971-1973 1-18s; lint filter latch weakness on the 1-18, etc.
Like all vintage washers, we love them for both for their strengths and areas that need improvement.
I've been using the '65 weekly since February and it is still running perfectly. I love how efficient it is and the almost whisper quiet full speed spin.
Ben
In my experiences, the Unimatics were known to spin small items into the outer tub. The 1-18's had a spin clutch that was not all that robust.
I would have thought with the design of that tub in the Unimatic that it would have kept small items in. There hasn't been a video that I've seen where a sock or something small gets thrown over the side in one of these machines. Not discounting your experience, but maybe it wasn't all that prevalent with Frigidaire washers in general ?
Come on you Frigidaire folks who own these machines. Be honest. How often does clothes get caught between the tubs ?
Hi agiflow: My experiences and knowledge with the Unimatics from the 1950's, when I was a kid, was extensive. In the small city in which we lived, there was no Sears. Most folks either had the affordable Unimatic machines, or they had Maytag ker-BANG! AMPs. The socks in the outer tub problem was reported by many of my mom's friends and my aunts that had the Unimatics. Mr. Lund was the appliance repair guy. I watch him fish socks and some small items our of my Aunt Virginia's machine. Oh! BTW, those old Maytag AMP's weren't all that reliable either. The insides of the lids rusted out quickly and the mercury switches often would become dislodged.
Oh wow. I remember seeing some old consumer reports reporting about the higher likelihood of clothes getting caught between tubs with solid tub spin drains from the 1950s. All our favorite machines have pluses and minuses. Whirlpool/Kenmore BD with their slower spinning is a negative to many on this site, but it doesn't bother me because they have wider tubs and as far as I'm concerned are the coolest sounding washing machines ever produced !
dishmobile
Member
Nothing but respect...well done! My father sold Frigidaire (and Maytag) during the time this delicious machine was new, and I remember a neighbor's house with a turquoise laundry pair just like this. So satisfying is this restoration, thanks for sharing.
I learn amazing amounts of information from this post. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. This generation of Frigidaire washing machines is my all-time favorite and the aquamarine color scheme is the icing on the cake.
One persistent question: what is the "PUSH" button next to the dial (reset, I presume?) and why was it eliminated for future Rollermatics?
One persistent question: what is the "PUSH" button next to the dial (reset, I presume?) and why was it eliminated for future Rollermatics?
Ken, this is a great question (and I apologize for the windy response).
The PUSH circuit breaker button on the 1965/1966 Rollermatics provided the same motor protection that prior generations of Frigidaire mechanisms required (Unimatic/Pulsamatic/Multimatic). The early 1964-1965 1/2 speed and 1965-1966 Rapid Dry mechanisms employed what GM called an "Impact Clutch", in so much that the spin wheel doesn't perform any actual clutching during the ramp up of spin, but rather the clutch disc within the wheel is intended as a safety to protect the motor and spin shaft if the brake were to be engaged at the same time as power was restored to the motor. Imagine the lid being opened for a brief moment and closed while the tub was coasting to a stop via the engaged brake. The initial torque and force from the motor would cause the spin wheel to spin at a different rate than the keyed spin shaft and the clutch would slip for a brief moment until the brake was released.
With the early Rollermatics functioning similarly to the direct drive Unimatic, the PUSH circuit breaker is protecting the motor for any number of scenarios where the ramp up to spin could be impacted by an external factor. All torque required to spin the tub was absorbed by the motor and start capacitor, and the circuit breaker trips current to the motor if the draw from the motor exceeds the rating of the breaker.
When GM shifted the 1/2 speed mechanisms in 1966 over to the Sure Spin clutch, the need for the legacy motor protector was eliminated. By using the Sure Spin clutch the motor was was running a full speed for either agitate or spin at all times, and the clutch within the spin wheel was taking the brunt of the initial torque required to get the tub up to full speed spin. The Sure Spin clutch was adapted to the Rapid Dry mechanism in 1967 for the L line and used for all mechanism speed combinations for the 1968/1969 N line, as well as on the later 1-18 belt drive Rollermatic platform.
Ben
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My experience with small items going over the tub in a Unimatic, in 30 years of using Unimatics on a weekly basis it only happened once to me and it was a small cleaning rag, it has never happened to me with socks. I wonder if that has to do with severely overloading the machine? I always somewhat overload but never to the point that the turnover stops.
christfr
Well-known member
love it . wonderful job
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