The 1967 Kenmore full-sized portable I also brought home...

[revvinkevin]

As you may have seen in the "Appliance Junkyard" thread, I "literally" rescued this machine from the dumpster and brought it home! When I was there a month ago it was sitting on the ground NEAR a large dumpster they were loading refrigerators into. I called them the day after I got home asking them to set this machine aside for me telling them I will be returning. When I was there last week one of the guys said "Oh, yeah, I had to pull that one out of the dumpster"! YIKES!

 

[revvinkevin]

Here is the "interior" shot when I first found this washer a month ago. It's very dirty inside!

 

[revvinkevin]

Gordon and I drove back to LA and arrived very late Friday night. Then Saturday morning we started "exploring" this big little washer.

We removed the top and checked the belt to see if it will move. I was able to move it by hand, eventually.

After getting the belt moving I asked "Should we just plug it in"? Gordon was very reluctant.... but we did it anyway! The motor DID start and it seemed to turn OK but sounded like it was really working. Eventually it seemed to "loosen up" a bit.

So at this point Gordon was geting enthused and said "let's put some water in it"... so we did!

This little washer needs a lot of TLC and cleaning. It's missing the snubber and the "wigwag" on the tranmission.

And THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is how it got it's name "The Mud Washer"! YUK!

 

[revvinkevin]

Since we had the motor turning and water it in... the next thing to do was manually engage the cam bar on teh transmission to see if it will agitate, RIGHT? Right! So that is exactly what we did!

AND IT WORKED! (but it did not smell good, yucky water!)

 

[qsd-dan]

UH OH

Will it spin the dirty water out?

 

[revvinkevin]

So next after this we decided to drain this disgusting water out and rinse it with fresh water. Aaah, that is MUCH better!

 

[revvinkevin]

Actually it was kind of funny.... we disengaged the agitation to get the pump to drain the tub. At first I had the drain hose over the tub and when we turned it on again, it literally DRIBBLED MUD! What a total YUK! Eventually the flow increased and we were able to and we drained it and refilled it!

Clean water, WHOO HOO!

So then the NEXT step was to WASH SOME CLOTHES, right??? RIGHT!

 

[revvinkevin]

OK... so we have determined this little washer DOES in fact work! The motor turns, the pump pumps, the agitator agitates........
........... AND..... once we engaged the "spin" cam bar on the transmission, with some coaxing (helping the tub starting turning by hand), IT DID SPIN TOO! WOW!

As I said, this washer needs a lot of TLC, but at least I know it DOES work!

More to come as I go through this little "mud washer" in the coming months!

 

[toggleswitch2]

WAY COOL!

Is it supposed to have a snubber? And if so where does it go?

 

[kenmoreguy64]

It does have a snubber - the tup ring is missing from the photo as we took it off to work on the machine, and though it is smaller than a 29-inch machine's tub ring, it is much the same overall. The snubber installs in the back right corner.

This machine is essentially a 24-inch standard unit with a different pump and motor. The baseplate, tub, basket, etc. are standard off-the-shelf items from 24-inch standard machines. The pump and motor differ by being modified on the bottom for floor clearance reasons. I was worried that the motor would be bad and therefore difficult to replace, however it came through surprisingly well. The pump, a four port with the lower port discharging to the side instead of the bottom, is an odd-ball pump and is leaking a bit. Not sure if they are still available from WP, but I got one on ebay for Kevin this morning.

 

[everythingold]

I saw a harvestgold washer and dryer similar to the one pictured at the scrap yard, crushed to near oblivion. The scrap yard can make you cry. matt

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Matt -

If you or anyone sees one of these, we're going to need a couple obsolete parts, including the black timer dial/skirt. Kevin's is cracked, broken and peeled.

More on that later.

Gordon

 

[revvinkevin]

Echoing the plea.........

Thank you for bringing that up Gordon, I neglected to mention it!

So yes, if ANYONE out there in WasherLand happens to have any spare parts for one of these OR you might know where any are, PLEASE let me know! [email protected]

As Gordon mentioned, I need the black timer dial/skirt/cycle indicator. Also if possible the timer, as the shaft where the timer knob attaches is bent. Unless anyone knows of a good way to straighten the timer shaft W/O damaging the timer itself.

Thank you in advance to all!
Kevin

 

[thomasortega]

Here in brazil we can still find many "Brastemp" original parts. (Whirlpool still producing some of them like tubs, trums, wigwags, agitators and timers.)
I'm bringing back to life and old brastemp that looks exactly like a Lady Kenmore with the square panel on the right side.
I believe most of those parts will fit your machine. The only parts I'll have to refurbish or replace by non original parts are the chrome trims and other "cosmetic" parts.

If you want, please email me the specs and pictures of the parts then I'll contact the local Whirlpool service center. If I find them, I can send the parts you need.

 

[soberleaf]

i had one of those

i found in the garbage back in 1987! took it home, plugged it in, it worked perfectly for over 10 years! it looks like the exact model, same agitator at least!

have fun with it!

 

[autowasherfreak]

A friend of mine had older Kenmore portable washer and dryer in coppertone. I used it several times before I got my Whirlpool portable washer and dryer. Unfortunately she didn't own them they were in the house she was renting. She moved out about 5 years ago, and her landlord's maintenance guy moved in I wonder if the washer and dryer are still in the house.

 

[peterh770]

Someone needs to check a Sears catalog to see if this is supposed to have a Straight Vane or a Super Roto-Swirl, and then someone needs to send a classic agitator to Kevin for this machine! That gold straight vane looks all wrong to me in a 1967 machine...

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Actually Peter no 24-inch machines that I'm aware of ever had Roto-Swirls in them, at least not from the mid-60s on. I can't speak for the earlier models though. The tubs/baskets in 24-inch machines are a little bit narrower and the straight vane fits better. A few 1978 & up models had DAs in them, but the vast majority of the 24-inch machines were straight vane. This one is legit with it.

Gordon

 

[harvestgold]

Kenmore portable

Kevin what a cool machine i am so glad i got to see it as those are really rare glad you got to save another John

 

[toploader1984]

post some videos on youtube!

 

[revvinkevin]

Post some video on Youtube....

Well, if anyone out there would like to send me their video camera, I would be happy to post a video on Youtube! (wink)

 

[70series]

Glad to see the Portable Kenmore! That str8 vane really moves things around, and that gold cap brings back so many memories. A video of this washer would be perfect.

Have a good one,
James

 

[kenmoreguy64]

As Kevin said, I was a bit weirded-out using this machine in the mechanical state it was in. The timer was dangling there by the wires (my own doing) and the wig-wag wires were hanging loose, later capped-off by electrical tape, but I didn't trust it enough and was expecting a good shock eventually. I got that. I am not ashamed to admit that 110-volt electricity scares me a bit.

It was really fun though getting the machine to come back to life (it protested a bit at first). I am pretty sure it is the most "rigged" machine I've ever used. Someone in the past has even spliced in a GE power cord.

We are accumulating parts and I am considering a second trip to L.A. (could it be an encore visit to Phoenix too?) so hopefully the machine can make a more photogenic re-appearance on here soon.

Gordon

 

[toggleswitch2]

~Well, if anyone out there would like to send me their video camera, I would be happy to post a video on Youtube! (wink)

My little digital camera lets me take videos.......

 

[jonvance1990]

Does the machine make any woo-woo noise?

 

[revvinkevin]

Toggles: Your digi cam will do video, do you want to loan it to me? :-D
My digtal SLR camera does not do video. :-(

Jonathan: I believe it does make the "woo woo" sound, but I to was too excited about it working that I did not pay attention to it.

On a sad note: I discovered this morning that I need a new wash basket, this one is badly rusted!! Boo hoo! More later!