Turbocharging a reverse rack

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cam2s

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Apr 9, 2012
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315
Location
Nebraska
A few months ago I thought it would be a good idea to rebuild the pump in my reverse rack Maytag. It wasn't leaking...but ever since I've moved into this residence I've had trouble with it surging and not being able to hold a prime. I checked the water supply and found no issues there, and in retrospect I imagine the unlevel floor was the major culprit. I did attempt to put cardboard under the machine to level it out to no avail. Anyways, I thought I would tear into, see if anything was amiss, and replace the impeller and main seal with a new one as preventative maintenance on a 20+ year old machine. I quickly ran into trouble however when the bolt that holds the impeller into the motor sheared off. Oh my...well I turned to ebay to search for a suitable replacement, the only one i found that would be an exact replacement the seller wanted $125. Since this is a direct drive machine and the later plastic tub Maytags used basically the same setup I found an entire pump module out of what I'm assuming was a very early machine after the transition (it had a pop up tower instead the later bobble head tower) and take my chances on what would and wouldn't fit.
So the results...
The pump base had different mounting points between new and old...the old one screws into the tub while the new one twists in. However the old base fit onto the newer motor so success.
The drain impeller and food disposer set up was the same.
The mounting the plate for the micromesh filter fit on either one...however the newer one had an additional half inch of so of holes on the bottom of it, so I put the newer style one in my frankenpump.
The bottom pump plate and the impeller were the same.
The discharge housing had two differences, the newer style could accommodate the 4 way filter backwash arm verses the older two way arm, the the threads for the spray tower wound up being slightly different. The actual wash arms were interchangeable.
Again the older unit had a 2 way filter backwash arm and the newer one had a 4 way arm...also on the newer one the slit extended underneath on the bottom of the backwash arm to backwash the extra intake area on the bottom of the newer style filter support plate.
The newer style wash tower presumably has better coverage since it has to be the main washing force for glasses and such in a standard rack layout...however in this machine it almost comes up to the bottom of the upper rack so hopefully the water will be able to spread out enough.
The other main issue with this swap was that the wiring harness for was different for the motors...I essentially had to make my own harness.
 
So here it is on it's maiden voyage tonight. The washing had already commenced when I took pictures...this was only a moderately soiled load.

cam2s-2016020222110506418_1.jpg

cam2s-2016020222110506418_2.jpg
 
Here is a closeup of the difference in washer arms...the older one has smaller jets and also they are set at an angle. The newer wash arm was throwing the lower rack items around quite violently so I switched it out. The newer arm seemed to turn much slower as well.

cam2s-2016020222140704741_1.jpg
 
And the end results...
Perfection as usual. Despite its surging problem it still cleaned like a champ and seems to be much better at avoided yibbles than other machines I"ve used. This load came perfectly clean (and yes, it has finished the wash and rinse portions of its cycle in the time it has taken me to take pictures and compose this entry), although the upper rack would have been able to be cleaned by the upper wash arm so more testing will be necessary to see how effective the newer spray tower is. I"m also happy to report that this setup seems to be quieter and I also experience no surging, so yay!
 

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