So, here's the story......
One of my fellow firefighers said that he had an old washer in his basement that he needed to get rid of. He knew I liked tinkering with mechanical things and asked if I would like it. I asked him what brand it was, but he wasn't sure. I went over with my nephew, since he has a truck, and discovered it was a 1959 Frigidaire Custom Imperial (Multimatic). I near passed out. Took it home and replaced the two belts and it sprang to life. I posted pictures on AW.org which piqued Rich (Trainguy)'s interest. He had the matching dryer for the '59 and asked if I was interested in a trade. He sent me pictures of the '67 and I fell in love as I remember this machine from my childhood. Our neighbors had this model. Rich made the trip from Pittsburg and we made the trade, followed by dinner and discussion. I replaced the rollers and cleaned it up a bit, fixed the timer (the contacts were pitted), replaced the pump shaft seal and recently adjusted the off-balance switch. The machine resided in my garage as a rag and coverall washer for a while. When the Calypso died, my wife suggested we put the Frigidaire in it's place until we can find a replacement.
So...last night I decided to do an autopsy on the Calypso. I found two things:
1) there was a sandwich bag stuck in the pump (how the f$%k did that get in there?)
2) the wash plate doesn't level itself out before spinning. It tries to, but fails, which leads me to believe the little universal joints are shot. It also sounds like something is sliding around under the wash plate (coins, etc.)
We went to Sears and bought the Samsung toploader (window lid, of course) and the matching steam dryer. It has a "Rapidry" 1000rpm spin and some other nice things, but won't be deivered until 12/7, so the Rollermatic has a few weeks of laundry to do until it's returned to the garage.
