Westy CD6 dryer repair made easy - NOT!

[turquoisedude]

There is probably a reason why I shy away from messing around with dryers - probably because when I play with 220 volt current bad things happen...
So on Friday, I picked up the motor for the dryer at this repair shop in Magog, Quebec (BTW these people seem to be able to repair ANYTHING!). After de-Christmasing the house on Friday and most of Saturday, I got a chance to hook the motor back up and roughly put it with the fan blower back in place in the Westy dryer. I bravely hooked the dryer up to my non-standard-and-not-recommended new 220v line and dryer plug, pulled the start button and....

 

[turquoisedude]

The motor started! It ran fine, but I noticed a scraping or rubbing sound. That's when I heard that tell-tale loud PHUT sound, accompanied by that bright blue flash of light that should tell you very clearly "Dude, you have a short circuit here". Needless to say, I managed to get to the main breaker panel and shut off the dryer feed before I had a chance to blink....
After a change of underwear and a glass of a soothing herbal beverage (the kind they make in the Scottish Highlands and age for 12 to 15 years), I tried to figure out what the smeg I had just done and had I ruined this 1953 dryer!
I did plenty wrong... 1) the dryer was not level - I had to jack it up on one side to extract the motor and had not put it back down when I got the motor back 2) I did not completely re-install the fan assembly, I just kind of pushed into the air intake chamber and I did not put the inlet air guard into place and 3) I did not double-check the heater assembly had been re-installed correctly after I removed it for inspection.
So, after removing the fan assembly, I noticed that there was a piece of the asbestos board gasket that should have been on the bottom of the heater assembly had slipped and was touching the heater elements! Now to me, that should not have caused a short. I looked a little closer and I noticed a sliver of almost hair-like thread on the heater assembly(it doesn't show up on the photo - sorry!). Conclusion - I figure that the rubbing I heard was the fan rubbing against the chamber housing and a piece of metal was filed off, blown into the heating elements and KAPOW!

 

[turquoisedude]

So now I was paranoid that I damaged the elements... I removed them for inspection and praise be! They were fine. Evidence of the short is right there, too! I am thinking that I should be able to re-install the heating unit and try again.

 

[turquoisedude]

So, a couple of questions...

When I do reinstall the heater unit, what can I use as a gasket around the edge of the metal?? The original gasket is asbestos board and I think I'd get looked at real funny if I asked my local repair parts guy if he stocks it! I will also need something to use as a shield in front of the heater unit to protect the music box (which shows signs of high heat exposure). And finally, in the picture below, do those coils look a wee bit too close for comfort? Should I try and adjust them to leave more of a gap or am I just being too paranoid?
I am already anxious for the weekend to get here so that I can try again and hopefully not put on a fireworks display!!

 

[austinado16]

I have the same dryer!

To protect the music box, consider "Reflectix" insulation, available at hardware stores and you can buy various widths off a roll, to the length you need. It's class A fire rated and R-9. 1/4" thick, silver mylar/foil on both sides with a double layer of bubble-pack type material in between. They sell a silver tape to use with it, if you want to tape the edges to something......like a D-6 dryer xylaphone!

Your coils are fine, I wouldn't mess with them. If you've ever powered them up with them out of the dryer (I have) you'll see that they flex and move like a snake when they glow red hot.

For your gasket. If your asbestos one is still useable, use it. If not, just put the heater back without.

I'm looking for copies (or originals) of the service/repair manuals for both the D-6 dryer and the LB-6 washer if you happen to have them.

 

[austinado16]

BTW...

I patched my heating elements umpteen times over the past 13 years until finally the element wire was just so cooked and brittle that I couldn't keep up with the failures. I modified an element out of a modern machine and the dryer lives on.

 

[turquoisedude]

Got the timer today!

I bought that Westinghouse timer that I had spotted on eBay (in Wisconsin) and it arrived today. The motor looks as if it will fit, but I will only know for sure this weekend. Hope I don't have any further electrical issues!!!
BTW the timer unit and knob are not something I need,so if anyone may be interested in what looks like a late 60's or early 70's Westinghouse dryer timer and/or clear selector dial, just let me know.

 

[aldspinboy]

Hello Paul ...yaaa i know you can't wait to put the timer in... let's hope that have of your house won't light up or you this time lol.
Can't wait to see what happens it will be very exciting to see the pair up an running, and good luck it will happen.

Darren k.

 

[turquoisedude]

Okay, so I messed up on the timer....

Dang! I should've researched the part numbers a little more but the timer from Wisconsin was definitely NOT the right one... I thought maybe I could somehow take the drive gear from the original timer and make it fit on the new one, so I opened both timers. Even I could see that the escapement mechanisms were too different and my heart sank. I tried, just for the heck of it, to manually turn the original timer; I turned it on it's side and a piece of something fell out (it looked like glue or gasket). I turned the gears and they were now moving again! I figured I had nothing to lose, so I hooked it up to AC power and... It worked!
I tested it out of the timer mechanism and all seemed fine, so I popped it back in and let it run. It ran fine (and kept reasonably accurate time too!).
Here's the re-assembled timer while I was testing it!

 

[turquoisedude]

Encouraged by this, I started in on the re-installation of the heater unit so that I could try and NOT do another fireworks display. This time, I glued the asbsestos gasket back into place before trying to re-install the heater unit!

 

[turquoisedude]

I figured that I wasn't likely to have such clear access to the base plate again, so I gave it a fast coat of POR-15. I would not recommend doing this inside, but it was mild enough in Ogden on Saturday (around 37 degrees F) that I could throw open the basement windows. Hubby wasn't there either, so I had no one to yell at me about the reek in the house... LOL
I took a walk around the property while the paint dried. It was definitely worth doing!

 

[turquoisedude]

I only got the heater unit and motor re-installed on Sunday afternoon. This time, I set myself a couple of checkpoints... I made VERY sure there was no potential contact between the heating elements and the cabinet and I followed the specs in the manual to get the correct distance between the motor and the blower cage. This was a big mistake I made in the first test - with the correct distance, the blower turned nice and smoothly with no rubbing or scraping.

 

[turquoisedude]

I temporarily re-installed the hot air conduit for testing. I am going to have to re-insulate this for final use, though.

 

[turquoisedude]

The moment of truth....

So, I plugged the Westy dryer into it's less-than-kosher power outlet and flipped the breaker. No sparks, smoke, or that earth-shattering KA-BOOM. I was encouraged but still nervous... I bravely stepped up to the control panel and pulled the start button....

 

[turquoisedude]

It worked!

The motor started, the blower silently moved air over the heater unit and into the drum! I smelled a slight cooking smell, but it dispersed quickly - I figure that was just dust burning off the heating coils. The air coming into the drum was good and HOT! I was dizzy with excitement!
I was actually on the phone with Darren (aldspinboy) for a test and to quote him he could "fell that hot air all the way in Philly". AND he got to hear the end of cycle musical signal play "How Dry I Am". WOW! I did it - my first dryer restore!!

 

[turquoisedude]

Another couple of questions...

I was curious to know if the heating elements (it looks like there are two distinct coils) cycle or alternate to provide low or high heat somehow. There is no selection on the control panel and I am assuming the timer just sets the elements "on". Does one of the thermostats mounted in the heating chamber take care of this??
Also, the dryer as is does not have an external vent (still has the pop-up lint filter on the rear exhaust panel). Should I modify the original venting/filter arrangement to add an external vent??
Oh, and if anyone needs a timer, with dial, for a more modern
Westinghouse dryer, let me know! I doubt that I will ever find a use for the one I bought...

 

[austinado16]

Congrats!

Firstly: Midwest Timer in Michigan is the only source I use for rebuilding these timers. I've been using them exclusively since '96. They have the original blue prints for the timers too, and were even kind enough to send me a copy of the one for the timer in my LB-6 washer when I was working on drawing the wiring schematic and figuring out how it had been wired wrong.

The heating element in the Westinghouse is a dual voltage element. The dryer can be wired for 110v, by jumping a couple wires up on the back, under the lid. Then only the 110v portion of the heater element will fire up. Otherwise, on 220v like you have it, it fires the big set of coils, and maybe the little set, I can't remember.

Be careful using POR-15 inside. It's highly poisonous and requires a full-on painter's mask until cured. If you're doing this inside, you're much better off with www.zerorust.com's product which isn't toxic like the POR, and comes in rattle cans for ease of use. Rust Bullet is another excellent choice.

If you leave the lint trap on the back, the dryer will produce a lot of "lint dust" around itself and it's belts and pullies and out into the room. I found a metal flanged duct section at the hardware store that I riveted to the rear opening on the dryer and that allowed me to cleanly attach modern dryer duct and duct to the outside. If you go this route, use some dumb-dumb or similar caulk between the flange and the dryer so that the lint dust doesn't escape through the slight gap. (I tried just screwing the flange to the dryer, but the ends of the screws started snagging the lint and after a few months, I had a ball of lint blocking the dryer exit opening.)

Fiberglass insulation will work great on that dryer duct. So will "Reflectix".....or both. There's also a ceramic insulation that's available, but it's spendy.

 

[turquoisedude]

Noted!

That POR15 stuff is pretty evil alright... I was lucky this time, I guess!
Midwest has also helped me out with timer motors for the L5 and the GE washer/dryer combo, but I have heard from other people that they are less willing to get involved with vintage timers any more...
Thanks for the info about venting and insulation!
Oh, and I have just tried sending scans of the Westinghouse dryer manual to you (I used my MSN Live account, not the email listed in board profile). Please let me know if they get through or not!!

 

[austinado16]

Got the dryer manual!

Thanks for the dryer manual. All 21 pages showed up. Fantastic stuff!

Hope someone here is willing to share the LB-6 washer book, and maybe even the D-6 Dryer book.

 

[turquoisedude]

Please stand by...

I am going to scan the manual for the CL-5 and CL-9 Laundromats for you! And I have an L8 Manual (about 40 pages) that I will scan after that. That L8 manual is a gold mine!
Oh, I forgot about this until I got back to town, but I do have the complete wiring diagram for the CD-6 dryer - I could photograph that for you if you might need it.
Lord knows, I have suffered without wiring diagrams, so if I can share one that someone else needs, I am more than happy to do so!

 

[austinado16]

Amazing!

I'll take anything you can send. No hurry, just whenever you have time. Thanks so much!

 

[jeb]

Westinghouse LB-6

do you have this specification page

 

[turquoisedude]

Got a parts list...

Jeff, I am just scanning the parts list for this model. Email me if you'd like a copy. BTW, the motor repair place where I had the CD-6 motor fixed might be able to repair yours (if you haven't already found somewhere...)

 

[jeb]

LB-6

back side

 

[austinado16]

Fantastic Brochure!

Thanks for scanning and posting those! No, I haven't seen them before (and don't have them).

Geez...$299 for the washer! That must have been like a grand in today's money.

 

[jeb]

LB-6

I am quessing the $74.99 is some kind of trade-in allowance

 

[a440]

Congrats on the final outcome.
Glad you did not get a shock out of it all!
Your dryer looks fantastic!
Brent

 

[austinado16]

Downloading your latest manuals right now. Fantastic!! Thank you so much for taking the time to scan and send.

 

[turquoisedude]

Glad they got through!

I am having issues sending to other members, but I am still trying...
Hope this will help!!

 

[turquoisedude]

Just had to add some video!

Got the drive wheel installed and tested on the weekend. It's looking good and should be ready for a 'maiden dry' soon. In the video, listen carefully towards the end...
Just curious about the noise made by the friction drive - is that normal for this model?? I was thinking I may need to tighten up the motor mounting some more, too. Comments?