Whirlpool dryer - one clunk per rotation

[hidingoutonhere]

Hey friendly Friends,

A few weeks ago y'all helped me pick out a used Whirlpool dryer. It's drying clothes great, but it's got a clunking noise that I'm not sure belongs. It seems that about once per rotation it clunks, like something is shifting that shouldn't be shifting. It almost sounds like there's shoes in the dryer (Albeit light shoes...it's not a super loud clunk), like the sound they'd make as they tumbled from the top of the drum to the bottom.

Any inklings as to what this might be? I know there are rollers in there, but they go around lots of times for every one time the drum goes around...so I'm a bit baffled. I can get a vid or a sound recording if that would help.

 

[cfz2882]

possibly belt

thee might be a damaged belt-a section of ribbed rubber has came off,leaving
just the backing-this will thump when it runs over the small motor pulley.

 

[yogitunes]

I would say belt too.....also check the idler pulley that maybe hitting....

does the bottom panel come off that you could watch it while its running and see what is happenning

 

[combo52]

CHUNKING WP DRYER

It could be the belt but it is very unlikely, the belts are very small and thin and if it were damaged badly enough to make a noise they usually break very fast. That said if your dryer is the popular 29" wide model raise the top while it is running and watch the drum revolve, if the drum kicks and or jerks with each revolution there may be a problem with the front drum bearing ring, rollers or even a bent or out of round drum. Also look and see if any of the screws that hold one of the plastic drum baffles in place are coming out sometimes they come unscrewed and hit the cabinet or top of the machine as it revolves, this also happens on the 27" wide dryers when the dryer top gets bent slightly as there is less than 1/2 " of clearance between the top of the machine and the revolving drum. Also on the 29"dryers sometimes a coin or something gets caught in the front bearing ring and it will make a funny sound as it turns.

 

[hidingoutonhere]

I'm back. I had an urge around midnight to rip the dryer apart. I found a website where an appliance repairman from NY (Oh what if he comes around these parts? I'm sending a donation your way, promise!) has put together tons of videos...I think even if you were not mechanically inclined, with his videos you could take these apart -- and if you're even slightly mechanically inclined (As I would say I am), then he really makes things a cinch.

So anyway...I pulled some coins out of the baffles, so that will fix the raspy scratching I've been hearing. Still no clue what is causing the bumping noise. Well I kind of know. The belt seems in good shape, the roller-guides are fine too. The felt bearings looked ok and the PTFE bearing on the front of the drum looked fine too. I think the clunking (and it's not nearly as loud as I perhaps made it out to be in my initial post) is just an old age issue. The drum does kind of shift forward and backward just slightly as it runs, and I think it's just this motion that's causing the noise.

Since it's not tooo loud and since there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the machine, I think I'm going to just ignore it / chalk it up to a normal operating noise, even though my previous (Whirlpool 29") dryer didn't seem to make this noise.

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[circlew]

Is this machine leveled properly? My aunts was making a noise, and it was due to it not sitting level.