Work Continues Tonight on the Turquoise 1958 GE

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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"There was a slight swaying back and forth as the activator made a stroke with slightly more movement clockwise than counterclockwise as this is the direction the motor rotates during agitation."

Thanks Les, that is exactly what I had pictured in my head that is was suppose to do, it's nice to have confirmation.

Tom yes the only way to find out if one of those spare transmissions has a good pawl is to install it, put the tub back in, fill the machine with water and towels and see what the tub does, it's not a quick job in any way shape or form. Tonight I'm going to try #3 and see what happens. Stay tuned.
 
Robert bringing GE to life!

Robert:

What a great little machine! Had to laugh...Hayley saw that crumpled activator cap and went, "Oh crud!" Tranny #3 gets my vote, as it appears to be in the best shape.

Lovely colour too! Hope you get her up and running soon! :-)

Venus
 
solid basket vs perforated basket

""Just a thought; a solid basked design must use much less water and energy than a perforated basket design, I wonder why manufacturers did not look at this design again I am sure it would be easier to engineer a solid basket top load washer to meet Energy Star guidelines."

It's not whether or not the basket is perforate, it's space between the perforated innder basket and the outer tub. If KM/WP were solid basket, and stil the same distance between it and the outer tub, there'd virtually no difference in water use between baskets
 
We Might Have Success

Well with transmission number three installed with a full tub of water and clothes the washer tub still indexes, but at a much more slow and reasonable rate of about 1 360 degree turn every seven or eight back and forth strokes of the agitator. I think that is about normal, its a similar rate to my early 1951 GE washer with a heavy load. The heavier the load, the more indexing the tub will do.

BUT, There is a strange ticking sound coming from near the pulley, I have a feeling the Main Transmission Drive Spring is not in good shape. Tomorrow I'm going to have to inspect. At least you can replace the drive spring without having to open the entire transmission.

 
Congratulations Robert, we will hope that all goes well from here. It's great that you can replace the drive spring without having to tear down the entire transmission. Thanks for the neat pictures. Terry
 
Hi Terry, hold the congrats yet, sometimes things appear to work fine for a wash or two and bad things rear their ugly head after that. We will see.

As promised here is a diagram showing the Anti-Index Pawl inside the GE transmission...

8-24-2005-22-45-38--Unimatic1140.jpg
 
According to the 1958 GE Service Manual...

"An internal snubber pawl is used on this transmission. During activation the snubber butts against the tab of the snubber band. The snubber band acts as a spring and tightens under pressure from the snubber causing a braking action between the snubber band lining and the hub of the bearing frame. During spin, the snubber pawl is held up against the gear case casting because its light weight (hence plastic) and shape permit it to "plane" on the transmission oil and ride over the tab on the snubber band."

Now we see why GE made the pawl out of plastic so it would ride up and not interfere with the spinning case.
 
Hi Robert,
I am glad the restoration is going well; it’s always great to see another classic washer saved. Thank you for the great pictures and diagrams keep them coming.

All the best.
Hugh
 
Thanks for the pics and diagram, Robert. I hope all continues to go well with the machine. As soon as you get it all put back together I hope you remove that ghastly black activator cap and put a pink one on! :)
 
Pink--Turquoise--Black Activator Caps

I'm not sure if I have another pink cap Les, I might, but I know I have at least five black caps. The most important thing is that the machine works exactly the way it is suppose to. Of course a pink cap could certainly be found at some point in the future.

GE produced a lot of replacement caps, but only in black, because they did have a tendency to get stuck and break during removal.
 
WOW! Robert. That machine is a beauty. My grandmother had a 58' also but was in white like your other one. I used to try and open the lid to watch but she would catch me and say "Don't Touch". I do have a 59' model with the colored dial that Mr. Charles gave to me a few years ago. He restored the unit and it runs well.

Question?

How do you get the agitator from scraping the bottom of the tub. Do you have to replace the drive block or is the agitator worn at the top? Also, what should I do to restore the white painted surface around the timer dial on the console?. Thanks for your help.
 
Bruce, do you have any pics of your 59 you can post? That's the machine I grew up with and I'd love to see yours. Does it have the turquoise cap?
 
Hi Bruce, just move the drive block up a 10th or an inch or so, you probably will need to torch it before it will more.

As for the paint around the dial bezel, I painted mine. Just mask off the sides and top with blue painters masking tape. Use a good high gloss spray paint, three light coats. The after its dry for 24-48 hours, take some paint thinner on a old bedsheet or pillowcase and slowly rub the words that are raised up in the metal that say "water saver" until the chrome shows through. Put the paint thinner on the sheet first, then gently rub each letter one at a time.
 
GE Timer question

I noticed on Robert's 58s and Greg's 60 that the wash times on the normal cycle are 14,12,10,6,4,2, but on the 59 it was 15, 12,9,6,3. Both the 59 and the 60 have a 3 min "short cycle" in red letters. Any idea why they flip-flopped those 3 years?
 
Bad News

Hi Les, I have no idea what GE engineers were thinking, I'm sure they had some good reason for switching, then switching back.

Well it seems transmission #3 is indexing the wash tub an awful lot, much more than what its suppose to. I looked at Tranny #2 and it appears its binding when you turn the pulley counterclockwise or in the spin direction.

It looks like I've got to put on my boots and get ready to dive into a couple of GE transmission and see if I can get enough good parts to make one good tranny. This is a messy, stinky GE oil job. Pictures to come of the inside of a GE transmission later on in the weekend.
 
Hi Robert,
I am sorry to hear things are not going according to plan but I am looking forward to seeing the pictures of the GE transmission. Does it use standard gear oil that you would use in a car or ATF?
I hope you are able to make one good transmission. Good luck.

All the best.
Hugh
 
Best Of ...

Hi Robert

Another restoration in the process, lookin good, I would have needed therapy after the pinky breaking, thank goodness for those spares amongt us..

Did GE always use the tall agi tube??

The hotpoint here used a 3 way spider a few inches up from the tub base, often wondered which has the better torque, noticed the Maytags have short tubes etc...all the other UK machines had the long tubes.The pump coupler is the same over here..

Happy oil lapping!!!

Cheers, Mike



 

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