Work Continues Tonight on the Turquoise 1958 GE

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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



http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chestermikeuk/detail?.dir=c2a6&.dnm=b9ca.jpg&.src=ph
 
Robert, sorry #3 turned out to be an indexing disapointment. I am looking forward to pics of the inside of the trannys. Those GE pawls apparently were notorious for breaking. About everyone I ever knew, including my mom, who had a 55 thru 59 had the exact same problem. Good luck. I Know you'll have it up snd running soon.
 
Robert

Here's hoping the nylon pawl is just stuck up. I remeber seeing alot of women used to back spin the tub to unload it by grabbing the rubber balance ring and pulling the tub backwards. Schenectady is a GE town so everybody had these when I was a kid. The Hohenstein's and Cusano's were odd because they had Kenmore's! Pulling backwards on the rubber ring like that would either snap the nylon pawl in two if they pulled hard enough or knock it into an upright position where it would stay and not engage anything.
Hopefully you'll find the pawl sitting upright and can just knock it back down.

jon
 
Yes, good luck on the tranny's this weekend.

A friend asked me to work on his Hotpoint tranny, I hauled my tail the other way as fast as I could!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve
 
indexing

Yes, Robert my pink '58 does index but not at a fast rate. Just a few inches per activation. I'd say it takes 10 to 12 back and forth strokes for it to make the 360 degree turn. I lucked out with my tranny being in such good shape. Well, it sat 18 years in that shop in Edmonton and when we moved it out, there were only a few drops of tranny oil on the floor under her after all that time.
 
Thanks Eddy, good to know. Yes more work to be done then. Hopefully tomorrow or Monday I will start pulling apart those transmissions.
 
Hey Mike, GE never used a low post drive here in the USA, what does the transmission look like in your filter-flo Hotpoint? I wonder if there are any similarities between the UK and US versions???

Anyway, I started by taking Transmission #2 apart today. The Snubber Pawl is fine, but there are other problems inside this tranny as it is binding during spin. But I think I can use the Snubber Pawl, Band and Lining from this unit as those parts look great and transplant them into Transmission #3. Tomorrow I will open up Tranny #3 (the one that is currently installed in the machine and indexing too much) and see what’s going on in there.

Later on I want to have a discussion with everyone about the Drive Spring. Many washers such as GE, Kelvinator, Frigidaire Unimatic, Pulsamatic and Multimatic, Franklin, Norge, etc used Drive Springs to determine whether to spin the tub or agitate so its important to see how this simple but very strong spring works.

Here is everyone's first peek into a GE Transmission...

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-....jpg&dir=/RESTORATIONS/1958_GENERAL_ELECTRIC/
 
Good luck...I'm glad the anti-indexing pawl is in good shape!! Hopefully out of the three you'll be able to produce one in 100% perfect condition!

I'm curious about the function of the drive spring as well...since you mentioned a Unimatic, is that the Torque Spring?
 
Hi Robert,
I am glad the Snubber Pawl is fine it’s looking good for a successful rebuild. Great pictures thank you; I am looking forward to seeing the transmission internals and learning about the Drive Spring.
Good luck.

All the best.
Hugh
 
Yes Austin you are correct the Drive Spring in the Unimatic is called the Clutch Torque Spring. But first let's discuss the GE Drive Spring. GE calls simply calls their version a "Clutch Spring". Kelvinator and Franklin and Westinghouse all use a similar Drive spring to the GE's where the pulley of the transmission is turned in one direction for wash, then reversed for spin.

Here is how it works, as your read this look at the picture below so you can visually see what I‘m talking about. Lets talk about spin first. During spin the transmission pulley is driven counterclockwise. The Pulley is mated directly to the Agitator shaft and Drive Spring, via the Spring’s hub. Since this spring is wound left hand, when it is turned counterclockwise it compresses and tightens down really hard on the spin shaft. Since the pulley and spring are mated together, this causes the entire inside of the transmission to spin, which in turn drives the spin shaft, hub and wash tub.

Now for agitation the spring is driven clockwise. Driving the spring clockwise will cause it to expand and loosen as is shown in the picture in the upper right. Since it expands on the spin shaft and its not grabbing it tightly anymore and because its covered in oil it simply glides along the spin shaft only producing a small amount of friction, but not enough to turn the spin shaft. BUT I do want to point out that the small amount of friction is enough to cause the tub to index on every clockwise stroke of the agitator and that’s why they designed the anti-indexing pawl and snubber.

Needless to say Drive Springs take a lot of force and have a tendency to break or become deformed, so they were a common to part to need replacement.

8-28-2005-22-54-20--Unimatic1140.jpg
 
Hi Les, that's not a dumb question at all. What I meant by binding was when I manually turn the pulley clockwise for agitation it turns very easily and smooth. But when I turn the pulley counterclockwise it gets really tough to turn almost to the point that it gets jammed after 3/4 of a turn or so.
 
Thanks, Robert. Is this binding caused by a bad gear in the transmission?

Once you're done with this restoration what's your next project, back to the 56 Hotpoint? Just curious.
 
Actually the gears are not involved in the spinning process, I believe it might have to do with the compression spring (not the drive spring) at the very top of the gear case, but I'm not going to bother spending the time working on that tranny when I have a couple of others. I will save it for parts.

As for what's next I really would like to go back to working on my '53 Sparton Television that has been on my work bench for months. But since Neal is flying overseas today for work and he will be gone for the next two weeks, I'm going to go vintage washer and parts hunting for five days. I'm leaving on Friday morning. I'm heading up through eastern North Dakota and into Canada up to Winnipeg. While I never get my hopes up of finding anything great, you never know, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Maybe I'll come home from Winnipeg with a vintage Beatty automatic! I'm staying in Fargo on Friday night and will head up to Winnipeg on Saturday. I'm bringing my wireless internet laptop and camera so I will still be able to post.
 
Hi Robert,
Thanks for the great shots of the GE Transmission internals, #3 looks to be in great condition. Does the snubber ring use a friction material?
I hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip, happy appliance hunting.
Take care.

All the best.
Hugh
 
Old Oil?

I was just wondering..maybe the oil has something to do with it slipping? doesnt the oil..make the pawl engage at a higher rpm? if the level is low..or the viscosity is wrong...this could be a problem? I dunno..just a suggestion
 

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