Weekend Combo Update
I've been plugging away at the combo as time allowed all week and we're very, very close to being ready to celebrate!
I ran it through a couple of water tests this week and it passed with flying colors, however, when I filled the drum 1/2 full of clean rags (approx. 8lb load) we had tragic results... About halfway through the cycle, the drum stopped turning, the pump stopped pumping and I could only hear the motor spinning quietly along. Fearing the worst, of course, I started to inspect the tranny, drum belt, etc. trying to locate the problem. The problem was a coupling, similar to the principle applied in a DD Whirlpool/Kenmore washer.
The motor is connected to the transmission shaft via a coupler made of a soft plastic sleeve in between a harder, plastic sheath that is split at the point where the two shafts meet. The purpose of this is to isolate the motor from the mechanical workings of the machine protecting the motor from a jammed drum or faulty transmission that would cause the motor to stall and overload. With just water in the machine, there wasn't enough load on this coupler to cause a problem, but when I added the load of rags, the inner soft plastic started to crumble and eventually broke in two. I believe this was caused by simple age degeneration. I went to my local supplier to see if I could replace the coupler, which interestingly enough was much different on my machine than was pictured in the service manual - probably a replacement during it's years in service. They didn't have an exact match for the part, but we came up with a solution that seems to work just fine. Here are a couple of pics so you can see the old broken coupler and the new one installed on the shaft(s). After this latest repair, I ran it through it's first full cycle without a hitch - and what a show it was!! I'll follow up with few more pics so you can see (a little through the tiny window) it running through it's paces.
I'm still waiting on the blower-fan belt I ordered, it should be here on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully that will fit and we'll be washing and drying - for now, I'm happy with the washing - we're almost there!
