Sorry for the goofy title, but I'd like the search engines to pick up this post so other folks out there with old 70 Series Kenmore washing machines can read this. There's a lot of crap to wade through when you search for fixes for this washer.
Lately the old washer, it's a beast really, has been hanging up between the rinse/spin cycle. We'll put the clothes in, go out expecting them to be done, and find the cycle stopped with a load of water in the tub. Well, this morning, it started happening with a slight buzz from behind the washer. I thought at first it might be the timer, which hasn't buzzed a bit since we bought it. This wasn't it, so with a full tub of water, I shifted it away from the wall where I could hear what was happening. It was the capacitor (engine start capacitor) sitting aside the motor. It was buzzing, not as loud as the timer buzzer, and the motor was getting hot. I turned off the power and wiggle checked the wiring on the wish/wash which is where I've had problems in the past, but nothing happened. I turned the power off again and reached back under the motor and jiggled the connectors there....turned it back on and bingo! It worked.
I've had the rear plate off for a while and I think that one of my cats got back there and was playing with the wires or chasing lizards. It makes sense now - when the motor jogged a bit as it switched gears, the connector would get loose and the whole thing would stop.
UPDATE: Same thing happened again today, so I drove all over town trying to find some Deoxit. Found some and put it on the connections, but the silly machine still did the same thing. It makes it all the way through the first fill/agitate/drain/spin cycle, but stops after it refills and won't agitate. When it stops, there's a buzzing sound coming from the back/bottom. I found the buzzing today with my stethescope - it's the agitate/spin solenoids. Just for grins, I grabbed the knob on the timer and wrenched it up and down and wouldn't you know, the thing fired right up. The good news is, I think that it's a timer...the bad news is that the timer is $120.
2nd UPDATE: I ordered a timer from balcum on eBAY and it wasn't the timer. Strange. I investigated the wiring more around the wig-wag and found one corroded connection. Put things together and it worked.....for one cycle. When I put clothes in, it got to the 2nd cycle or the "rinse/spin" mark on the dial and just started humming again. I loosened the belt after I tried to pull on it and found that it was stuck/stopped/binding somewhere. As soon as I loosened the belt some, everything would spin. Tried another cycle and it did the same thing. I figure that the motor is binding internally/won't start itself or there are problems in the clutch. $30 for a new start capacitor or $150 for a motor or even a clutch rebuild....either way, it wasn't worth it, so the washer went on craigslist for free to someone who would come and get it. It was gone in two hours and we picked up a two-year old GE from a lady who was moving out of state.
Just a little keyword whoring:
Kenmore 70 Series Washer buzz buzzing shuts off rinse spin hot
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2 comments:
I hear car mechanics make alot of money, and they can make extra on the side, especially if they can repair small engines too. Sounds like you got skills for work, even if you don't get the contract work you're looking for. I'm impressed!
YS, I'm flattered that you're impressed, but it's just one of those things. Thanks for the kind words.
Oh, I wish that were true about car mechanics making money. I was a nissan mechanic for a few years with short stints at mazda and chevy. The shops charge $90-110/hour to you and the mechanics get "flat rate" pay at $12-18/hour of that.
Flat rate means that when you take your car to the shop, the job gets bid for the time that it's expected to take - if the job pays an hour and you do it in 15 minutes, you still get paid for an hour. If it pays an hour and something goes wrong and it takes you three hours, you still get paid for one hour.
Here's the thing though, warranty doesn't pay (they base warranty repair times on the time that it takes the engineer or some other factory wanker to do the job on a perfectly clean car (with no rusted bolts) with all of the parts to replace layed out for them on a platter) and CP or customer pay work is hard to get when times are tough.
The other route is the independent shops where you're paid by the hour, but the owner may or may not be on you to clean up his shop or do other crap.
Right now I'm enjoying working on the cars for me. I like small engines and have had fun with dirt bikes for a good while.
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