GE washer a little over one year old. 
Washer won’t spin. Pump keeps running and washer motor gets hot and starts to smell. Open and closing door clicks and you can see (front panel removed) slight motor movement as the click of opening and closing door. (trying to engage/disengage brake?) At one point the spinning was intermittent and it seemed to be slow. It did spin last night while empty, but once I put a wet blanket back in it wouldn’t spin.
Sounds like your transmission is bad.
I had the same problem. My washer wash working just fine, then all of a sudden it quit spinning. It would drain but not spin. I was puzzeled, So I took the front of the washer off, took both my hands and while still pluged in (not recommended) I forcefully tried and move the belt to see if I could get the tub to spin. When I did this it started to spin for a few seconds then stoped. So I did this a few times thinking that maybe something just got froze up. As I was spinning the drum I could see through the transparent plastic wash drum and I noticed a big black clump of something and realized that something was stuck inside between the tub and the outter tub!!! So I removed the two screws that hold the top of the washer on and removed the top of the washer and uncliped the plastic clips that fasten to the plastic drum and then was able to access the space between the tub and the outter tub and took a long peace of metal and dug out the black ball of material. It ended up that there was an old pair of boxer shorts that had somehow managed to drain out of the tub and get stuck inbetween there. Now my washer works like brand new again.!!! Try and spin the tub around by hand and try and see if you can notice anything through the transparent tub housing. There might be something stuck inbetween. I COULD NOT BELIEVE THAT A PAIR OF BOXERS ACTUALLY COULD HAVE SPUN OUT FROM UNDER THE AGITATOR AND GOT STUCK THERE but they did and that was my problem.
This advice was extremely helpful. I thought I was going to have to replace expensive washing machine parts, but I actually had a pinned piece of laundry similar to as described above. I carefully took apart a portion of the washer and removed the item. Now my washer runs great. Thanks again.
You GUYS ROCK! I am pretty handy with everything but applicances, generally i buy a new one. However since this happened to my girlfriends tonight, and her parents were coming tomorrow, i thought i would take a shot at fixing. I quickly popped open the front and moved the belts and drum…tried it with nothing inside and it still wouldn’t work. Pulled apart the drum a bit then plugged it back in and it fired right up. Not sure what i did but i must have loosened the belt or drum. It’s cranking away right now…best part, she thinks i am amazing. Thanks for your postings, they were very helpful.
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GE washer a little over one year old. Washer won’t spin. Pump keeps running and washer motor gets hot and starts to smell. Open and closing door clicks and you can see (front panel removed) slight motor movement as the click of opening and closing door. (trying to engage/disengage brake?) At one point the spinning was intermittent and it seemed to be slow. It did spin last night while empty, but once I put a wet blanket back in it wouldn’t spin.
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If the water level scensor detects water in the tub it will not allow the motor to spin, check to see if there is power at the motor.
I had the same problems with GE washer; it would work normally until it got to the spin cycle, then it would just sit there and hum. I looked on line, just like you are, and saw all kinds of answers. I figured out how to take the front plate off and on the left side of the tub, there is a clear plastic box with a clear hose running out of it. The last three inches of my hose was black with gunk (lint, mold mildew???) I cleaned out the hose with a piece of hangar and squirted a little bleach in the tube. Apparently, that little tube senses how much water is in the tub and wouldn’t work because it was full of gunk. I then ran a small wash cycle with a whole bottle of bleach. I checked the drain hose when it emptied the tub and it spit out a lot of little chunks of gunk. It seems to work fine now, so I guess that I fixed it. I am going to repeat the bottle of bleach in the small wash cycle every few months to keep it clean.
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I had the same problems with GE washer; it would work normally until it got to the spin cycle, then it would just sit there and hum. I looked on line, just like you are, and saw all kinds of answers. I figured out how to take the front plate off and on the left side of the tub, there is a clear plastic box with a clear hose running out of it. The last three inches of my hose was black with gunk (lint, mold mildew???) I cleaned out the hose with a piece of hangar and squirted a little bleach in the tube. Apparently, that little tube senses how much water is in the tub and wouldn’t work because it was full of gunk. I then ran a small wash cycle with a whole bottle of bleach. I checked the drain hose when it emptied the tub and it spit out a lot of little chunks of gunk. It seems to work fine now, so I guess that I fixed it. I am going to repeat the bottle of bleach in the small wash cycle every few months to keep it clean.
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I had a similar issue with my GE washer that was less than 3 years old and this fixed it!
Cheers to all for this info and this forum…thanks!