Help! My beloved old Maytag toploader (bought when pregnant with my first son > 30 years ago) is leaking from the air gap sleeve. The leak started as a slight trickle but over the course of a couple of months it has now progressed to a steady stream.
I went to my dealer and bought an official sleeve part (made by whirpool) and reinserted the plastic air gap gizmo into the sleeve, then tried to reinsert the sleeve into the two sections of hose (one section–or the right hand section leading from the water inlet valve to the airgap valve sleeve assembly, the other section --or the left section–leading from the airgap valve sleeve assembly to the inner rim of the tub). I have been inserting and reinserting and tightening and checking each piece and connection all weekend but can’t seem to get it right. There is no difference in volume of water leaking through the sleeve. It’s hard to tell, but I would say I am getting leaks from both the rim side of the sleeve/airgap gizmo as well as from the narrow "tail" end of the sleeve/airgap gizmo.
The hose sections seem fine, so I figure I must be reinserting the sleeve and the plastic air gap gizmo that fits inside it incorrectly.
So here are my questions:
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how does the inner plastic air gap gizmo fit into the sleeve–is the rim of the air gap gizmo supposed to be flush with the rim of the sleeve, or is the air gap gizmo supposed to be pushed further down into the sleeve? Note–I lubricated the rim of the sleeve assembly as well as the inside of the hose with liquid soap to try to avoid causing the rim to fold back onto itself, but I don’t know how successfully I reinserted the rim.
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in which direction does the sleeve fit into the hose sections–does the rim-end of the sleeve get fitted into the right hand section of hose (from the water valve to the air gap assembly) or the left hand section of hose (leading from air gap assembly to the inner rip of the tub)? When I took the air gap assembly apart I thought the sleeve fitted into the left hand section of hose rim first with the narrow end of the sleeve fitting into the right hand section of hose (leading to/from the valve). Did I get that wrong?
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Does it matter how deeply the narrow end of the sleeve fits into its section of hose? It seems to me the replacement sleeve is slightly shorter than the original sleeve, but it’s hard to tell because ithe original sleeve is all streched and pulled out of shape.
Appreciate any and all help and advice. I would love to fix this without resorting to a service call. That said, having spent hours trying to reconnect everything without achieving the slightest improvement, I am wondering if the path of least resistance is replacement of the entire hose assembly?
Many thanks,
Fran