Washer fills, agitates, drains, does not spin

Washer Repair
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1

One day when I was walking through the house I noticed that awful burnt electrical motor smell and heard the washer making more noise than usual. My wife informs me that the washer has been gradually having more and more trouble handling loads in the spin cycle and this day it quit spinning altogether.

The washer still fills, agitates and empties, but the spin cycle does not work. Once I got the front panel off and ran the spin cycle I could see the shaft on the motor spinning, but the belt and pulleys were not moving.

This led me to believe that perhaps it is the clutch that is bad? You can see the attached pictures. It doesnt look bad to me, plenty of shoe left and a nice smooth, clean surface to contact on the housing. I would’ve expected a problem to jump out at me a little more.

Next I wonder if it is the transmission. I know that when the clutch engages clockwise for the spin cycle, the whole transmission spins, but I cant budge the transmission by hand at all. Using a wrench in the spokes of the transmission pulley and turning clockwise moves it a couple of inches and then it hits a point where it locks; maybe I’m just not able to disengage the brake by hand.

Could it be a problem with the drive block? I haven’t been able to access it since I dont have the spanner wrench required, if this model even has one.

I was also wondering if the bearing could have seized and stopped everything like this, but it still seems odd the the drive shaft would spin and the pulleys would not. Any insights please?

Thanks!

EDIT: I just checked out the diagram for this model and it shows a clutchless motor… as you can clearly see there is a clutch. I bought this machine from a classified ads dealer of used appliances, so it’s possible the motor has been replaced before. If anyone recognizes the model of clutch that might be helpful. I’ve added a picture of the motor, the label is too worn out to read the model number.

3

Rotating the main drive pulley clockwise should release the brake and rotate the transmission and basket. You must keep rotating the pulley to keep the brake released. As soon as you let go of it the brake will grab. You cannot rotate the transmission housing by hand as the brakes are engaged and are only released if the pulley directly rotated. Take the clutch out of the pulley and clean all that rust out of it. Apply some white lithium grease to the four white plastic pieces. They need to move in order for the clutch pads to engage the pulley. Clean the inside of the pulley with steel wool and rough up the clutch pads a little with sandpaper. The parts list shows the new type replacement motor for this washer as the original type that you have is no longer available. If when rotating the main pulley CW by hand, the basket does not rotate fairly easily, there may be clothing caught between the tubs, the brake may not be releasing as well as it should or the tub bearing may be seizing.

Hear is the clutch and replacement clip for your motor:
http://www.appliancepartspros.com/ge-clutch-clip-assembly-wh5x256-ap2045377.html

I see that your model number should have the new type motor as a stock item. Who knows what model you really have or mishmash of parts you have.

Eric