The washer in tub leans to the right and to the front causing it to be off balance during the spin cycle. I have replaced the counter balance spring and the suspension springs. Looked at the suspension pads and they seem fine, just a little worn out.
Moving the washer tub two inches to the left and about an inch back to the center results in the washer leaning again once agitation begins, resulting in the off balance during the spin cycle.
Not sure what else could be causing the washer to vibrate so badly, even with evenly distributed clothes. The vibration also happens with no clothes in the washer.
Is it the outer tub that’s leaning or just the inner tub? If outer, I would replace the suspension pads if they are worn. There are three on the base assembly and three on the top of the suspension plate. Make sure the suspension plate is properly aligned. If the inner tub is the problem, you may have a worn drive block. You would need to remove the agitator for a visual check of the top of the drive block but you would need to remove the tub to fully inspect it.
Both the inner and the outer tub that lean. And is the alignment of the suspension plate illustrated in the "Machine Base" page of the appliance parts illustration of the associated part number?
I replaced the suspension pads. During replacement I did remove the outer shell and the plastic tub and from inspection I see nothing wrong other than there shaft that the tub goes over is rusted at the unions.
The ones removed looked barely worn. Anyways I went ahead and did a wash cycle and the tub still leans and goes off balance, but now when the water is being drained it makes a loud buzzing noise.
:eek:
I removed the outer shell of the washer and bypassed the switch to debug the situation and the off balance issue. First the buzzing source is coming from the water drain connection to the motor. Second I can’t see why it off balance, but there is a rhythmic jerking to the motor and and the basin, I believe this may be what is causing the tube to move to a certain position.
There may be something in the pump causing the motor to run too slowly which can cause the motor centrifugal switch to keep kicking on/off. Pull the pump off the motor shaft and run washer to see if that cures the motor jerking. If not, it could be a bad motor switch or motor winding. If you have a multimeter and can post a clear photo of the wiring diagram, I can help with troubleshooting that. A video of it’s operation showing the jerking posted to youtube would help also.
I removed the pump and the buzzing noise is gone, after the water needed to be drained I turned off the machine and connected the pump back, and now it works quietly as far as the buzzing goes.
Removing the pump did reduce the rhythmic jerking. After reattaching the pump the rhythmic jerking did not change from when it was removed, but again reduced from prior to pump removal.
A youtube of the rhythmic jerking can be found at http://youtu.be/8O6Jm-XHBCw that the washer is empty the vibration/rhythm is more prominent when loaded.
Well, the motor seems to be running just fine so no need to do any electrical troubleshooting. As far as the jerking, it just so happens that the spin gear in the gearcase rotates at about 180rpm which is about 3 revolutions per second and it looks like the tub is jerking about 3 times per second. There may be some teeth missing on the plastic spin gear causing spin to coast very briefly each time that part of the spin gear comes around while driving the spin pinion gear that drives the clutch. The only way to know for sure would be to pull the gearcase. You wouldn’t have to open it to determine if this is the problem.
Alright so I pulled the gear case and rotated the motor coupling on the gear case to see if there were any indications of broken teeth. From observation there seem to be no broken teeth on the spin gear. After pulling the motor and gear case and replacing it I ran a small load with dirty rags to see if just the pulling may have improved anything, and it seems to be about the same, but I think reseating some things has improved it a little bit.
It takes nearly 10 turns of the gearcase input shaft to get one turn on the internal spin gear which will give about 3.5 rotations of the clutch hub. You would have to lightly grasp the clutch hub while rotating the input shaft to be able to feel if there is a problem.
Well that’s interesting. It should always drain first without spinning. After drain the motor should pause for a few seconds and then start again for spin while continuing to drain. If it starts draining and spinning at the same time, the neutral drain mechanism in the gearcase is not working properly. I still think the jerking motion is gearcase related. Run it in spin in delicate cycle. This should be low speed and cause the spin gear to rotate at about 117rpm which is about 2 times per second. Is the jerking now at about that rate versus 3 times per second in high speed?
For anyone else having this problem, I solved it with the counter balance spring. The place where mine connects had rusted through and I (in error) attached it to what I thought was the right hole (but on the tub and not the the frame). That did not fix the problem.
When I connected it to the frame using a hole near the rusted hole, the tub would spin without jerking and it solved the problem.