I have a basic Kenmore washing machine. A portion of the wiring harness is shorting out, as follows:
The wiring harness attaches to the motor via a plastic "quick-connect" fitting. The motor is the "male" end – it has 9 (nine) tiny little flat copper tabs protruding. The "quick-connect" fitting at end of the wiring harness is the "female" end. The "quick-connect" fitting is a rectangular piece of plastic with 9 slots. That allows you to shove the "quick-connect" fitting onto the motor!
My problem is that on the "quick-connect" fitting, one of those slots is burned! That is because the clip-thingy at the end of the wire INSIDE the "quick-connect" fitting is loose, and allows the electricity to arc and short out.
Question: is there a way to repair this? It almost looks like I could pull that offending wire out of the "quick-connect" fitting, clip a new copper clip onto the end of the wire, and then shove it back into the Quick Connect fitting, and "voila" problem solved.
Can this be done? What do I need to do this?
Yes, you can fix that. You will need a new female terminal.
Whirlpool 352088 Terminal, Female (disconnect Black) - AppliancePartsPros.com
There are proper crimp pliers for installing them which you probably don’t have and you need to make sure to do a good crimp job. If you crimp with something other than the proper tool, I would suggest adding a very small amount of solder to the connection. Do not let the solder wick up the wire strands as this will become a weak point due to vibration of the wires. There is a very small tab on the terminal that locks it into the connector housing. A small jewelers screwdriver will usually work well to get the old one out. Also, when you strip the wire to install the connector, if the wire strands are discolored/oxidized, I would keep cutting back until you find good clean wire strands. If you don’t have enough slack in the wire, then you will need to get some additional wire (16awg) and splice it to the existing wire using a butt connector.
Eric
Actually, the holding tab may be in the connector and not on the terminal. Here are photo’s I just took of the wire connection in a GE washer which is very similar. Just use a stiff wire to hold the tab out of the way and then just pull the wire terminal out.
Eric
Excellent photos! Thank you! I have a question, though. You said to replace my existing "Quick-Connect" (which now I understand to be called a "dis-connect"). You probably said that because I said it was "burned." Upon close inspection, it is only discolored. Therefore, following your instructions, this is what I’ll do. Please tell me if this sounds right:
1.) I will imitate what you are doing in your photo; I will press back the "holding tab" with a small screwdriver which will release the bad electrical wire and allow me to pull it out.
2.) I will cut off the bad/charred end, until I see fresh copper, and then I will attach a fresh new "Crimp-on-thingy."
3.) Then I will insert the wire (with it’s new Crimp-On-Thingy attached) into my existing discolored QuickConnect.
Does that sound exactly right, in the right order? Oh, I just realized something – getting that EXACT SAME "crimp-on-thingy" is going to be next to impossible because it has to be exactly the right size to fit in my Quick-Connect plug… how am I going to do that?!?
Maybe what I’ll end up having to do is get a whole new harness with wires already in it, and then do this:
1.) From the brand new wiring harness (with nice new wires already in it), I’ll carefully remove one of the wires (using your screwdriver/tab technique).
2.) I’ll cut the BAD wire out of my existing harness and then WIRENUT the new wire onto it.
3.) Then I’ll plug the fresh new wire end thingy into my existing QuickConnect.
I’m thinking if I do it that way, the little wire clippy-crimpy-thingy will be nice new and fresh, and if I connect the new wire to my existing wire using an actual wire nut, I’ll have a good, safe, tight connection. I might even do an extra good job, pretwisting the wires, and then using electrical tape over the wirenut. That way, it will be a good safe wirenut connection, and I won’t have to worry about vibration, solder, etc.
What do you think?
The link I gave you for the female terminal should fit your connector. It is a Whirlpool part number for that connector. Your Kenmore is a Whirlpool direct drive washer. A whole new wire harness would be rather expensive. ($68). If the plastic connector is in real bad shape, you can replace it as well.
http://www.appliancepartspros.com/whirlpool-connector-62505-ap3046392.html
Eric