Non-reversing washing machine motor

[hrhofmann]

My 3-year old Admiral washing machine (made by Maytag)sometimes fails to drain and spin at the end of the rinse cycle. It has been doing this about 10% of the time for the last year.

If I rotate the timer back to the final spin position, it always works ok. Today I happened to be in the laundry and see the machine in the middle of what should have been the rinse drain/spin cycle and the machine was still agitating. I opened the lid and then reclosed it, and the machine immediately went into the drain/spin cycle.

As far as I know, the motor direction determines if it agitates or pumps out and spins. I am assuming that there is a relay somewhere that failed to operate/release and put the motor into the correct direction to drain and spin. I know there is an appliance repair group, but can't seem to come up with it.

Help!

H. R.(Bob) Hofmann

[Joe]

Repairclinic.com is your friend. HTH

Joe

[hrhofmann]

Thanx. It did the same no-reversing thing while I was watching it tonight, found a schematic inside the top rear plate, will study the wiring to see if it is the timer, as that is where the reversal of the motor is accomplished. If so, a big hammer lightly applied to the timer may be the next step.

[Don Young]

Thanx. It did the same no-reversing thing while I was watching it tonight, found a schematic inside the top rear plate, will study the wiring to see if it is the timer, as that is where the reversal of the motor is accomplished. If so, a big hammer lightly applied to the timer may be the next step. It seems possible to me that the problem is that the lid switch is not always actuating properly. Most washers will not go into a spin cycle with the lid up, but they will agitate. Lid switches are a fairly common problem area.

Don Young

[hrhofmann]

Don:

You are right, it will fill and agitate with the cover open. The thing is, it always spins out the first/wash portion of the cycle, it is only the 2nd spin, after the rinse cycle, that does not work properly. and no one has touched the lid or the lid switch during that time..

I just finished looking at the wiring diagram, and pretty well decided that it probably is a sticking contact inside the timer, so I will run another load of wash tomorrow, and when it gets to the point where the rinse cycle spin should be starting and if it doesn't, that's when the hammer will be applied gently to the timer. If that works, I'll check to be sure my local parts place has a replacement timer, and then proceed to take the timer apart to see if anything is repairable. I like to tinker so it is a good excuse to have some fun for less than $75.00 - the cost of a new timer.

Bob Hofmann

[mm]

By "rotate back", you mean rotate all the way around, 350 degrees, until you are back, right? Washer timers generally don't like to be rotated backwards, and doing so would make things worse. And might have caused the problem in the first place.

Don't know about Admiral but on Whirlpool, the motor only goes lin one direction and solenoids determine the details aobut what happens.

But isn't that when the timer is in the agitate position? When the tub is spinning and I open the door, the washer just stops doing anything, whereas his is agitating.

[hrhofmann]

The Admiral/Maytag machines have a reversing motor and no relay, the power to the motor is supposed to be shut off for several seconds at the end of the wash or the rinse cycle before power is reconnected in the opposite polarity to change the direction of the motor spin and thus start the pump out and spinning action.

I have watched it go thru the fill, wash-agitate, pause, drain/spin, refill, rinse-agitate and keep on agitating right into what should be the second spin cycle without ever pausing two different times. So, that means the timer is not removing power to the motor like it should be doing for the second pause, so time for a new timer. Took the current timer apart, couldn't see the specific contacts involved, but wiggled everything to see that the various spring leaves did move, will try it again as soon as I can dirty some clothes.