I have a Maytage A484 top load washer I bought in 1992. It has survived several moves and I've done some minor repairs.
Somewhere over the time the pieces the lid pivots on disappeared. It seems to be a ball of some kind. There should be one on each side, and if the size is just right then when closed the lid pushed the safety switch in so the machine will spin. Without these you have to shove a piece of cardboard between the lid and the frame.
Does anyone know what these look like, and the size? I'll bet there's some kind of plumbing part that will work. I found a parts diagram but there's no photo.
They have a lot of stuff. And there are one or two simlar companies.
But in truth, I'd just use the cardboard. That way you can add clothes and soap while the machine is running, without making it stop. More importantly, you can watch the agitation gradually suck the dry clothes under water, like a sea monster drowning a snake.
The first washing machine I owned (not counting my mother's if you assume I had some sort of family interest in that one) I found on the street a half-block from my apartment. I borrowed a hand truck or dolly from the basement and brought it home. It had 3 problems, rust on the top (the piece that the lid fits into), that it filled verrrrry slowly, and that it wouldn't run.
The top I guess I took it off or maybe I sprayed it right in the kitchen (not a good idea because overspray gets everywhere. It floats around and lands even where you're not aiming.) I used e-pox-ee spray paint and it was fantastic, as hard as the original baked on enamel. Well, I don't know it was that hard but in the next 6 years it never chipped and it felt the same as the original.
To get the machine to fill, I took the hose off the back and pried out the little screen that was filled with little stones. There were no noticeable stones in the water in NYC, but after 20 years, even 1 little stone a year is going to clog the input. I scraped off the stones and put the screen back.
THEN THE LID SWITCH. I drilled out the rivets and cleaned the inside, and put it back together and it worked and as soon as it worked, I wondered why I hadn't just bypassed the lid switch and I wadded up part of a paper towel and stuffed it in the hole and never took it out. When I bought this house, it came with a washing machine and I did the same thing. As long as you dont' have an adventurous child tall enough to get his arm in there and you're not foolish enough to do the same, I don't see much risk . it spins with lid open too, though I'm usually not there then and I do close the lid when I'm not there, even though I live alone.
they don't have every part they list. Unique parts are less likely to be available.
If it's a popular model, or other similar models use the same part, appliance repair shops might have "parts machines" that they scavenge for parts. Especially the closer to downtown you go. In the suburbs they get people to buy new machines.
I haven't done this for appliances, but when my exhaust pipe separated from another part of the pipe, or the muffler or something, the muffler shop in the suburbs wanted to sell me a whole, or a half of the whole system. 100's of dollars. They weren't interested in repairing it. I drove down Wabash Avenue, I think it was, to the first shop I found and he welded it for 30? or 50? dollars. Did a great job while I watched, two complete layers. It lasted for years until the rest of the car failed.
I went back 10 years later for some other repair and he did a good job then too.
How could this happen? Did you have the lid off?
If you rememeber what they looked like, maybe you can make your own?
But like I say, I'd keep using the cardboard, or if I wanted to be more modern, I use a wadded up piece of paper towel.
The Army stored it when I was overseas. When I returned my house had a washer and I just kept the Maytag in the basement as backup. When that washer broke I got the Maytag out, but the lid was loose. So we've just been using a piece of cardboard. But it can't be that hard to improvise something. There is a dent on the side of the lid, and a dent on the side of the washer that matches, so something went in between. I'm just not sure what.
Soft air BBs come in 6mm and 8mm sizes, I have both on hand, so................8mm is almost a perfect fit but a tiny bit too small. The lid sags just far enough that the switch doesn't depress fully.
Hmm. 00 Buck is supposed to be .330, my calipers says more like .356, and..............it works. It popped in just like the video said, and the switch depresses just before the lid closed. I don't like the idea of friction on lead but now I know the size. I suspect the plastic balls are 3/8 inches.
The OEM balls are $9 each and you need 2. I might just give up and buy.
My mother's power window wouldn't work and when I took apart the motor, the planetary cylinders, things about the size of the last segment of a finger, were crushed. They were some kind of plastic or nylon. New ones were about 40 dollars for 3 litte things. I made new ones out of wooden dowel rod but that only lasted a month. Then I got a nylon rod from a plastic store** and put it in a drill or a bench grinder with a chuck on the end and used sand paper to get it down to the right diameter, then cut off 3 pieces. That worked fine until she stopped driving.
But it was a lot easier to sand plastic/nylon down to a smaller diameter than it would be to sand a ball down into a smaller ball. I wouldn't even know how to get started.
**Only $2, iirc. The only plastic store in Baltimore, or maybe there are two but this is the only one that has a lot of their stock on display, along with a section of scrap ends that are really cheap.
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