TODAY’S PROJECT when the part arrives, is to put a pump in this washing machine. You can see the spot where it goes at bottom center.
Diane loves this Kenmore washer, and we do NOT want to replace it with one that has to talk to the Internet just to do its job.
When it wouldn’t empty and wouldn’t spin I was hoping for a broken belt because that is literally a ten minute repair. Unfortunately after nine years of operation the belt looks practically new, and the motor seems to work, so the next logical candidate is the pump.
The pump would also be, maybe a fifteen minute repair, if you didn’t have to take off the control panel, the top, and the door, and get down to floor level which is increasingly uncomfortable for me. They certainly did not make it simple to get there, even if the pump is held in place by literally one screw and two clamps, and has a wire plugged into it.
Running in the washer, the pump made weird growling noises. I put it on the bench and fed it 110 volts, and it ran but was a little noisy. The shaft moves a LOT which is a sign of wear. Maybe the impeller blades were just crashing into the housing.
Far as I can tell Kenmore was made by Whirlpool, and the pump is a Frigidaire part number. Lot of crossover in appliance manufacturing. I ordered a new pump and paid extra for overnight shipping. Installing it fixed the problem and all is well now.
The pump itself is an interesting bit of design. The plastic housing and impeller seem typical enough. A solid magnetic core runs inside a plastic capsule that lives in a bipole AC electromagnet; the core spins automatically but probably not very efficiently. This one was dun’ wore out.
The new pump was identical, but one of the mounting flanges was broken. I simply used the mount from the old motor. The magnetic core will make a fine fidget toy, the way its poles are side-to-side and not endwise.
georgewiman 