How I fixed a broken washing machine

Question

The washer would fill, agitate and then not drain.  I moved it to different drain positions but still nothing.  So I opened the control panel and removed the timer assembly.  That's the thing where you rotate the knob to the appropriate cycle and pull out the knob.  I opened it up (while breaking the locking tabs) and removed the portion that has about 24 copper leads for a plug to plug in to.  It has 24 strips of copper that move up and down to make electrical contact on these little tabs.  Some of them were discolored.  I took a piece of sandpaper, folded it in half, inserted it between the contacts, pushed the contacts onto the sandpaper and started sanding.  You can do 4 at a time.  I sanded them all until they were shiny, then reassembled it.  I held the 2 halves of the case together with welding clamps and used expoxy to hold it together.  Today I put it in the washer, plugged it in and set it on the spin cycle.  It worked.

Michael Baum · Answer

I was sure you were going to say you had a couple of beavers run the spin cycle or something like that...

Paul Sandhu · Answer

No need for that.  I've built 1, 2, 3, 4.  I've built 4 kegorators.  2 for my garage, 1 for son in law, 1 for my 3 story house that sleeps 8.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

@Joe Splitrock I saw an almost perfect 4 burner grill with a side burner by the side of the road.  Stainless steel lid too.  I asked the lady of the house if she was getting rid of it.  She said the wind knocked it over and now the lid doesn't close.  It took it home, spent about 5 seconds doing a tack weld, and now the lid closes properly.  It was probably a $300 grill when new.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

No problems with free range beavers.  But there are some cougars around here that have an associated beaver.

Joe Splitrock · Answer

My 20 year old Weber gas grill fell down my full set of deck stairs during a windstorm ten years ago. It was bent badly. Wife said "time for a new grill". I spend 30 minutes bending things back and I have been using it for ten years with no problem. I have saved thousands with simple fixes over the years. Love the stories you share. If I am ever in the worst town, I will buy you a few beers.

Joe Splitrock · Answer

@Paul Sandhu I have worked in electronics for years and always have a bottle of electric contact cleaner for situations like this. I am into retro cartridge video games and cleaning contacts on circuit cards is the number one reason cartridges don't work. It can be dirt or oxidation. Pick up some DeoxIT D5. I have used it on car electronics, computers, video games and appliances. That and a bottle of compressed air can fix many problems because half the time stuff just gets dirty. What you did works, but you are wearing down the metal, so it could increase resistance or loosen the connection.

It is amazing how much can be fixed with little hacks like this. People throw out perfectly good appliances over small things. My neighbor replaced his refrigerator because the light switch didn't work anymore. It is a $5 part on Amazon and he dropped $2000 on a new fridge. He said "I am sure more stuff was going to break". Probably not but nice justification haha.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

I had several central heat/air units located in the ceiling go bad.  They are obsolete.  A new unit had to sit on the ground and go up to the ceiling.  It took the space where a clothes dryer would go.  So I had to put the clothes dryer just outside the back door in the carport.  I spliced in some 6 gauge wire to the dryer cable so that the total length of the cable was about 8 feet.  The cable goes in the dryer vent in the wall and plugs in to the 220 outlet.  I made the connections by stripping the wire, wind a bunch of solder around it, wrap it in foil, heat it with MAPP gas, let it cool, remove the foil, and finally wrap it in electrical tape.  I wonder if all the 'tards on this forum could figure out stuff like this.

John Underwood · Answer

I had a washing machine that was giving a fault code. Come to find out the K1 relay was undersized and the contacts were arcing and would burn. I unsoldered the relay and soldered a new one onto the control board but that only lasted so long. So I ended up removing the relay and soldering a cable that ran outside the washer and soldered a relay socket on the end of the cable. This was a heavy duty relay that went in the socket. Problem solved.

How I fixed a broken washing machine

Most Popular Reply