Old Maytag A511 washing machine drum kicked over

[69GTX]

Already spent an hour surfing the web for information. But this unit is 25+ yrs old and I haven't found a video yet on how to take the top part off to access the tub area. From what I've read so far a suspension spring probably broke, causing the tub to tilt about 2" forward to the right. The machine was getting read to spin dry (tub empty of excess water) and then my wife heard a loud bang. It was off when she got there. The tub takes about 20 lbs-ft of force to recenter it by hand....so that would seem to be a spring failure.

The top has a pair of fixed reverse "s" clips to allow rotation upwards of 90 degrees. Can't locate any release spring clips in the front of the top panel to unlock it. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Imp4]

Good diagrams of the A511 located here.

Good luck!

 

[strongt]

Going to need to pull the front cover off first to get to the bolts that hold the lid down. Those c-clips you see are part of the front cover. I can't remember if that model has 2 screws in the front cover toward the bottom?

 

[strongt]

Yes just look at the parts manual. Your model has two phillips screws that hold the front panel one. Once the screws are removed pull the lower portion of the front panel toward you and the top of the front panel should detach from the lid. You should then see the screws on each side of the lid that holds the lid in place.

 

[69GTX]

OK. Thanks for the link and advice Imp4 and Strongt. I'll take another crack at it tomorrow.

 

[69GTX]

Once the lower 2 flange cover screws were off, it just swung up and released 2 spring clamps secured to the top of the panel.

None of the 3 big springs were broken. It had pulled the left rear - anchor eyelet right up through the floor due to rust. So a 2-3" square metal backing plate/thick flat washer will have to be applied to the base plate as there's no other nearby place to anchor to. Not an easy task for me as the spring is real beefy and certainly can't be pulled down by hand via pliers....especially from the front. 4" long spring to stretch about 3/4" and the wound material is 1/8" diameter....beefy. It may require removing the side panel as well. Maybe a turn buckle of sorts/extra long eye let can allow me to tighten the lower nut by hand while reaching in from the front side. While the floor has considerable surface rust near both rear springs, it looks beefy enough to hold with a backing plate. Both rear springs have some surface rust where the paint is gone....so some water leaked in over the years and made rusty brew at the point of high stress. I'll have to wire brush and corrosion paint both rear sites.

I'll fool around with it a bit later. The hard part is tensioning the spring.....leverage vs. access. An industrial mechanic would have this thing done in 30-60 minutes. Considering I got this machine used for free 25+ yrs ago....and it's never needed any repair....it doesn't owe me anything.

 

[javacontour]

If you can get the thing up, maybe you can get a much longer eyelet bolt so it goes through the backing washer with no tension on the spring.

Thread the nut on there and tighten to tension it. Cut off the excess of the bolt once it's tensioned.

Probably have to raise the machine up and can work on it like working on a car on a lift.

If you're this far, I'm sure you could figure it out.

 

[69GTX]

Fixed after buying $3.55 in parts (4" long steel eye let, nut, 1-1/2" washers, and 3/4" long coupler). Buying an extra long eye bolt gave me more access from below and made it easy to attach the spring. 20 or so turns on the coupler from below tightened it right up to approximate tension as the other springs. Needed a 13.5" spacer to keep the tub straight. Wouldn't you know that a standard metal head claw hammer worked perfectly.

Scraped off all the old floor rust, wire brushed, and treated the support areas with Eastwood's Corroless frame paint. The other 2 sites are fine. Springs are good. Fired it up in the spin cycle and ran pretty quiet. Just in case these washers don't hold for the next couple of months or years, I'll get a steel plate drilled that will support a wider area of the floor or frame.

Thanks for all the help. Didn't think I'd get this fixed this soon.

 

[strongt]

Glad you got it fixed. Brings back memory's when I used to be a Maytag repair man many years ago.

 

[cjcride]

Good work.