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Kenmore Front Load Washer Woes

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Posted: Sun Jan 28th, 2007 09:01 am

121^st Post

mnygren
Senior Apprentice Appliantologist

Joined:	Tue Dec 5th, 2006
Location:	Chicago, Illinois USA
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rovman,
my washer (Kenmore 417.41052000 yr2001) front loader is experiencing the exact same problem as yours with the bearings being shot. I was wondering if you replaced the bellows when you swapped the entire drum assembly? How is the machine performing now?

To the forum,
I was considering just swapping the bearings, but I believe I read in a prior post that they are pressed in. How challenging is it to replace them?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated, as is everyone's help in this forum. It is an honor to be a member
mcn
rovman wrote: Thank you sensei, you are most correct and I have removed the whole drum and opened it up after receiving the replacement bearing shell Friday, finding the job fairly basic after all the great instruction received from the members of this forum.

However, despite having a "viewport" to the inner drum, I wasn't able to see the cracked spindle arms (2 of the 3 aluminum arms on a stainless tub; STUPID DESIGN!!!) and am now having to order the complete tub assembly, and sorely wish I had followed gak's advice and waited until disassembly before ordering. It would be great if one could just order the spindle assembly as my model (417.42042100) is 'bolt on' and could be changed out.

Nevertheless, I'll get the whole drum, and have a "as new" washer for ~$300 in parts after returning the rear bearing shell to RepairClinic.com.

Pressing on.

Last edited on Sun Jan 28th, 2007 09:04 am by mnygren

Posted: Sat Feb 3rd, 2007 02:06 am

122^nd Post

myhd
Senior Apprentice Appliantologist

Joined:	Sun Jan 14th, 2007
Location:	Ontario Canada
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Sears Called today.

The Tub kit arrived earlier than expected. Tomorrow I will try to get this assembled.

Thanks to the contributors in this thread who gave me the courage to do this.

Joe

Posted: Sat Feb 3rd, 2007 07:05 pm

123^rd Post

myhd
Senior Apprentice Appliantologist

Joined:	Sun Jan 14th, 2007
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Thanks to all of the instructions on this site, I have the tub kit installed, just finished my third load of wash, all back together and working like new. Not bad for $152.99 Canadian!

Started at 10 this morning. Only took a little over 2 hours to install.

Thanks to all for the assistance,

Joe

Posted: Sat Feb 10th, 2007 08:52 pm

124^th Post

mfraske
Senior Apprentice Appliantologist

Joined:	Sat Jan 27th, 2007
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I have a 417.29042991 built in 1999. Not long ago there was a loud banging during the final spin, and after reading this forum and examining the machine I also found 2 of the three spider arms broken. It took a lot of banging to get the drum out. There was brown grease in the plastic tub and the rear seal and bearings were shot. I reviewed the manual, and it says there is a lifetime warranty on the stainless drum. I called Sears, and they agreed but needed a repair technician to come out. He looked at it, and was shocked to see it under warranty when I presented the manual. He called his supervisor and they agreed to replace the parts, plus the rear shell and front shell that had a large gouge in it when the drum touched down on it. However, they needed $180 for labor. I obviously had the parts out and he knew I could put it back together. Anohter call, and they agreed to just send the parts, but the warranty on the new parts would be void. I had them send the tub assembly since it was cheaper for them, and less work for me. It was shipped directly to me in five days. Two hours later I had the machine back together and running. The number for the entire assembly shown on this forum works perfectly.

Thanks for this forum and especially this thread. I gladly contributed to the beer fund.

Posted: Sun Feb 18th, 2007 04:19 am

125^th Post

shalisat
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I know that my machine 417.44152400 needs the bearings replaced. It does a little jig, makes a lot of noise, and I can feel give in the drum when pressed up. I would like as little work as possible, so I was going to splurge for the inner and outer drum at 220-sum dollars, but I just went to purchase and it's 400 dollars! What gives? No way will I spend that much! I'll just buy a new machine! Any world on why the high price?

Posted: Sun Feb 18th, 2007 06:21 am

126^th Post

Budget Appliance Repair
Fellow, Academy of Sublime Masters of Appliantology

Joined:	Sat Apr 2nd, 2005
Location:	Eureka, California USA
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Well, it looks like Electrolux/Frigidaire was saling so many of these and people where actually repairing their machines they thought they could bump the price up to some rediculous amount and they would just make more, (WRONG MOVE -- it looks like when bearings go out now it will be throw away the machine and get something besides Frigidare garbage).

Out of 6 parts sites I use to lookup parts all have went to $400.00 except one, (PartSelect $312.46, which is now less then my wholesaler - Marcone @ $368.25), and one is now at $432.61.

I have noticed since the first of this new year some large increases in some part prices.

____________________
William Burk (Willie)
Willie's Budget Appliance Repair
Eureka, CA 95501

Posted: Sun Feb 18th, 2007 09:27 am

127^th Post

Keinokuorma
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Then it's probably the second best solution: The rear tub assembly for $170. If you come to need the inner drum and spider+shaft, that's $230. Together they're around the same price as the whole assembly, so you'll want to think twice about doing the job if the spider is bust.

____________________
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Posted: Thu Feb 22nd, 2007 12:19 am

128^th Post

mck
Senior Apprentice Appliantologist

Joined:	Sun Feb 18th, 2007
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I'm hoping for a minimal repair job, just bearing and seal replacement. I have my washer taken apart and have new bearings installed, I'm just waiting for a new seal to arrive so I can reassemble everything. I know nothing of the world of bearings and seals which leads to my question. There are very light grooves worn into the shaft, so light that I can't even feel them with my finger nail. Is that a concern for the effectiveness of the seal? Chicago Rawhide sells somthing called a Speedi-Sleeve
and I ordered one with my seal. Is there any problem with using a speedi-sleeve? Is it a waste on money?

I've learned a few things doing this. I would never have been able to attempt this without all the help from generous people at this forum. The internet has made this possible but there's limits to what the internet can do. Taking the washer apart was fairly easy but I wasted many hours searching the internet for a replacement seal. I was lulled into thinking it would be easy to find because it was so easy to find the bearings online using the specs provided here http://www.zenzoidman.com/documents/RearBearingV6.pdf
Finding the seal turned out to be easy (well I don't have it yet but it's coming) once I remembered that I have a telephone and I can still talk to people. I never realized that there are stores that specialize in selling bearings and seals and related stuff. If this is news to anyone else you can find a bearing store close to you with Google Local Click on find businesses and type in your address and search for "bearings". My neighbor tried to help me get the bearings out. We splintered a wooden dowel in the attempt. He suggested I call around and find somebody with a press to get them out and put the new ones in. My local auto mechanic didn't have a press but told me to bring my stuff in. I brought the rear tub to him and within 20 minutes he had the old bearings out and the new ones installed. He was happy to do it and it save me lots of time. A helpful mechanic should also have a puller to take off the rear pulley.

I hope this helps anyone else out there who might be mechanically challenged like me.

mck.

Posted: Fri May 18th, 2007 10:05 pm

129^th Post

CheapScotsman
Senior Apprentice Appliantologist

Joined:	Fri May 18th, 2007
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Thanks to all the great information here on this forum and this post in particular. I would not have been able to repair our CDN Kenmore Front Loader Model: 970-C40062-00 without it (including the PDF file).

Some interesting anecdotes of this repair include

Sounded like a jet engine taking off for over two years but the grease issue just started showing up in the last few washes.
I couldn’t get the pulley off so I laid the rear bottom tub assembly face down supported off the floor by some plastic tubs … then pounded the pulley and shaft out of the rear tub assembly
Don’t damage the pulley nut retaining threads in the shaft or you are going to have some work to do to fix it (don’t ask my how I knows this). Final solution was to drill out the first ¼” of the opening in the shaft so that the bolt can get to the “good” threads.
I couldn’t get the rear tub assembly weights off until I got the pulley off. The retaining bolts were too long. When fully dropped they hit the pulley and still wouldn’t clear the retaining holes. Had to pull the pulley first. I am going to cut the bolts shorter … duh, upon assembly I realized that the bolts are compression and I could have just slipped the weights out.
Nothing else was a problem except the entire tub enclosure was heavy and kept getting hung up on the shocks when trying to pull it out. Make sure the shocks are well out of the way.

Assembly anecdotes include

The shaft went back into the new rear tub assembly quite easily.
The pulley wouldn’t go back on easily. I used a dremel to shave it slightly so it fits not quite so tightly.
NO damage on the (newer version) spider arms but LOTS of grease and soap buildup. Took 1/2hr just to clean it up.
There is absolutely no way we could have gotten the front door boot back on (around the outer tub) without removing the boot from the front shell/door edge THEN removing the front weights. We put the boot on the outer tub (along with the spring) then loaded the weights back on THEN loaded the entire tub assembly back into the washer THEN reattached the front of the boot to the shell/door

Posted: Mon Jun 4th, 2007 11:19 pm

130^th Post

paqcrewmama
Senior Apprentice Appliantologist

Joined:	Fri May 25th, 2007
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Many thanks to all of you for guiding me! My dear hubby thought I was off my rocker when I told him that I had figured out what was wrong with our 5 year old Kenmore front loader and was going to do the job MYSELF! The rear bearing was shot. I ordered the rear tub assembly (repairclicnic.com was a DREAM to work with and shop from!) and spent Memorial Weekend doing the job! Oh yeah, he was :yikes:

as I began to pull out the motor, control panel, pump and then the bolts on the tub. Kept saying it would NEVER run again! Told him to :gimmebeer:

and move out of the way while I worked.

One thing I DID learn:

-The drum pulley metal IS FRAGILE! Braun will NOT triumph over brains. The biggest mistake I made on this job was letting hubby try and apply his braun on the pulley. I heard the crack, then :oops:

. He broke the pulley. Spent an addition $62 for the pulley.

In total, I spent $261. New rear tub assembly, next day priority Saturday shipping on a holiday weekend, and the new drum pulley (shipped 2nd air). Yeah, you spend bocu bucks on rush delivery when you have 3 boys who spend LOTS of time outside, in LOTS of dirt. :stooges:

So, I have contributed to the beer fund because I would not want to lose this resource!! This has also been a major confidence builder for me! 2 weeks ago I fixed the washing machine. Last week I fixed a toilet. Tomorrow I'm fixing two drain stops that are giving me grief. I'm :armed:

and ready to repair. THANKS!

Posted: Tue Jun 5th, 2007 07:08 am

131^st Post

Budget Appliance Repair
Fellow, Academy of Sublime Masters of Appliantology

Joined:	Sat Apr 2nd, 2005
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That be some good fixing you done there paqcrewmama....

Great job!!!!!

____________________
William Burk (Willie)
Willie's Budget Appliance Repair
Eureka, CA 95501

Posted: Thu Aug 2nd, 2007 06:53 pm

132^nd Post

CheapScotsman
Senior Apprentice Appliantologist

Joined:	Fri May 18th, 2007
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Flavorite Brew:	Soya Milk
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I replaced the bearing about 2 months ago. Since then it sometimes it would just not go into high speed spin mode. I had to replace the motor/spin control board. The details are this thead: http://applianceguru.com/view_topic.php?id=13535&forum_id=2&jump_to=78652#p78652

But the warning for this thread is .... Perhaps I "nudged" the motor/spin control board during this bearing repair job and damaged it. I would suggest anybody doing the bearing repair job to temporarily remove the control board (two screws and two connectors) before removing/installing the tub assembly (cause its heavy and it moves around a lot in the cabinet while trying to jimmy it in and out of place).

Last edited on Thu Aug 2nd, 2007 08:18 pm by CheapScotsman

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