Is my washing machine motor going out?

[spidey07]

For a while now the clothes washer has been making some noise when it agitates. A sort of clunking sound. Now it's having extreme difficulty actually doing the agitation, the lights in the house dim with each ka-chunk noise and wife said she smelled an electrical burny smell.

What can I do to troubleshoot? I'm going to get in there to see if the action is binding (which would explain the lights dimming throught the house, motor working too hard). Thanks for any help.

-edit-
Took the front off. It spins just fine and the motor sounds good. The ka-chunk sound I heard is a relay that I hear clicking when it tries to agitate. It will work fine for a minute or two and then nothing but relay clicking, eventually it gives up and I have to intervene.

Possibly just a bad relay when it heats up?

-edit2-
This is what it is. The motor switches between low and high speed during agitating (which is why it had no trouble during rinse cycle) and that can go bad or you have a low or high speed coil bad. Either way, it's the motor and we wanted a new washer/dryer anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqeGv3B-3xw

 

[spacelord]

A few months ago, my agitation pretty much stopped on my washer.. I bought a pack of plastic agitator dogs for about $4 from Amazon. fixed the problem.

yours sounds like something worse though with the fact that the lights in your house dim.. mine simply didn't agitate.

 

[Modelworks]

Relay or the start capacitor for the motor is failing. The start capacitor failing would mean the motor takes longer to get going so it would overheat some and draw more current for longer time which could make the lights dim.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Could also be an agitator transmission issue. My parents' washer did that. That can put all sorts of strain on the motor and stuff.

 

[spidey07]

Relay or the start capacitor for the motor is failing. The start capacitor failing would mean the motor takes longer to get going so it would overheat some and draw more current for longer time which could make the lights dim.

Thanks, the CAP makes sense. The motor seems to run just fine at high speed so I'm inclined to think the motor itself is OK, it's the ON/OFF/ON/OFF of the agitate cycle that is the problem and when I hear the relay clicking. It's like there's not enough to start the motor. The agitation will run for a few minutes and then start failing.

 

[DrPizza]

I'd guess what modelworks said. The main things to go are first the coupling ($10-$20 locally for me), or the agitator dogs. With an older washer, it's amazing how much better they start agitating with a new set of dogs - relatively simple to replace (for anyone reading this thread) - pop the top cap off the agitator, long socket on 1 nut/bolt, and everything lifts out. Pop in the new ones & the entire job takes 5 minutes.

But... coupling, dogs - your problem certainly doesn't sound like either of those. Another thought was that there's something stuck in there (sock?) - but if it's spinning freely, that's more or less ruled out.

edit: I just missed responding before yours. You seem to be a pretty smart guy - replacing either should be well within your grasp & cost you a fraction of the cost of a maintenance guy. (An aside to those who don't mind paying the maintenance guy: and it saves you the time of waiting around at home for the maintenance guy to show up. There's a local appliance parts place for me that would have things like that in stock. They're more expensive than online, but when a problem happens, I don't want to wait a week before doing laundry.)

 

[spidey07]

I'd guess what modelworks said. The main things to go are first the coupling ($10-$20 locally for me), or the agitator dogs. With an older washer, it's amazing how much better they start agitating with a new set of dogs - relatively simple to replace (for anyone reading this thread) - pop the top cap off the agitator, long socket on 1 nut/bolt, and everything lifts out. Pop in the new ones & the entire job takes 5 minutes.

But... coupling, dogs - your problem certainly doesn't sound like either of those. Another thought was that there's something stuck in there (sock?) - but if it's spinning freely, that's more or less ruled out.

It does spin cycle without a hitch. It's the on/off/on/off of agitation that seems to be the problem.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Yours turns the motor on and off to agitate? Interesting...

 

[spidey07]

Yours turns the motor on and off to agitate? Interesting...

It may not, I'm going to run it again and pay more attention. I was talking about the relay clicking noise, but that's when it has the problem, I hear that relay clicking. I'll see if the relay is doing anything when it's working.

I think I'm leaning more towards the cam/dogs now that I understand better.

 

[spidey07]

This is what it is. The motor switches between low and high speed during agitating (which is why it had no trouble during rinse cycle) and that can go bad or you have a low or high speed coil bad. Either way, it's the motor and we wanted a new washer/dryer anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqeGv3B-3xw

More
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YD67sKfPuU