How to replace washing machine bearings?

AL

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Hi There,

My washing machine has got really noisey recently (sounded like the bearings had dryed out) i took the back off the machine to find that half of the ball bearings have broken up, which are supposed to support the drum. My question is how am i supposed to repplace them, do i need to try and take the drum out which envolves removeing the water seals and stuff or should i try to prise the old ones out and hammer/press the new ones in?

any tips / advice is much appreciated

heres a picture so you can see what i'm on about ;)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alec.green/Garbage/WashingMachine.JPG
 
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Excellent picture, a helpful thought.

Don't prize the bearing out, you MUST use a puller. If you don't, you will jam the bearing in the housing.

To replace the bearing use a fitter or a press. This is important or you may have a lot of new words that you will need to find how to spell.
 
what bearings? :LOL: at a certain company they came up with a clever device for pulling out bearings.(its not a "true" bearing puller)

It is a washer bigger than the outer bearing, a tube bigger than the tube washer, and a high tensile steel nut & bolt and a bigger than the inside bearing washer.

You put the smaller washer on the bolt poke it from the inside of the drum, through the big bearing, put on the tube and the big washer and the nut, now all you do is tighten the nut and it pulls the bearing out.

to get the inner bearing out it was the same procedure but using the bigger washer and you poke it from the outside where the old bearing was. to put the new bearings IN, you put both bearings and washers on but no tube and tighten up the nut, it slowly pulls both bearings in, (oh and the seal)

trouble is you do have to take the m/c apart to get the inner drum out and you should also change the spider (inner drum support) as this is what caused the seal to go which let water in which ruined the bearings.

Unless you have a couple of hours to spare (I confess it was what i used to do, it took me about an hour and i knew how to do it) i would buy a new m/c, yes bearings are cheap, but that looks like an enamled outer tub, they quite often rust and develop small holes, making the tub usless.

what you should ask is how it got in that state in the first place, the answer more often than not is the drum is OVERLOADED, causing it to spin slightly out of balance, pulling to one side so wearing out the seal etc, our m/c is over 6 years old NEVER overloaded and all i have had to do is to change one set of motor brushes
 
breezers right, if you were to actually pay someone to replace the bearings you'd find it cheaper to replace the w m/c.
 
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it is more a case of it is so close (to new price) and if you don't put the seals back right it leaks, so more hassle of finding leak, where as doing it yourself takes hours, you may get it wrong, but either way you still have an old m/c
 
doohh! Not really what i was hoping to hear but i guess you guys have saved me wasting loads of my time and money. It' just frustrating having to bin what is otherwise a working machine.

I think the reason it has died is where it is located. I had it on a non concrete floor (just floor boards) and the machine did a kinda dance so i put a few concrete paving slabs on top to stop it moving hence putting all the forces directly on those poor little bearings RIP.

Oh well, we live and learn, but when i buy a new one i am going to have to put it in the same place so i guess i'm going to have the same problem and the machines life will be cut short again (it was 3 years old). I don't know what else i can do, apart from have it outside in the shed but that would mean taking the electricity and water out into the shed which would be a major pain. Ideas?

AL
 
the reason it wobbles is as i previously said it is over loaded.

a washing m/c should be level when installing it, some have an adjustable foot / feet to compensate for uneven floors, you should be able to push the m/c on the top (corner to corner) and it should not wobble or move when empty and sationary.

it is not for me to say, but i know that Hotpoint m/c have out of balance detection, this means that if the wash load is wrong it will not spin it at full speed, (if at all) thereby prolonging the life of the m/c

other manufacturers may have followed suit, but as i don't work for any domestic appliance company any more i can not say.

on the lighter side many moons ago i got sent to a job as "door wont open" i opened the door (as enginneers can) and struggled (but i got it out) a carpet, yes a carpet (not a rug) so it is quite often common for m/c to be over loaded.

as a rule of thumb, when loading a m/c you should be able to look across the washload and see the back of the drum, if you can't take some of the washload out.

A m/c relys on having space for the load to move / fall over itself as that is how they work
 

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