Thanks for bumping my post tododo, but your reply's not all that relevant to my problem. I already knew that the existing paint wasn't any good in my bathroom and I've got better paint to go over the top but have found that loads of the old paint is flaking off.
I don't have much time off...
We've started decorating our bathroom and come accross a problem with some flakey paint. There were several areas where the paint was flaking and curling so we were just going to scrape these off before we started painting but as we scraped these off we found that we could easily just scrape off...
I think you are right zipper. The machine is old and I suppose it needs replaced now - any repair is certainly beyond me and I can't see it being worth spending money on getting it repaired/condemned by an engineer.
Thanks for your advice and also to captaincaveman for his help.
Today I put it back together again and tested it. It managed to do a short wash - filled, turned the drum, emptied - all okay, but stopped at the spin. I stopped the machine and set it to a different spin, again nothing. Now it won't do anything again apart from drain. Whatever I set it to now...
Checked thermistor and brushes today - both fine. Nothing seemed to be loose anywhere and no obvious signs of blown components or damage.
Where do I look next?
I can. I remember now there was another number at the top right hand side but I didn't write it down. I'll post it tonight when I get home.
Thanks for your interest so far.
Yesterday, after the washing machine had been on for a while I noticed that the cycle wasn't moving on. I put my hand on the door and it felt boiling hot and when I opened the door loads of steam came out. I then moved on the cycle to drain the drum, which it did. I moved the cycle on to spin...
The old basin waste is fairly long and ugly, plus I've also got the new waste pipe fitted already (at great expense), so I'm fairly committed to getting rid of this old one. I'll have a look at getting a blanking plug for the reduced part. It won't have to look pretty as I might end up boxing...