Whirlpool washing machine not working

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14 Dec 2009
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Whirlpool W120 washing machine.

I filled the machine with some clothes and switched on. The fuse went. I changed the fuse (13A) and switched on again. The fuse went again. I changed the program to stop position. Rotated the drum by hand. I changed the fuse. The program in stop position. I switched on again. This time fuse is OK. I changed the program to normal position where we normally use (number 5) and truned on again. The fuse is still OK. It is not blowing. But the machine does not click. and does not start. I have given on few clothes now just for testing. Still not making any click noise and not starting.
Any help will be appreciated.
 
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I have taken out the pump. It was clogged with coins, clips etc. Many things were rusted. I have cleaned them. The pump restnace is around 150 ohm. I am not sure if it is OK. There are three solenoids. All three shows 3k ohm resistance.

I have taken a picture of the motor. It is at the back. Not sure about the brush condition. After some investigation I found that it may be quite difficult to take out the motor.

The machine is 13 years old. Inside components still looks new. Never touched it.

I should have cleared the pump from time to time. I found that there is a easy way to clear the pump from front. Did not know it before.

Major components I can see are motor, pump and solenoid valves. Not sure how to make sure these three are OK.

Any ideas what I can test ?
 
I removed the motor and checked the brush. They are still an inch long each. Looks ok. How can I test if the motor is OK? There is a 7 pin connector in the motor.
 
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13 years old & never replaced anything....do you only use it once a month :rolleyes:
Regarding the motor: In short all you can check is the resistances between the pins. But it wouldn't tell you much anyhow as this machine is so old that there are no makers values to compare against. If the motor is free of carbon dust & the brushes & commutator look good then I would start by checking other things first....Door switch, mains suppressor, pump, & shorted wiring. You could also check the pcb visually for signs of blown components/tracks. This model has a mechanical timer & there are no error codes or test program.
 
After further examination I found that the ends of the carbon brushes are not very nice. I want to change them anyway if that helps. I donot know where to buy these birmingham. If anybody knows where I can buy them cheaply please let me know. Buying from ebay takes few days to arrive. I want to try locally first.
 
I expect the door switch to be OK. Still I want to test it. There are three wires: Orange (big fat), brown, blue. Not easy to access them. I also can not trace where they have gone. There are few dozens wires bundled together. Not visible where they are going. Big fat orange one looks like has come to timer. Other two no clue. Anyway I have one question.

When the door is closed which two wires get connected ?
When the door is open which two wires get connected if any ?

Do all three wires come to timer ?

Thanks in advance.
 
An engineer visited my home and has told me that the timer is gone and its not worth repairing and time to get a new machine. What a shame!
 
Engineer told me its not worth reparing. Now I can study it before buying a new one. Of course without any electic supply.

1: Timer: I have taken note of the pin number and the wire colour. I have not taken out the wires though. I found that there is a motor in the timer. I checked continuity. It is open circuit. I do not have a circuit diagram. By serching I found a diagram of another whirlpool machine AWG 775. It uses same timer. By comparing the wire colours I found it is identical. I don't know how to upload this diagram here.

2: Door lock: I took out the spring and took out the switch. Noted the wire colours. The switch is faulty. When closed it does not give any continuity. So, rest of the machine will not get any supply.

3. Observation about wires: A screw from the front panel is very sharp and protuding inwards. Wires go over this screw. Due to high speed spin machine vibrates and wires are hit slowly by this screw. In 13 years it has done some damage to two wires. Bad safety design. I am not sure if it has shorted the ground to the line.

I am not sure why the fuse went at the first place.

1. Was there a short in the door lock between line and neutral ?
2. Was there a short in the timer ?
3. Was there a short in the motor control board ?
4. Was there a short between wire and machine body ?

That's where I am now.

I will keep you all updated.
 
I fitted a new switch and it is working now. I wasted some money on new set of brush and a second hand timer. I fitted the new brush anyway. I have n't fitted the timer. The door lock was damaged and caused short circuit.

The door lock mechanism is quite sophistacated. But it looks simple. I thought when the door is closed there should be continuity. I was wrong. I asked ebay seller about this mechanism. He explained me as follows:

Line comes to L2 (Line = Brown Colour ) terminal and electricity flows through a ceramic resistor and out through 1N (Neutral = Blue Colour) terminal. As a result heat is produced which causes a plate to bend and makes a contact between C3 (Orange to Timer) and L2 terminal.

Just closing the door does not make any contact between L2 and C3 terminal. For this reason it is not possible to test a door switch with a multimeter.

Many thanks to this forum. Hope my machine will last for a while. The pump is a bit noisy. But I can live with that.
 

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