[Dirty Harry]

Hello all. Great forum! I did some searching and couldn't find an exact solution for what my dishwasher is doing. (or not doing!). About 2 weeks ago I noticed the dishwasher was making a weird noise and had a lot of water in the bottom and not getting the dishes clean. I checked out the waste hose at the garbage disposal and saw that it wasn't shooting water out anymore at all. I pulled the dishwasher out and found that the waste hose at the bottom of the dishwasher had kinked and was probably only letting 10-20% of the water out. There was also a bunch of solid grease in the hose where the kink was. At that point I put a shorter hose in, cleaned out that grease and then I looked at the 5/8" hose going towards the disposal and it had a bunch of solid grease in it too. I took the 5/8" waste hose outside and ran hose water through it and I bet 2 feet of solid grease came out of the hose! At that point I put it all back together and the dishwasher worked great other than the glasses and dishes on the upper rack are getting food particles on the top and not getting as clean as they had done before. Then I checked and the upper spray arm never moved throughout the whole cycle. I see that there is a tube that goes from the bottom of the dishwasher to the top that makes the upper spray arm move but when I watched the dishwasher throughout the whole cycle, I would see water go up the tube on the side from time to time, but the water would just get to the top of the dishwasher, sit there, and then drain back down later. It never seemed to have enough force to make the upper arm move. I looked at the repair manual here and saw about how there is a check ball that controls where the water goes so I took the basket/pump assembly apart to look for more possible grease or food blocking something but it actually looked pretty good down there. Any ideas? Is the pump bad not putting enough pressure out? Any help would be appreciated.

DH

[denman]

Here is a link that may help
Model MDB4040AWB

Would check to be sure the holes in the upper arm are clean.

Would also check the water level on fill. On most units it should be just under the heating element. I cannot say this for certain on your unit. If it seems low add a quart or two to it and see if it now works OK. If it does then it could be that the screen filter on the inlet side of the water valve need cleaning.

[Dirty Harry]

Yeah, I added a gallon of water already and the upper arm was still inop. I haven't checked to see if the water under normal conditions was up to the heating tube yet. I also ran outside hose water through the upper arm and all holes looked to be open. I'll check the water inlet valve like you say in a few mins. and see what happens.

DH

[denman]

Do not know what happened to the link, but here is the link I wanted to add
http://www.applianceaid.com/dishwash.html

[Dirty Harry]

Thanks for the link. I think I found the trouble, it says that the pump impellers breaking loose from the pump shaft are common on my type of pump. I took my pump out and I saw the loose impeller on my pump and thought it was normal so I reinstalled it! (Ignorance is bliss!). I would guess that with the impeller broken, maybe there isn't enough water pressure made to shoot the water up the side tube to make the top washer arm work. The only thing is a pump is $102, the bottom tub gasket leaks a bit after I took it all apart, ($33), and the heat element looks to be on it's last legs, ($42). So add it all up and maybe it's time for a new one! Problem is it seems when you go to Best Buy and get ratings on the washers, it seems you have to spend like $400+ to get a decent one. Any recommendations?

DH

[denman]

Sorry but I have no recommendations.

I would not go fancy, the more bells and whistles a unit has the more things that can go wrong.

The following will at least let you know who actually made the unit
http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/make.shtml

Also try to get a service manual off the retailer or find it on the internet.

Perhaps a thread on this forum may produce some for you.