I'm trying to replace the belt on my Kenmore HE3 (110.42822201) front loading washer.

The machine was making odd noises like the belt was slipping for a while and then the tub stopped spinning all together. I opened the lower front panel and found the belt hanging loose and rubber powder all over the bottom of the machine.

I noticed that the belt must have been rubbing angaist something, because about 1/4 of the width of the belt was worn away (thus the rubber powder). I also noticed that the pully attached to the back of the tub which the belt is rides on is very loose. Not so much in and out but more like you can rock it left and right. I'm not sure if that is normal or not but the outside ring of the pully had been rubbing against the back of the tub and created some grooves in the plastic. The pully nut appears to be on tight.

I put the belt on which is difficult to do because the belt fits very tight on the pully. After the belt is on the pully, the pully does not have any play left which seems like a good thing. However, when I turn the belt by hand, the belt works its way off the pully twords the back of the tub. There are no grooves or sides to the pully to keep the belt in place. On the motor there are grooves on the motor spindel that keep the belt in place.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on what might be wrong?

Thanks for the input Richappy.

I went back and checked the pully nut with a socket wrench (had just checked the nut by hand previously) and was able to tighten the nut by about a full turn. The pully now has no play in it. I put the belt back on and it does not work its way off anymore when turning the belt by hand. I intend run a test cycle tonite.

So I am thinking that the nut had losened up over time which allowed the pully to wobble. As it was wobbeling, the belt was rubbing against the back of the tub causing it to wear down. Eventually the nut losened up enough to allow the belt to come off the pully.

Based on above info, would you still suspect bad/damaged bearings? How can you check for sure? Is the pully nut losening up a typical problem, or would it suggest some other problem?

Thanks again for any input.

Update:

I tried running a standard test cycle. Everything seemed to run OK. I rechecked the pully nut after running the cycle and I was able to tighten it just a bit. I'm not sure if it losened up or I just gave it more force than before.

I'm a bit concerned about it losening up again. I had tightened it before the test cycle with a standard 1/2" drive ratchet and holding the pully from turning with my hand. I decided to use a screw driver between the pully spoke and the framework in the back of the tub to prevent the pully from turning and then tightened the nut using a breaker bar. I was able to get enough force while tightening the nut to compress the rear shocks all the way down. So I think the nut should be on about as tight as I can get it now. I paln on rechecking the nut after a number of cycles have been run on it.

I do hear a couple of noises that I don't think it made when it was new.

The first is coming from the water pump I think. It is between a humming noise and a grinding noise. It seems worse when draining water during the rinse cycle then the wash cycle.

The second is coming from the drum i think. It sounds like a knocking noise during the spin cycle. The knocking sound comes as it is ramping up to the high RPM, but once at high RPM it is very quiet.