[TopBob]

The agitator came loose from the driving spindle in a recent spin cycle of our washer. It's not a young machine...I think it's 10+ years old.

The agitator can be re-applied to the spindle, but it is possible to see and hear a loose top-nut or screw/bolt in the inside of the agitator. The agitator came off a second time, so the press fit is not sufficient to keep it on the spindle.

It seems that the screw/bolt needs to be applied to hold it on the spindle, I guess. How to separate the top part/cylinder of the agitator from the bottom part with the fins, to access this loose bolt? There's a cap for adding softener, but underneath that, can't get at internals of spindle. There's the equivalent to a pawl mechanism that allows the agitator to spin freely in one direction.

Or is this a press fit, and I need a new agitator, without mashed splines on the female part of the agitator that fits on the driving spindle?


Thanks.

[TopBob]

I took the already-off agitator to a parts store.

At the bottom, inside the agitator is a removable plastic coupler block that has a receiving spline for the drive spindle to insert into. The block is held in by eight or ten "fingers". Since the spline grooves were shot on the agitator coupler, they said to just break the coupler with pliers and slide it past the catch hooks and retrieve the nut/screw loose inside, and replace the coupler spline block for $10.

Here's the agitator:
http://www.*************************...aspx?Id=119105

Here's the coupler that fits in the agitator, that the spindle fits onto; the hole at the top is for screw/bolt, to hold it all in place.
http://www.*************************...aspx?Id=119111