[jfgray]

Our washer seems to get "tired" and stop mid-cycle, just before the spin. It first started with only large loads and now is on all levels. The spin just barely starts and there is a small "click" sound and it stops. The timer continues through the cycle, but it won't spin. When it "rests" for 20-30 minutes and the cycle is reset at the start of the spin it will often start and work fine. But only once, on the spin after the rinse it will stop again. It's as though something is hot and needs to cool off, but I can't identify what. The belts look brand new, the pullies spin freely. What could be the problem??

[MayTech]

sounds like the motor is overheating and tripping the thermal cutoff, remove front panel and observe it while you put it into spin, if it get's really hot then you probably have a bad motor. Or something is putting too much stress on the motor, remove the pump belt and make sure pump spins freely.

hope this helps.

[jfgray]

The pump spins freely, and the motor is a little warm but not really hot. How can I tell if it's overheating? Is there a way to test the thermal switch or check to see if that is what tripped?

[MayTech]

You may just have a bad motor switch. Sorry, not sure how to test that thermal cut off. The "click" you described in your first post is probably the thermal limit tripping out, and since it will work after resting for 25 minutes or so would also point towards that.

[ApplianceJunk]

I would check the thermal cut off for continuity after the motor stopped running.

If the motor is getting to hot the thermal cut off is doing it's job if it's cutting out and I would suspect the motor is getting hot because it's working to hard.

The motor itself could be bad or something the motor is turning is working the motor to hard.