[p.c.]

Roper (whirlpool) RAX6144EQ1. No spin/agitate/drain activity. Fills with water.

This machine has been acting up for awhile, probably about 3 months now. Until recently, dismantling it, draining and recharging the capacitor seemed to be the trick. Seemed to be is the operative word, since it died a little after Christmas last year and that was all she wrote.

Symptoms: fills with water, but does not agitate, spin or drain. Timer doesn't advance any longer, but any time I turn it on, it buzzes from beneath (motor?)

I have spun the transmission by hand while replacing the coupling and capacitor with a brand new part for each (coupling is 3 parts, 1 starter capacitor) all looked up according to machine part number. It appears to offer some resistance, but then that is a pretty decent sized motor, as opposed to my two fingers.

Any suggestions? I am at the point where I may just snag a new machine come tomorrow unless the fix becomes available fairly soon.

[fairbank56]

Maybe the pump is jammed? Have you tried running in agitate with pump removed, just pull it off the motor leaving hoses connected. I don't have the schematic for your machine but some of these have the neutral for the timer motor on the load side of the motor overload switch. If the motor is kicking out, the timer won't work.

Eric

[p.c.]

Okay, sorry Eric, that wasn't it. Good guess but not what was wrong. (I should say that you lead me to the right answer. The only thing I hadn't tried was to spin the motor without ANYTHING attached just power. After that I realized it was the motor, or timer, so I took the motor off to try to test for continuity and noticed one of the wires was burnt. I imagine when the voltage dropped as the capacitor kept going out, that wire kept heating up, and eventually it just burned.)

Real issue was a failing partly burned wire on the motor. Old capacitor had gone, that much I had diagnosed right, everything else that I diagnosed right appears to be functional still, transmission, lid switch (getting old though) and timer. The real issue was a soldering / reattachment of wires issue where the old wire had burned/melted etc. It was still partly attached hence the sporadic start issue, but apparently the day the capacitor finally really did go, it took that one wire with it, voltage drop vs heat issue is my guess. That's why one of my roomies noted the burnt electrical smell. Once cleaned, checked and reattached, its fixed, all else went well. Replacing the coupling (well the worn out part on the motor and the rubber cushion disk) was also a good idea, if only to head off future issues from a pretty loose coupling. Got a new lid switch too, since that looked to be wearing out a tad. Will put it in when I get free time to do it.

I figured I would post this since it might help some other folks out, and that's why we're all on this forum to begin with, right?

[fairbank56]

Absolutely, thanks for posting the fix and good job digging in there and getting it fixed. The Whirlpool direct drive design is a good one and worth it to keep it going vice buying the new version.

Eric