Hello,

My at-work washing machine spins and drains fine (at least fairly well) but agitates only very weakly (clothes are not being scrubbed together and are coming out about as dirty as they went in). I have the machine mostly disassembled at this point and the only things I've found wrong with it is that the water seal is in very poor condition and somehow there is water trapped in the upper "ring" of the spin tub (no idea how that got in there or how to get it out).

It is not the bell coupling. The teeth aren't as good as new but they are reasonably close (both coupling and shaft teeth). I don't think it's the d-cogs in the upper agitator either, as it the agitator does turn in its entirety when turned counter-clockwise.

This is my first time trying to fix a washing machine but I've been watching a lot of videos...

(Age of the machine is a guess. I know it's older than 4.5 years)

Thanks in advance for your help!

I'm glad the fluid up there is normal, I never heard it sloshing nor was it mentioned in the videos I watched, so I was concerned. Would the exact model year help? I can get the serial number if it would be helpful.

When the washing machine was assembled I could turn the upper agitator clockwise without the lower portion moving but if I turned it counter clockwise then the entire agitator would turn. I had heard that that was normal (but not everything you read on the internet is true).

When the washer was running, the lower portion of the agitator was moving just a tiny amount and the upper portion not at all. I figured that that minimal amount of movement was not normal but then I'd never rigged a washing machine to operate with the door open so that I could observe it before either.

The machine is in pieces all over the bathroom floor but I haven't separated the motor from the transmission or anything like that. I just had someone hold the motor+transmission+frame off the ground (to make sure that nothing was catching on the floor during this test) and grabbed the agitator drive shaft. I could not turn it at all in either direction by hand.

You are such a huge help, this is great. Thank you so much. Results of transmission test: Turning the pulley/belt clockwise results in the entire transmission turning (whoa!) but turning it CCW it did just what you said it would, the part of the shaft with the teeth on it would slowly turn one way and then turn back the other way as I continued.

Perhaps the videos and pictures I saw with stripped couplers were extreme cases and mine is just bad enough to be bad? I took pictures of my drive shaft and coupler for you to check.

Well I'll be...I just stripped it further doing the test but yeah that had to have been it. I thought there were enough teeth to catch and I had an employee look at it too. Compared to the online image of a stripped coupler she agreed that ours didn't look stripped (but neither of us is trained in motor repairs). I could be angry with myself but I think that finding that bad water seal made all the extra work worth it; that looks like it could have caused serious problems in another year. (I can post a pic if you're curious).

Before I go and order parts, about the d-cogs in the upper agitator, how do I check that those are good (or bad)? I can't get the cap off (below the fabric softener dispenser).

Thank you!

Received the parts (tub seal, new hoses, and the coupler) and put it all back together and it looks like it's working great now. Is it bad that I didn't put any grease on the motor/agitator shaft or inside the tub bearing when I was putting it back together?

Thanks so much for your help!