My Kenmore washer tripped the breaker last night during the spin cycle, after draining the water. Everything seems fine with the circuit in general, but the washer won't agitate, spin, or drain. I'm at work and don't have the exact model number right now, but it fits the description in general for "Kenmore top loader blues".

I had to replace the coupling once before, and I checked that it's fine. I took off the agitator and there's nothing stuck under it. I took the plastic rim off the top of the tub cylinder and there was 1 baby sock between the metal basket and the tub.

My guess is that there is another sock or something else either in the pump or wedged under the basket. I was able to manually move the basket in one direction but not the other (not sure which direction was OK, can check later) and after that kind of movement I was able to get the thing to agitate "once" before it would stop and hum again.

Questions are:
- How do I get in the pump hose to check for a clog?
- Can a pump clog stop the thing from agitating?
- How do I get the top of the agitator shaft off to remove the basket?
- Any other causes? Transmission?

Finally, if I get it working, the cabinet is starting to rust at the joint of the front face and top. Anybody been able to separate the surround and top and do something to fix/stop the rust?

Since I posted I checked the pump, motor, trans, and clutch and everything individually seems to be turning fine. Once I got it all back together it still has the same problem.

With the pump off if I turn the motor by hand it gets hard to do when the clutch engages. It might be the normal behavior though, I have nothing to compare it to.

Only things I can think of that are left are is the motor fried and doesn't have enough torque to turn, is there some kind of failsafe or brake that is engaged, or is there something stuck under the basket that's holding it back. I was able to turn the basket in the tub by hand with the thing on its side, but when it's upright and I turn the basket by hand through the lid it is hard to move and feels like something's engaged.

Excellent, thanks sidfink43. I did turn the trans using the coupling and I could see in 1 direction that the shaft turned slowly one way then reversed direction (agitate?). In the other direction it turned more quickly and always went the same way (spin?). This would seem to make a brake issue more likely, I think.

I'll check out the Richappy post on the brakes when I get home. Thanks again!