First the washer made intermittent noises then a burning smell & finally would not spin. I inspected belt and saw that it had burned in various places. I thought maybe the cause was that it was old & became too loose so I replaced it. Tensioner seemed OK. New belt started to burn as well (motor pulley spinning, but belt not moving). I thought again too loose so I replaced again and applied some belt dressing. Now the belt holds and has seated into place, but now the motor overheats. It get very hot to touch and occasionally shuts off completely midway through cycle. After letting it cool an hour or so it works again.
I am beginning to think there is too much resistance from transmission or something. When it is running, washer appears to run fine through all cycles, but wife says not cleaning well since replacing belt (she wants new machine). I am unsure what a normal amount of resistance is from transmission & have no idea what is causing the motor to overheat? Could it possibly only be a transmission in need oil or something else relatively easy? It is quite old & has never been serviced except for a pump replacement (which seems to be working fine). Washer is located in an alcove almost impossible to remove or tilt, but front panel access is easy