My top loading GE Washer seems to do everything except agitate. I've made appliance repairs (actually just on my old Maytag gas dryer) and I think I'm up to the task if it's a fairly simple thing.

Is there a way to remove the Agitator - I've seen some posts on other models that say to just pull up sharply on the Agitator.

I've seen another post that says this might be a pretty cheap repair - some kind of torque overload protector that fails intentionally.

Agitator top part spins one direction like it's clutched somehow. The bottom of the agitator assembly (the part that just has the 4 vertical flutes on it, not the corkscrewed flutes) spins freely in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions.

Any clues on what might be wrong here and how to get started repairing? Family of 6 has laundry piling up.

-Scott

Well, I went for it and yanked up on the Agitator - seems fine. There was a 7/16 nut, cranked it open, and the 'air bell' plastic teeth that fit on the spline were basically ground down to nothingness.

I'll assume that's where my problem is. Looks like a fairly inexpensive part to replace if I can find one locally.

Part from here is less than $5 part number AP3964635