Portable Dishwasher Trips Circuit Breaker
Maytag portable dishwasher
Model# DWC7400AAW
serial# A1181276KD
purchased in 1994

I have a Maytag portable dishwasher I purchased in 1994 which has worked flawlessly, but last night, during the "wash" cycle it abruptly stops. I noticed that the circuit breaker on the AC outlet that I had the dishwasher plugged into had tripped. I reset the circuit breaker, turned the dishwasher on again, and it tripped the circuit breaker immediately again. I then switched the plug for the dishwasher to another outlet and it tripped the circuit breaker for the other outlet. I tried both of the above with the cycle setting knob on wash (activates the motor to wash the dishes) and also changing the cycle setting knob to the dry setting (activates fan only to dry). The circuit breaker tripped in all of the
above scenarios.

I smelled no odor. There was no water on the floor. I emptied all the water out of the tub (all that I could, there was some I couldn't soak up, even with a rag) and put a fan on the open dishwasher overnight to dry it out, thinking maybe it might dry out a leak onto any electrical circuits and the dishwasher might function again. In fact, I tried it just now, setting the cycle setting knob to the dry setting, and guess what, the blower fan came on, and the circuit breaker didn't trip (Note that the interior tub is not bone dry, even though I had a fan on it all night, as I can feel some water in the tub when I stick my fingers in what looks like a finned area where I believe the water exits the tub). I also turned the cycle settings knob to the middle of the wash cycle, plugged it in, and the motor came on, also without tripping the circuit breaker. So far, so good.

I am guessing that maybe a gasket might be bad and have leaked water onto an electrical component, causing a short. Maybe it was a gasket which prevents water from leaking on the motor? Does anybody have any idea what gasket might be the bad, or should I simply replace "all" suspect gaskets? I saw a website which had exploded parts schematics of my dishwasher but I can't remember which website that was. Does anybody know the website with these exploded parts schematics?

In short, any general advice on what I should do next. I don't want to operate my dishwasher again until I fix this.

If I understand you correctly, I did as follows:

I removed the "toe-panel," which has on the back of it Maytag part #9-11897 (but it is listed on this website as Whirlpool part# AP4319226) and observed the bottom panel of the dishwasher, which is called in the schematic on this website as the "Bottom, cabinet" (Whirlpool Part Number: AP3990250). This appeared to have some dried water stains on it. I suppose this indicates some kind of leakage. It may have been wet before, but as I said previously, I put a fan on the dishwasher all night to "dry it out" to try to get rid of what I believed may have been a short due to water leakage, and everything appears dried now.

I guess I now have to examine the entire interior for signs of a leak. This could be a real pain as there are a whole bunch of gaskets, any one of which may have leaked.

Nat -
I am trying to access the motor to inspect it. I have the front of the dishwasher on blocks. I am trying to figure out what to remove next to get to the motor. In the door schematic there is a small panel just below the door panel in the front. Is this what I need to remove or do I need to remove the entire metal cabinet which surrounds the tub (if this is even possible).

Here's the breakdown of your unit - Model DWC7400AAW

Look on the Tub page at part #13, this should twist and you can lift the entire pump & motor assembly, make sure you disconnect the wire harness and hoses from the bottom first.

I would probably suggest replacing the entire pump and motor due to water getting into the motor, part number AP403003 plus it's a lot faster than trying to figure out which and how many seals are leaking.

Nat

But the water probably got into the motor causing the short and throwing the breaker like that. Of corse I can't see everything you are looking at, this is something we have ran into before and replacing the seals only didn't work.
Nat