I have a speedqueen washer and when I start it washing, it continues to wash and agitate and never advances. I have to manually advance it through each cycle, from wash to rinse to spin. Is this the timer or can it be something else?

It is probably not going to help this person but I have found the dryer timer motor which is 110 volt AC is pretty much the same on all the dryers I have worked on over the last couple of years. This applies to the mechanical timer assemblies used on the Whirlpool products. I took the cover off one of these recently and they are a maze of small plastic gears on most but not all. Maytag also used an integrated switch and timer and it is more robust as compared to the separate motor and switch arrangement. Many of the timers use 3 or 4 cycle type of rotary layout. The timer on the simple machines operates the dryer heating element and also the timer motor and has on some models a few other functions. The timer contacts are rated to handle approximately 25 to 30 amps at 240 volts for a heating element rated at 5500 watts. The newer model dryers use electronic controls with no mechanical working parts. these however are also weak in some parts of the circuit board and there is very little repair possible. A typical mechanical timer costs about $100. I am going to experiment on using an old rotary shaft timer from a Maytag electric dryer in a SpeedQueen electric dryer since the SpeedQueen replacement part is over $170 and is prone to wearing out.