This is really starting to irritate me. worked fine up until a week ago. Then, decided to stop agitating. fiddling with the timer knob, if we found the right spot we could at least get it to drain and maybe spin. since this machine had been through a couple of timers in its life, we replaced it and the machine worked for about a week. Then it started doing the same thing. It'll fill with water to the correct level then just sit there doing nothing while the timer advances normally. I checked the terminals at the motor, the motor start switch, and the capacitor, and when it's supposed to be agitating or spinning, there's no voltage. When we can get the motor to run in drain/spin, voltages are normal. this evening, I did some probing around. as of right now:

1) I have the lid switch jumpered
2) I have the water level switch jumpered from Violet to Tan so the timer runs
3) machine will not agitate or spin if I try to start it in those regions of the dial
4) The machine WILL run if I find the right spot to set the timer knob for draining after the rinse cycle (basket spins too.)
5) when it's spinning, it draws about 550 watts from the outlet (checked with a Kill-a-watt meter) which sounds about normal, so it doesn't seem to be dragging or binding.
6) I've visually inspected the wiring and connectors, I don't see any wiring breaks. The terminal pins in the connectors going to the timer don't seem to be corroded nor do they look like they're spreading and losing contact. Also "wiggling" the connectors while the machine was supposed to be agitating didn't do anything.

I could accept that the new timer might be defective, but it seems strange that it would fail in the same manner as the one it replaced. I don't want to keep throwing parts at a machine as old as this, nor do I want to just throw another timer on it if it'll only last a week. is there anything that might be able to "kill" one of these timers? It's one of the older-style ones with the plastic cam wheel and a bunch of brass leaf switches (like this one.

thank you

yes, sort of. when I say "sort of," I mean I flipped that switch between its settings while the timer was running. Now I'm questioning whether the timer would respect any changes to the speed switch settings while it was already running.



I'll try that. if it doesn't work, I'll get the best pics I can of the diagrams and post.



*shrug* I have an "Estate by Whirlpool" washer which is pretty much the same except the timer housing looks nothing like the one I linked. guilty of assuming too much, I guess :)

thank you for your help so far. the wire colors seem different than what you mentioned, so here are the diagrams you asked about. They're big.

http://home.comcast.net/~jz78817/stuff/diagram.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~jz78817/stuff/timing.jpg

The washer should run in first part of spin mode (cotton cycle) which is medium speed which bypasses the speed select switch, so I don't think it's the speed select switch. The diagram below shows you the current path in the first part of spin mode. Yellow is the path when it first starts. After the motor gets going the centrifugal switch changes the path to pink and then when it switches to high speed spin the path is green which is through the speed select switch. This will give you an idea what to look for. You can just set it to spin mode with the timer switch on and washer unplugged if you want to make continuity checks versus checking live line voltages.

Eric

Well, you really need to make some voltage checks or continuity checks to find the problem or your just blindly replacing parts. If it's really way over your head, you need somebody with some experience at it to help you troubleshoot the problem. It's not unheard of to get another bad timer but it could be the motor switch or a wiring/connection problem. Electrical troubleshooting is a piece of cake for me but even many experienced appliance tech's are not very good at it. It's worth fixing this washer though, you don't want one of the new pieces of junk they are selling nowadays.

Eric