GE Profile washer makes a humming sound in Agitation mode that seems to be coming from the back of the washer, not the motor. The motor make no attempt to rotate in agitate mode. In Spin cycle, the motor turns the basket about 1-1/2 turns then appears to bind so that the outer basket twists, then the spin stops. Opening and closing the lid will cause repeated 1-1/2 turns, but that's as far as it turns. Just like the motionless basket in Agitate mode, after the basket makes the 1-1/2 turns, there is a humming that sounds like it's coming from the back of the washer. The belt looks good, the water fill valve and the emptying pump appear to be working okay. In 2006, while under warranty, GE replaced the whole drive system with an upgrade kit that included a clutchless motor and new transmission. They left the old transmission, which the repairman said was probably okay. Anyway, what could be today's problem? Thanks

Thanks for that helpful info & Qs. I've been out all day and just now got to follow your reply. It will be Thursday afternoon before I can follow-up to this post and try something else. But we did check a few minutes ago that the pulley rotated fairly freely in both directions, with the agitator working when rotated CCW and the drum turning in the CW direction. The hum is probably coming from the motor and was reflecting off the back panel of the cabinet and appeared to be from somewhere else. FYI, there is no smell or odor of any kind that would indicate a fried motor. I just now read all the old posts whose links I found at the bottom of your reply. One dealt with a direct drive model called a Hydrodrive. Although mine has a transmission, some of the other symptoms are similar, such as lots of small bits of rubber under the washer, which I have, wherein the motor sensed belt slippage and would not run. But since the motor does not attempt to run in agitate mode, there is no opportunity for it to detect belt slippage, or so it would appear. I can see that the top edge of the belt is frayed exactly as described in one of the old posts. When I return this afternoon, I'll have a new belt with me just in case that is the culprit. I'm thinking I will first try the reset technique for the Hydrodrive motor to see if that will work for me. And I'll look to see if I have any of the blinking lights mentioned in the troubleshooting for the Hydrowave. I'll do that before I remove the belt. If no change, I'll remove the belt and see if the motor will run in spin cycle mode w/o a belt. If it does, I'll put enough water in it to see if it the motor will also run in agitate mode w/o a belt. If both of those work, I'll install the belt and see if it will still run. If the motor doesn't run w/the belt off, I suspect I either have a bad motor or it's not getting power. If it runs with the belt off but not with the new belt on --- I'm not sure what that means. Next I'll look for the capacitor & relay that you mentioned, but I'm not sure how to troubleshoot them. I did notice a small relay midway in a wiring harness along the inside of the cabinet. If the motor is the possible problem, I'm wondering if the person who replaced the motor in 2006 was incorrect when he told me it was a clutchless upgrade. My motor looks identical to the WH49X10035 shown on your site as having a clutch. The large round thick metal device above my pulley certainly looks like the clutch in your photo! This afternoon I'll look for a motor model # and check to see if it's in the WH49X10035 replacement list. In the meantime, if my rambling has not been too severe, maybe you will see this response and suggest some other sequence of action when I return this afternoon with a new belt. Thank you.

Your system does not have the motor/inverter of the hydrowave type that has the error code LED nor does it have a reset feature for the motor. Do you have a multimeter? One will likely be needed to troubleshoot this problem. If this is the motor you have, it is the correct replacement for your washer. The old motor that they removed from your washer is totally different looking.

Eric

I would first check motor winding resistances. Unplug motor connector and check at motor receptacle. Orange to blue should be about 2.8 ohms, orange to white 5.9 ohms, black to red 4.7 ohms, black to violet 6.6 ohms, yellow to orange 0.0 ohms. At the harness connector check between yellow and white. This checks the relay coil which should be about 3.35 thousand ohms.

You can place the washer in service mode so that you can set it for spin, agitate low, agitate high directly. Press/hold start button and rotate dial 180°, release start button, all LED's should light up. Rotate dial one click to the left will be spin high, one more click is pump, one more click is fast agitate and one more left is slow agitate. With motor unplugged, you should be able to hear the relay click when switching between agitate low and high. If motor windings check out and relay is operating, you will need to make some voltage measurements.

Eric

Sounds like the relay is faulty if the coil is open. Are you sure it's the relay behind the front panel that you are hearing and not a relay on the control board behind the user control panel? When low speed is selected, the relay is energized to select the low speed start winding and redirect power up to the control board. Do you have your meter set properly to read that high ohms value? Even if the relay is energizing, it could be a bad relay contact. Remove all the tape from around the relay and look through the clear relay cover for burnt contacts.

Added: They made some of these motor upgrade kits with relays made for 240vac coil voltage. Although they do work on 120vac, they should not be used. The coil resistance on the 240vac relays will read 13,600 ohms.

Eric