Long explanation, so get comfortable. Incidentally, this topic was covered in a pay forum in this link but my subscription just expired so I can't post until I give more cash.

My old washer isn't cycling properly. Washer will not start in any of the fill cycles. Machine comes to life only when I advance the knob near the end of the wash cycle (I believe around step 19 in the timer cycle chart below). It goes through the rinse and spin cycle but gushes water throughout until the end of the complete wash cycle, ie no spin, no spray.

Prior to this I replaced the timer with a used timer because the old timer motor was bad. I'm pretty sure it isn't the replacement timer because I swapped the timer's motor and put it in the old timer and the cycling issue was exactly the same. I even went through the exhaustive process of testing the continuity of every single cam switch in the timer. I also checked the continuity of every connection I could manage in the control panel. They all check out.

So I checked the water level pressure switch using this link as a guide. It too was bad (sheesh!). Running a jumper from the high level to the low level (tan wire to the pink/white wire in the below schematic) engaged the washer's fill process and enabled me to do a few loads until the replacement came. But once I replaced the water level pressure switch I still had no luck starting the wash cycle. I tested the new switch and it passes muster.

I'm thinking my control board is bad and I've begun to have issues with warm water coming in when I've selected all cold. Would the faulty board interfere with the proper cycling? Any idea how to test it to confirm suspected badness?

Thanks, Steve

Hi Eric,
Thanks for your continued assistance on this issue.

The machine has been running normally for years but the very first issue was my wife telling me it was stuck on a cycle and would not advance. She dealt with it for a day or so until it totally screwed up and flooded. Once I jumped in I saw that the timer motor wasn't running. But in the mean time the water pressure level switch seemed to be functional. At the time I didn't know how all these systems interact so I figured a new timer would do the trick.

New timer installed and the cycles advance if I can get them to start. You assisted me in diagnosing the water pressure level switch and I was able to confirm it was bad or at least intermittenly bad.

During this time the water temp selection started screwing up. Warm water would come in when I had all cold selected. I haven't accurately figured out a pattern on that yet. We rarely use hot and warm wash anyway so I hoped I could just turn off the hot water at the source and just adapt.

I'm perplexed why my machine is acting this way. I've pored over the chart and the schematic and the machine is acting inconsistent with what it should be doing. For example, in attempting a normal wash cycle the machine starts, as best I can estimate, at Step 22. It immediately agitates and water fills to the appropriate level. (This was before I got the new water level pressure switch. Since I received the new one yesterday, it seems to be doing the same thing but I haven't had the time to run as many cycles with the new one.) About two mintutes later, the water drains out and after the water level drops it starts to spin and fill with water while simultaneously draining. It then does this until the end of Step 26, pretty close to 8 minutes which is consistent with the chart. No Spray as would be expected in Step 24 and continuous water coming and draining. Then it stops and will not go to 2nd rinse even if I make that selection.

I mapped out the circuitry in Steps 13 (beginning of normal wash cycle), Step 26 (end of normal wash cycle) and Step 27 (beginning of 2nd rinse). I can post them when I get home later today if that will help. One thing that is consistent with Steps 13 and 27 is that the circuit goes through switches 5 and 7 to the motor's start solenoid. Could that be the issue? I'm not too familliar with how the centrifugal switch and the motor interact with each other. So I could be totally off with this.

Another thing I don't understand is why the water keeps pumping in through Step 26. The chart indicates switch 12 to the cold water valve is ON in these steps. I assume the water level switch should cut off this path in the circuitry. At what point does the water level switch flip from empty? Maybe my water level switch is bad (it is a used part with a warranty). But it seems to work according to the method suggested in the link above.

Thanks again,
Steve

Water comes in via hot/cold valves.

Too confusing. There are two water inlet valve assemblies. The main one is where the hot and cold water hoses are connected. It has three solenoid operated valves on it, HOT COLD and MIX. If either the hot or cold valve is activated, water comes directly through the fill funnel. If the mix valve is activated, water (warm, equal hot/cold) is sent over to the other valve assembly which also has three solenoid operated valves on it, BLEACH FAB.SOFTENER and DETERGENT. Disconnect the wiring connector from the mix valve. Set temp to cold/cold (non-ETC) and see if water comes in. The ETC/DTC board has a relay on it that prevents water coming in via normal hot/cold valves for the first two minutes of wash cycle. During this time, timer contacts activate the mix valve and the relay activates the detergent valve. This flushes the detergent into the tub before normal fill operation. After two minutes, the relay switches the detergent valve off and applies power to the temp switch for normal hot/cold fill to begin. This two minute delay is determined by circuitry on the board. With mix valve disconnected, you should not see water for the first two minutes. If water never comes on after that, the board/relay may be faulty. It can be jumped out to determine if this is the case. Unplug board and jump wiring connector pins 5 and 7 with a suitable jumper wire.

Does the washer fill in soak cycle?

Eric

Nothing else on the board wiring connector needs to be jumped together for normal fill with temp switch set to cold/cold. Only the hot valve circuit goes through the board, the cold valve is operated directly from the temp switch. Perhaps the cold valve is faulty. This is all very easy to trace by taking voltage checks til you find where you are losing power for fill operation. The boxed X's on timer chart mean timer switch may be open or closed (doesn't matter which). I see all schematic connections to the board clearly except for pin 8 which is connected to neutral bus via white wire. The yellow/red wire from the cold valve solenoid connects to temp switch D and E as well as to timer contact 12 (rinse fill). There is no reason for washer to be filling at step 23 unless timer is faulty. There should be no power to violet or pink wire of pressure switch at step 23. There is a spray function at step 24 via timer contact 13 but after that there should be 4 minutes of drain/spin without any additional filling.

Eric