Problem: Had hot electric smell + plastic smell. Searched web & found a site showing exactly my problem. Single white wire at overload switch can loosen, causing arcing, causing heat, melting connector cover. Exactly my situation. Soldered new connector and reattached. Vacuumed motor and blew out with air. Replaced pump at same time. Reinstalled and ran machine and motor now makes a distinct laboring whine. Worked fine before despite intermittent odors described. Hot odor back immediately and machine won't pump or spin, just whining agitation. Motor hot in 2 minutes. Inspected and noticed that some of the "ties" around the copper bundles had melted/broken away. Similarly, some of the copper bundles had discolored/burned. I'm guessing a new motor is in order? What I really want to know is why the pitch of the motor changed and the whine started instantly after I "repaired" it? Thanks gang!

Kevin

Oh, and which terminals do I jump to trick out the lid switch for testing/inspection? Thx.

(I am OP)

It just gets better and better!!! Read on. Opted for new motor (lets assume that's true for the moment:) Bought new coupler. Had new pump already. Remember old motor sounded labored and got hot right quick after my "fix"? Here we go... ...Installed new motor, coupler, and pump. Doublechecked. Fire up machine and get a new, different, but all-to-familiar "motor in trouble" labored,whining noise. Planned ahead and only pulsed it for 1-2 seconds max at a time and checked all positions in the timer range. Same result. Now it gets WIERDER! Thinking I had botched the install that a one-armed-blind-monkey-with-Tourettes-and-a Poli-Sci-degree could pull off...I strapped the pump aside, and dropped the motor...left it connected to the wiring harness (yes this is still the new motor) so it could run with effectively zero load. Same noise/whine and nearly zero RPMs on shaft. Ran it through all timer cycles. Same result again. Seemed all too familiar. Swapped new motor out. Put in old seemingly dead motor in the zero load condition. Sumbitch ran like a champ in all timer positions!!! Just to make sure I wasn't smoking some worse than normal crack, I did this swap and test/retest with both motors 4 times. New one basically not turning and old one like it's on a vviiaaggrra & cocaine bender. Oh, and to answer that question stewing in your brain: with motor removed I can spin the drive-shaft to the tranny/tub assy by hand. Light load, no sweat to align flats on shaft for motor install by hand. So, either this is waaay bizarre and rare or there is something sooo simple that us engineers overlook it. Of course I figure it's the former :-) Resident Genious, PLEASE HELP ME!!! My slide-rule needs a software upgrade :-) No really, I'm not 'that' dumb.

kevin

UPDATE! SAME PROBLEM. NEW INFO!!!

Redid my "bench" test on both motors to confirm prior results. Now using only old motor which "seems" fine. Filled tub, removed top ring, bleached out/scrubbed off mildew, etc. Went to try to pump/spin/empty-out bleach solution. Actually got a spin out of it and half a tub gone. Cycle stopped...might have been timer position...I dunno. Got my famous electrical/plasticy/rubbery odor along the way. Switched to another timer spin position and got water removed. Odor persists. Skipping a bunch more fluff here (I know I write novels)...after some more testing with a partial tub to rinse the bleachy stuff I could get agitation but not a spin after that 1st one. Filled to minimum setting. Switched to spin--> only motor hum. Checked low spin and high spin--> only motor hum again in all positions. which leads me to believe that my initial web search re: the torched connection was somewhat correct in that it was a problem but the cause was not that it was a loose connection but that it was overheating due to load caused by a failure in the gearbox/tranny ass'y. So, assuming I'm correct (har-har) with this new approach...everything up to the input shaft to the tranny seems fine or is new or both...what am I looking for? Besides new underwear, of course, it's going on two weeks :-) Of course the simple things are sometimes the most telling for those of you in the know. And hindsight is the mother of all invention and all of that. Did I mention that prior to death (and just now) that when it switched to engage spin cycle there is a rather profound and loudish 'thunk' sound? See just like that damnable Perry mason show, you never get what you-the viewer- need til the very end!! Ok, gang. Run with it! Thanks once again Master Fink ;-)

Well, everything you say just confirms my original theory about the appliance repair gods. I am thinking you did something really awful in an earlier reimcarnation with white goods.

The best explanation I can come up with is something in the transmission or brake tub assembly (the brake tub problem gives you the thunk sound) which is jamming the motor which is causing the odor and the problem. This problem can be intermittent, which gives you the gremlin like results.

At this point you can try new transmission and/or brake tube assembly which is expensive and not guaranteed to fix the problem, and leave you with more money in the machine than it is worth,

or

declare defeat, acknowledge the supremecy of the appliance repairs gods, get a new or good used machine, try to atone for what you did in a previous lexistence and go on about your life.

Sorry about all of your problems. If it is any consolation these machines are usually easy to fix and work great; you are most likely the victim of a random occurence of very bad luck.

Better luck going forward, and let us know what you do.

Yes, that does help narrow things. It strongly suggests problems in your brake tube assembly, along with possible other problems, which leads back to the previous conclusion.

It is not worth the cost or risk or repair. Sorry, but its time is up.

Wish I had better news, keep posting and let us know what you do.