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Well, I saw where someone else had a Maytag MVWC6ESWW1 that only would spin and wouldn't agitate, but mine is special!
This washer seems to be TRYING to agitate but can't make the agitator move. I can hear it working, and when I peek in the lid (just opening it a little) the whole agitator is twitching. I checked out the "dogs" in the upper part of the agitator, and they're fine. When I pulled the gear case out, the whole agitator shaft is FLOPPY and can be turned by hand easily either direction. The shaft moves a good 5-10 degrees in any direction from straight out. I don't know if this is normal or not! I expected it to be rigid and impossible to rotate by hand, but...
I don't think this is the problem so many people seem to be having with the water/temp sensor, since it seems willing to go through all the steps of the cycle. This seems like a mechanical problem inside the gear box to me.
Any ideas or suggestions from anyone out there?
Thanks in advance!
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Yes, it's normal for the agitator shaft to be "floppy" when gearcase is out of the washer. It is also normal to be able to rotate it freely if the machine was stopped in the spin cycle. The agitator gear is disengaged when in spin mode but you wouldn't be able to rotate the shaft easily if stopped in agitate mode. Rotate the gearcase input shaft CCW and this should cause the agitator shaft to go back and forth and you should not be able to easily stop it by hand. If it seems ok, reinstall it and run machine in agitate mode with lid open. You will have to bypass the lid switch. If lower agitator is going back and forth normally but top part of agitator is not, then there's a problem with the dogs. In heavy duty cycle, the last 2 minutes of agitate mode are known as "dry agitate", the washer will agitate without any water in it if you can find where on the dial the last two minutes are located. Bypassing lid switch: Lid switch bypassing Whirlpool direct drive washer - YouTubeEric
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Rank: Member
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Joined: 10/30/2013(UTC)
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Thank you Fairbank56. The dogs were the first thing I checked, and they're fine. I managed to get the lid up a little (I'll try bypassing the lid switch next), and it was enough to see that the bottom portion of the agitator is barely twitching back and forth in any part of any cycle. I'll try the other suggestion re rotating the input shaft CCW and checking to see if it is still easy to turn by hand.
If that turns out to be OK, are there any further suggestions? I have replaced the clutch already...
Thanks for your assistance!
Red
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 10/16/2012(UTC)
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Well, the clutch only affects spin mode, it has nothing to do with agitation. I would pull the agitator to check the condition of the splines on the agitator shaft and up inside the agitator. It is rare for the splines inside the agitator to get stripped but it is possible. Run it with agitator off in dry agitate if you can. If the agitator shaft is just "twitching" and not moving back and forth as it should, then you have a faulty gearcase.
Eric
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