I have an older Maytag LAT8820BAW, with the Orbital transmission, that had stopped agitating and had a burnt smell (rubbery like), the spin cycle appeared to work okay but seemed a bit slow, maybe.

I removed the front cover and also watched underneath, it appeared the driven pulley was not turning during the agitate cycle, but the motor was spinning. I gave the transmission a little push and it took off and ran fine. Several cycles afterwards it worked okay, agitate and spin. The belts are original and looked quite worn, so I replaced both with new.

Immediately after changing the belts, the agitate cycle worked great, however when the washer goes into spin cycle, it starts to spin then the motor overloads and trips out. I did observe a small amount of smoke coming from the motor when it tripped off. It acts like either it needed the belt to slip, or the slipping belt was masking another problem, but it worked with the old belts. I haven't swapped the old belts back on, but might do so just to try it. So...I don't know what to do at this point, just look at the motor, or is something else failing?

I'd appreciate any advice on this oldie but a goodie (so far). Thanks! :)

Rotating the pulley by hand does allow the basket to rotate. I haven't checked the mount, slides, etc. yet, but will in a while. It seemed to move freely while changing the belt though.

Is the belt, motor, or ?? supposed to slip while starting a spin cycle? Or should the motor just be able to handle the load and slowly start rotating?

Thanks!

Okay, here's what I found.

The driven pulley is free both directions with no apparent drag or binding. The pump rotates freely both directions and pumps very well with the old belt or without the main drive belt connected. The motor slide is free, clean, well lubricated, and moves stop to stop very easily.

I noticed the centrifugal switch operation comes into play when starting, manually actuating that switch always gets me 35A, even with the belt disconnected.