Problem: the dishwasher was not filling with water.
What I did: 1) checked the water line to the water inlet valve - OK. 2) verified flow of water through the inlet valve - OK. 3) checked the line from the inlet valve to the tub - OK. 3) Put back together, fired it up, working fine, but then the water stopped flowing again. 4) took inlet valve apart - looked in reasonable order, cleaned out all the grit, reassembled, fired it up, working fine, but then the water stopped flowing again. It works at the beginning of a cycle, but does not continue to work throughout the cycle. Once it stops working, starting a new cycle does not make it work. It’s almost as thought the switch was overheated or something. I let the unit sit for an hour and restarted and the water flowed fine - but again, did not last until the end of the cycle.
To troubleshoot this effectively you will need a meter.
Measure across the water valve when it should be filling and it is not.
If you have 120 volts then the valve is toast and needs replacing.
If no voltage
Measure across the overfill switch
If you have 120 volts then either the float is not actuating the switch or the switch is toast.
If no voltage across either component .
Then you either have a loose connection, a wire that is broken internally or the timer is toast.
If you do not own a meter, I would suggest you purchase a one. You can get a decent digital multimeter for under $20.00. You do not need fancy though it is nice if the leads are a couple feet long.
If it saves ordering one unnecessary part it has paid for itself and you end up owning a useful tool.
Just be careful when measuring voltage.
The following is just for future reference
A couple things to watch when measuring ohms and continuity
Always remove power from the machine otherwise you could blow your meter.
Always disconnect at least one side of any device you are checking. This eliminates the possibility of measuring an alternate/parallel circuit path.
When checking for closed contacts and continuity use the lowest scale (Usually 200 ohms). Then try higher scales. This scale is 0 to 200 ohms so if the device you are measuring is 300 ohms this scale would show an open circuit which it is not, you are just measuring outside the scale’s dynamic range.
There is a good STICKY at the start of this forum about it’s use.