Kenmore 90 Series, model number 110.28922790. Over the course of 12 years, I’ve replaced the motor coupling and and installed an agitator kit because it was not agitating (two separate incidents). About 6 months ago, it stopped agitating falling a very rough spin cycle. Found the motor coupling not aligned.
Today, the machine made grinding noises during agitation. Pulled machine apart to check motor coupling. Grinding noises went away once it was put back together, but machine does not spin. Double checked my work and confirmed that agitation is great in all speeds, but tub does not spin.
I don’t know what could cause the machine to agitate but not spin. Please help! 
Well if it is draining, then the motor is runnng during the spin time and the problems can be the clutch/brake assembly or the transmission.
I also have Kenmore Series 90 that didn’t spin. It was the clutch. There are three plastic pads in the clutch, and mine were all severely worn. One had even started to turn sideways. Replacing it really isn’t that hard of a job. I made it a lot harder for myself, but had I known I just had to replace the clutch it wouldn’t have been hard at all.
The two problems I ran into were:
- getting the transmission back on. It just wouldn’t go in far enough. I tapped the agitator rod (not sure of actual name) back into the trans a bit, just enough that the trans mounting bolts would catch, then tightened the bolts to bring the trans back up to where it needed to be.
- The skate plate was out of place, which caused it to go out of balance at high spin speeds. I had had the washer on its front and sides in the course of the repair, which threw the plate out of place, and I didn’t know how important the skate plate was. Make sure it’s aligned with the triangular base when you set the washer back on its feet.
Feel free to ask more questions. I just finished doing this two days ago. Good luck!
How does one diagnose whether it’s the clutch, brake or transmission?
The way I found out it was the clutch was I expected it to be the motor coupler. I started out working on it with that in mind, then I found that it was in perfect shape. I kept taking stuff off (pump, motor, transmission) and eventually found the clutch, and saw that that three pads on it were visibly worn, one so bad it was turning sideways. I read online that worn clutches are the result of frequent overloading. My kids do a lot of our laundry, so I wasn’t surprised at all.
I’ve subsequently been told that our brakes might be bad too, but the washer seems to work fine, so I’m letting sleeping dogs lie on that one. I think if the brakes are binding, when the washer is in spin mode, it will be difficult to turn by hand (i.e., the brakes are holding it back). In mine, I could get it to spin by hand, and once I got it spinning it would go by itself. The clutch is a circular metal band with the ends held together with a spring. It resides in a shiny metal housing about the size and shape of a Petri dish. When I bought my new one, I had to get all the parts, not just the clutch itself. It came to about $70 at my local parts store, though you could probably find it cheaper online. The dude at the parts store was really helpful, too.
I Googled “kenmore washer transmission troubleshooting” and found this a site called “****************” that had some good info. For some reason I can’t post the link.
It seems like a good guide for diagnosing trans problems. I think, though, if it agitates, the trans should be OK. But don’t quote me on that.
Apparently this site REALLY doesn’t like other sites. Just Google what I did, and you’ll find it.