Earlier this week the washing machine was making some noise everytime the motor would turn on. There was a slight burning smell and it my wife says it was shutting off.
I unplugged the unit, opened the front panel and found that there was some water around the lip on the top of the pump. I also noticed the belt was extremely worn and cracked. Without any laundry in, I cycled the machine to see if I could identify if the leak was purely the pump or something else. The machine ran fine and I could not see any leaks at all while running. I did notice that the motor seemed to labor a bit to get started (ie. it makes a pretty loud moan as it starts).
Based on these observations, I ordered the pump and belt and replaced those last night. When putting the new pump on to the bottom of the motor shaft that it was a little difficult to turn the pump to align it with the shaft before pressing it on.
When I went to cycle the machine, the motor will not go at all. I just moans loudly (obviously, I only let it do that for a split second not wanting to burn it out). With the machine unplugged, I tried spinning the drive pulley and it is very difficult (couldn’t move it much with my fingers, I needed plyers). I don’t hear/feel any grinding when I do get it so move.
I am wondering if the new pump is bad. Should it have been very easy to spin right out of the box?
or
Is the motor bad? I would think a 1/2 horsepower motor would have plenty of power to spin that pump even if it was a little tight. Is there a way to test/verify that?
Any help would be greatly appreciated before I go spending close to $200 on a motor.