Faulty Motor ?

[Johnny41]

Hi there. I have an Admiral top loading washing machine. Model no. LATA401AGE. It is from the 1990’s and I have had no problems with it until recently. Sometimes the motor works and sometimes it grinds to a halt and just makes a buzzing sound.
Do I need a new motor ?

[electrofix]

well there are a number of reasons

1 mechanical jamming. There can be 2 reasons for this A) the motor itself where the bearing fail and cause it to jam B) anything driven by the belt

2 electrical This motor has a start switch at the top end. if the contacts dont close properly when the motor stops the motor cant start

2 is my best guess. if it was 1 then there would be a possiblilty you would have burnt out your start winding. i would open the switch (carefully) and see if any of the contacts look a bit burnt. You cant get a new one so any repair would mean cleaning and carefully bending the contacts so they work

Dave

[Johnny41]

Thanks Dave. Much appreciated. If it was the bearings in the motor, could I open the motor up to check this ?

[electrofix]

if you remove the motor you should be able to feel bearing play.

some motors are glued and not screwed so cant be taken apart. You wont know if yours can be till you look

Dave

[Author]

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