Hotpoint WMA63 will not spin or turn under power

[Stephen99]

Hi,

I have a Hotpoint WMA63 washing machine. It was working fine until this morning. Now if I run a program, the water will run into the soap tray and the drum fills with water but the drum will not turn. After a minute or two, the machine appears to detect that the drum is not rotating and the drum will empty and the machine will switch off.

I unplugged the machine and took off the top and side panels. I could not see any loose wires and the belt is attached to both the motor and the drum. if I turn the drum by hand, the drum will rotate freely and the motor turns with it.

I’ve had a quick google and the advice seems to be to check the brushes so I will do that next.

By coincidence this morning a man came to fit a new electricity meter and he didn’t bother/ask us to turn off the power at the fuse box, he just pulled the main fuse. He didn’t give any warning, so it was lucky we didn’t have any computers etc switched on. The washing machine was plugged in but not running, I suppose you would say it was in “standby”. Do you think that’s a coincidence? It’s not a power surge that’s caused this is it? OTOH if a power surge caused damage, wouldn’t it mean the machine would not work at all? If I press all the buttons on the front panel, the display shows the appropriate program, so if there is damage, it appears limited to the motor control.

I shall look at the brushes. Do yuo have any other advice what I should look at and what could be wrong? Thanks.

[spanishwhite]

Re: Hotpoint WMA63 will not spin or turn under power

Hi,sounds like the brushes.
Unlikely that cutting the power to a machine that is not running will cause any damage.

[Specialist01269]

Re: Hotpoint WMA63 will not spin or turn under power

As spanishwhite says, your first check should be the motor brushes. It’s possible but very unlikely that the power being turned off & back on had anything to do with your problem, a power surge will normally blow the input side of the control board so nothing will work.

[Stephen99]

Re: Hotpoint WMA63 will not spin or turn under power

Specialist01269 wrote:As spanishwhite says, your first check should be the motor brushes. It’s possible but very unlikely that the power being turned off & back on had anything to do with your problem, a power surge will normally blow the input side of the control board so nothing will work.

Yes, I thought it strange that a power surge would kill just the motor but nothing else.

I am embarrassed now that I mentioned the electrician as it was a red herring.

I have taken the motor off and one of the cables has separated from its connector. I think it is the cable on the second pin on the motor, which appears to go to the sixth pin on the chopper board connector.

What are each of the seven pins on the motor for? I found another web site suggesting check continuity between the pins but that must have been for a different motor as my results did not match the pin outs given.

So I need to order the new harness to the motor. In the process of removing the motor, I don’t know whetehr I have broken the earth lead. The earth lead ran from the chassis to the motor but I saw another earth lead hanging going nowhere. The other end of the loose lead goes to the heater. I assume the lead should run heater to motor to chassis. I can’t find a photo of the part on the internet but would it be right to assume it is “earth lead assembly C00201355”. Alternatively could I do a DIY repair by recrimping the leads together?

[iadom]

Re: Hotpoint WMA63 will not spin or turn under power

Motor harness is a C00271719, a good idea to change it as attempting a repair is not easy and if one wire has broken all the others may be weak.

As long as you do a decent job of recrimping the earth wires then that should be fine.

[Stephen99]

Re: Hotpoint WMA63 will not spin or turn under power

iadom wrote:Motor harness is a C00271719, a good idea to change it as attempting a repair is not easy and if one wire has broken all the others may be weak.

As long as you do a decent job of recrimping the earth wires then that should be fine.

Thanks. I forgot to say that the brushes were clean and over an inch long, so no problems there. Can you confirm the part no. for the earth cable just in case I need one in the future? Or do you make your own; what gauge wire is it (I suppose I could measure it next time I have the machine in pieces but I thought someone might know off the top of their head). Thanks.

[iadom]

Re: Hotpoint WMA63 will not spin or turn under power

The number you have is correct for the earth wiring, have changed many motor harnesses, never an earth one. I have always repaired those with butt connectors or suitable crimps and cable end AMP tags.

[Stephen99]

Re: Hotpoint WMA63 will not spin or turn under power

iadom wrote:The number you have is correct for the earth wiring, have changed many motor harnesses, never an earth one. I have always repaired those with butt connectors or suitable crimps and cable end AMP tags.

Thank you very much.

[Author]

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