I recently acquired this machine without a manual or a belt. Replaced the belt and tried a wash. All went OK until 8 minutes left on the display. The machine then did not advance into the spin cycle ( but it pumped out OK) and then stayed stuck on ‘8’ in the display. Then it flashed ‘UE’ .
I think that I have a more serious problem because I attempted to wash only one small hand towel to test the machine.
I suspect ‘out of balance’ switches or some other suspension problems.
However I will try what you suggest first. Perhaps I could try an empty bowl to test ?
One item is not enough to try and spin, you need at least half a load so that it can be distributed around the the drum before spin.
Out of balance is controled by the PCB main board sensing how the motor is turning.