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Hi All,
The machine is 8 years old and gives good service, over the last 3 to 6 months it has become more and more noisy on spin and I eventually got round to looking at it.
Both the suspension legs have ‘resistance’ but feel quite soft so I suspect that a lot of the extra drum bounce is that the suspension legs have become tired.
Seems easy enough to replace so I think I’ll have a go:
Questions: What part(s) or kit is it?
Should I look at replacing anything else while I have the spanners out, springs, bearings, bushes or brushes?Thanks,
ARe: Whirlpool AWM8163GB Vibration, drum bounce
It is very unlikely that the suspension units have failed. Make sure the concrete weights have not come loose. Turn the drum by hand to see if the movement is notchy. If it does feel notchy, remove the belt and try again. If the drum still feels notchy to turn, the drum bearings have failed. If it now turns smoothly, the motor bearings have failed. Also try to hold the outer drum and check for up and down play between the inner and outer drums. If there is significant play this also indicates drum bearing failure. As usual, unplug before removing any panels.
Re: Whirlpool AWM8163GB Vibration, drum bounce
I hadn’t tried the concrete weights, could only see one lump (sheet?) of concrete over the front of the drum. What I could feel wasn’t loose.
Tried rotating the drum and the motor and compared the feel with a Bosch next door which is OK and they ‘felt’ the same no notchy feel to it at all, in fact it rotated as sweet as a nut. Can’t feel any play between inner and outer drums. On no load it runs fine no vibration or bounce, its only when you put something in it it has to ballance out, that’s when it all starts turning pants and bouncing about like a rubber ball.
Still suggest bearings?
A
Re: Whirlpool AWM8163GB Vibration, drum bounce
No, does not sound like bearings then. It could be something more serious, namely a cracked arm of the drum support spider. This is the part that is attached to the back of the inner drum and has the drum shaft at it’s centre. If an arm is cracked, the crack opens up when subjected to the centrifugal force created by spinning at high speed, making the inner drum rub on the outer drum. Unfortunately you can only confirm this diagnosis by visual inspection of the spider i.e. by dismantling the machine. Whirlpool spares are very expensive so if the spider is cracked it is probably not cost effective to repair the appliance.
Re: Whirlpool AWM8163GB Vibration, drum bounce
Yeah, looked at the spider in place but can appreciate that it would have to come off to give it a real look-see. However its failure mode doesn’t really fit with the symptoms, this has gotten worse over a period of a few months fairly gradually and consistently wash-by-wash, if the spider had gone then I would have expected a more sudden noticable change.
How should a good suspension leg ‘feel’?
A
Re: Whirlpool AWM8163GB Vibration, drum bounce
Iadom posted a similar reply earlier today, which basically says, “Think car shock absorber”. Push the drum down and release – the drum should rise up and stop. No bounces, vibrations, wobbles. If the drum pushes down very easily (remember that you’re pushing against the force of the tub springs), you’ll need to change the dampers. Also worth checking the filter and sink coupling (if appropriate) – restricted flow of water will cause excess vibration and drum movement.
Penguin45.
Re: Whirlpool AWM8163GB Vibration, drum bounce
That’s exactly what I thought. If these were on my car it wouldn’t pass the MOT! Goodpoint about the drain / weight excess, when it was
checked out on no load and with a load the water was pumped away quite quickly, a ‘gush’ not a dribble, so I suspect that’s OK.So back to the original question:
What part(s) are they? and is it worthwhile changing anything else while its in bits?
A
Re: Whirlpool AWM8163GB Vibration, drum bounce
Shock absorbers are p/no 4812 466 48057 – you’ll need two. spares@ukwhitegoods.co.uk will get them for you promptly. Seeing as you’re going under the machine to fit these, it’s worth checking the state of wear of the carbon brushes in the drive motor at the same time as they are a consummable item.
Penguin45.
Re: Whirlpool AWM8163GB Vibration, drum bounce
OK. So I took both the suspension struts / shock absorbers / dashpots (call them what you want) off and looked at them and came to the conclusion that they were simple friction dampers with a bit of lube to stop them wearing out immediately. (for some reason I expected to find something ‘better’). As a simple friction damper will wear I became much more suspicious that this was likely to be a problem.
However, a simple friction damper can be ‘adjusted’ as it wears, in this case I took a large nail punch and dimpled the metal outer that the plastic inner slides in so that the friction was significantly more, still guesswork but worth a try.
These I re-fitted and gave the m/c a dry spin cycle, passed OK. I then took a 5oz ‘weight’ (pure guesswork) and taped it to the inside of the drum to represent an out of balance load and gave it a spin cycle to see.
Result: much better, drum ‘bounce’ eliminated, vibration still present, but machine no longer likely to walk away from the kitchen.
Observations, this was being done with the back off and dry and the movement distance the dampers operate over is small and only significant when the drum is accelerating / decelerating, when once the drum is past its resonance the bounce become a simple vibration which seems to be largely transmitted through the damper directly to the frame of the machine, which is probably to be expected as friction dampers have a fairly low frequency respnse in general. What I noticed which supprised me was that the rubber bushes that locate the dashpot to the drum and to the machine frame took significant motion and probably wear the same as rubber bushes on the moggy minor used to.
Question(s):
Anyone know what kind of weight imbalance a machine is supposed to tolerate?
Are the rubber bushes on the suspension struts available as a separate item.?
A
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