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andyjawa wrote:Great, you sussed it.

Yes, courtesy of all the suggestions on here, so thanks to everyone concerned.

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andyjawa – Once again, thanks for the very detailed explanation. Even though I have notifications enabled, I’m not receiving them, so a bit late on the response side.

So good news to report. I’ll start at the end by saying that I have a load of clothes airing outside as I type. Now for the outcome, and I have to say I’m lucky that I dropped one of the brush bolts into the motor. Because of the confines of the kitchen, the machine was on it’s side so I could access the brushes, and they were swapped over with the motor in situ previously. This time when I was removing one to inspect it, I dropped the bolt into the motor, so had to remove that to find it.

When I did so, I noticed that there are two positions that the brushes can attach to the motor, noted by three bolt holes and two ‘seating’ holes for the plastic lug on the brush. I had fitted them in exactly the same way as the original ones were fitted, matching their alignment with the other secured one, and also by the line of dust from the brush, and from the restricted viewing angle, they looked as if they were seated correctly. It turns out that the brushes I got had the angled slope on the contact edge opposite to what mine were, and as a result they were only touching the armature by the tip of the brush. This obviously meant not enough power going to the motor, which is why it was never running as fast as it should. That might also explain why it kept doing the rotation/counter rotation at various speeds. Not sure if links work here, but I just came across this image which partially shows the extra holes for mounting the brush in a different orientation:

https://siteassets.ransomspares.co.uk/Images/Articles/General/motor.jpg

As soon as I fitted them the correct way, I tried the empty spin cycle again, and noticed an immediate difference. It did a very slow rotation for a few revolutions, and then repeated this in the other direction. Someone mentioned above that this would have been it load balancing. After that, it then started to rotate and gradually increased speed up to its indicated 1600rpm. I switched it off, put the panels back on and set it back in place, and ran a load of clothes through earlier, and they came out slightly damp, as expected, instead of soaking wet. Even a heavy sweat shirt came out slightly damp.

In terms of the brushes that I bought, they came from the only supplier online that sells Zanussi spares, and I had provided them with full part numbers beforehand, so don’t understand why the brushes have two different fitting points with corresponding brush faces going the opposite direction.

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electrofix wrote:3. As it’s getting to the higher rpms, I am noticing it sparking (more reflected light from the side panels as I can’t see the brushes directly)

well that could be it. depends why they are sparking. they will spark more with higher loads.

Good news on the other points, but somewhat annoyed at this prospect, as these were brand new brushes that were put in, and not cheap eBay stuff, and this test was with an empty drum. The motor isn’t making any noises at all, thankfully. It was the one brush that wasn’t even touching the armature that I believe started all this, but it always spun the clothes properly. Will give it a go and report my findings.

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Dragged into several other jobs, so this just pushed aside, and since the kitchen is an old style galley kitchen (I can touch both side walls), pulling the washing machine leaves about 8 inches of space to get between.

Anyway, took the top and back covers off to have a look around, and noticed the following just doing a spin cycle on an empty drum.
1. The waste water pipe pulsates as if water going through it (even though the drum is empty, including the filter area at the bottom of the drum)
2. It spins normally with nothing at all in it
3. As it’s getting to the higher rpms, I am noticing it sparking (more reflected light from the side panels as I can’t see the brushes directly)
4. The pipe from the pressure switch has no objections whatsoever, with no effort at all to blow through

Weather has turned lousy today, so wasn’t prepared to put any clothes in it, as I know they’ll still be wet, even after two spin cycles. May just have to try a new pressure switch, but will be annoyed if that doesn’t cure it.

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electrofix – I never tried spinning it with no clothes in it, and never checked the brushes for sparking since they were new.

andyjawa – Thanks for a very detailed explanation. However, I think you’ve misinterpreted part of what I said. The washing machine worked fine until the day it just failed to do a proper wash/spin cycle. I’m assuming that it had reached a point where the gap between that one brush and the armature was too great and would therefore not turn the drum. The PCB was replaced at that point, but it did not cure the problem. Only when I changed the brushes did it start to work properly. i.e. it ran through the full wash and spin cycle, but the clothes were still wet. The water is being drained from it, as there is none left in the drum. I may also have misled you with the 200rpm comment, so sorry about that. What I was trying to convey was that it seemed to be a very slow spin speed. It would then stop, reverse direction, and the speed would increase by another factor, based on sound rather than any proper measurement. It just seemed to increase to a certain speed, but wouldn’t maintain that speed for anymore than a few seconds. In terms of water level, I honestly have never noticed the water level being any different. I’d guess it were around the 8 to 4 level, but will check later, but reckon the pressure switch is my first port of call.

I’m about to head out, so will try the empty spin and check the brushes later. I can also checkout those other aspects that andyjawa mentioned. Will update later.

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kwatt wrote:You can make them go away with the arrows on most, and yes they can be a pain but sadly they are under the control of Google and not us.

K.

Thanks. I was aware of the one at the bottom of the page, which I can get rid of. Oddly enough, when I check that thread I linked to above, it is now displaying the ads correctly, between the posts, instead of on top of them. I can only assume that it had something to do with just being newly registered on the site or something, as nothing else has changed.

Now I can post about the issues I’m having with my washing machine.

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