hey welcome back to my channel duct tape
mechanic and to another episode of my
series free on Facebook a series of
videos in which I find things for free
on Facebook Marketplace and I repair
them reuse them or repurpose them in
another way
in this video I got this newer style GE
washer that's making a grinding noise
during the agitate or wash cycle so I'm
going to show you how to repair this so
I can hopefully prevent your washer from
going into the landfill so if you like
this video make sure you subscribe to my
channel for more DIY and tinkering
videos
so I got the machine running
um on my test station here just to
demonstrate what it sounds like and
occasionally you're gonna hear a really
loud grinding noise
there there you go
so yeah that's not how it's supposed to
sound like obviously
um so what we'll do is go ahead and fix
this issue so in order to do that we're
gonna turn this off we're gonna unplug
it and undo the water line from the back
then tip it on his back let's do that
now
all right so after tipping the washer
over or on this back we're going to take
off this cover right here
to do that all you need is a 3 8 inch
nut driver
if we take off the cover we'll see that
the back of the cover so the one that's
facing the washer actually has these
white flakes on it this is actually the
teeth of the clutch that's been grinding
down so
yeah that's definitely the issue right
there all right so with the cover
removed we'll take off the belt next
it's the belt
next thing we'll do is we'll take off
the transmission pulley
to take the transmission pulley off you
will need a half inch socket and all you
need to do is hold the pulley with one
hand and turn to the left
foreign
this pulley can get really jammed in
there so you may need to give it a
couple of taps
there we go
okay came out right out
and this also has that debris build up
on it as well
all right so the next thing we need to
do is take off this shifter with the
mode shifter motor or the motor shifter
itself and I do recommend replacing the
entire shifter while while we're down
here it's like 60 or 70 bucks but uh if
you don't want to replace it
you could first try replacing just a
clutch and seeing if that works but I've
worked on these enough to know that this
mode shifter does get the motor gets
weak after a while and it'll do half
shifts or partial shifts and that's what
grinds his teeth down as well so I'm
just going to go ahead and replace this
because I had the part on hand but if
you don't want to replace it you could
try just replacing the clutch and the
clutch spring and then seeing if that
resolves the issue if it doesn't then
you'll definitely have to come back and
replace this anyways we'll go ahead and
use a 3 8 inch nut driver to take off
the shifter mode shifter
once the shifter comes off the clutch
and the spring will come off as well
undo it from the connector right here
GE connectors are a little bit of a pain
there we go
and that's the shifter came off
all right so after taking the shifter
off we'll just take the spring off here
and take a look at the clutch and we can
see that there's flakes coming off the
crust the clutch and the teeth are
beginning to get grounded down
so we'll go ahead and replace the clutch
the spring and I'm also going to replace
the shifter mode shifter as well
I'm going to be greasing up the clutch
using some extreme pressure grease
around the outside and the inner teeth
so I got the clutch all greased up here
I'll also be applying some grease to the
transmission shaft right here
and then we're going to go ahead and
Slide the spring back on
and then the clutch goes on top of that
and it'll just fit into the teeth there
and after that we'll go ahead and
put the shifter or install the shifter
it's got these two pegs which are going
to go into the holes right here and then
that'll also line up the mounting horse
then you're gonna have to hold it with
one hand
while you tighten down the bolts
all right after bolting it down
should be pretty smooth operation like
this then after that we can just go
ahead and plug it back into the
connector
just like that
all right so you can also just clean up
the
transmission pulley and inspect it for
damage if it's not damaged you can reuse
it before we do that we'll just uh
go ahead and grease up
the teeth of the pulley as well
all right once everything's greased up
the part of the the portion or the side
of the pulley that has a teeth will go
facing towards the inside of the washer
and it'll just slide into the grooves of
the teeth like so
and then after that we'll just bolt it
down
after reattaching the transmission
pulley we'll just put the belt back on
after putting the belt back on I'm gonna
go ahead and put the cover on be sure to
attach the ground to the bottom bolt as
well
all right let's go ahead and give this a
test rod
all right so I've hooked my washing
machine up to my test station and a load
of duct tape delicates is underway it's
already progressed to the wash cycle and
there's no weird grinding noises at all
and so I've also bypassed a lid lock
mechanism here so I can take a look at
what's happening inside
that looks pretty normal to me
and so this is a relatively inexpensive
fix where the spring and the clutch can
be found for about 30 bucks or so and uh
shifter actuator can be found for about
60 bucks so for around a hundred dollars
you could have a working
non-grinding washing machine and you
prevent yourself from having to go out
and buy a new one so if you find this
video helpful make sure you give it a
thumbs up and stay tuned for more videos