Washing

The wash function is always preceded by the fill function. Your clothes could be permanently damaged by the agitator if it could move without water in the tub. The wash function begins with the transmission shifting into the agitate mode and the pump shifting into the circulation mode. The transmission gearcase (Figure 1) is mounted inside the cabinet, under the tub. The transmission is shifted into the agitate mode by the agitate slide bar.

The agitate bar is located on top of the transmission, just to the right of the agitator shaft when viewed from the rear access panel opening. The main drive motor is to the left and the gearcase drive pulley is to the right.

(Figure 2) The water pump is mounted on back side of the gearcase. The spin brake and clutch assembley is mounted on the agitator shaft that rises up into the center of the tub. The main drive belt encircles the motor pulley, the gearcase drive pulley, the water pump pulley and finally, the spin clutch pulley. The control magnet assembly is mounted on a shaft on top of the gearcase in the center of the area bordered by the main drive belt. Two plungers drop out of the control magnet assembly (commonly refered to as a wig wag for reasons more apparent later) and slide within slots in two metal slide bars positioned to the right and left of the agitator shaft. The spin shift slide bar is the one to the left and the agitate (wash) slide bar is to the right.

When the water level switch assembly senses the desired amount of water in the tub, it switches from the fill function to the wash function. This simultaneously energizes the main drive motor and the agitate coil in the wig wag. The drive motor turns all of the pulleys via the drive belt. The wig wag pivots back and forth on its shaft approximately forty degrees. This back and forth action is what gives it its nickname. When the right-hand (agitate) wig wag coil is energized, the agitate slide bar plunger shaft is pulled up inside it. This causes the agitate plunger to slide up into the upper slot of the agitate slide bar. The plunger then pushes the slide bar towards the motor. When the agitator slide bar shifts back, the agitator gear fork shaft slides down into a slot in the agitator slide bar and a gear on the end of the agitator shaft engages a sector gear inside the gearcase. A successful shift is signaled with a solid clunk and a the agitator sloshing the water back and forth in the tub. The wig wag agitate plunger coil stays energized throughout the entire wash function.

Another slot in the agitate slide bar engages the shift lever of the water pump. When the agitate slide bar shifted toward the motor, the pump flapper valve was moved to its recirculate position. This allows the pump to move the wash water through a manually-cleaned or automatically flushed filter that removes the suspended lint.

The cycle control timer terminates the wash cycle after the programmed length of time by removing the current from the drive motor and the wig wag agitate plunger coil. The timer will start the drain function next.

Figure 1 (Return)

Figure 2 (Return)