How to fix a broken wringer washer
Where do you get a belt for a
wringer washer
that went out of production during the Nixon administration?
The local auto parts store of
course. Just take in the old belt and ask the nice person behind the
counter if they can patiently size it up with the masses of belts they
stock or tell them you want a Dayco GPL Premium V-belt model number
L432 which is what I ended up with.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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There was also a series of numbers with a couple of letters after the L432.
That model number was 13RL815, which I'm sure means something within the secret drive belt society.
In general, there are two common types of V-belts. "A" size, and "B" size. The difference is in the width (you can measure across the outside of the belt, the wide part looking at a profile view of the V). You can often order them in any diameter you need... you measure around the outside diameter of the pulleys along the path the belt would take with a cloth tape. Don't ask how I know these things... :P Lets just say something by Massey Ferguson that has also been out of production since before I was born.
Then there are the flat belts... which I have yet to master.
FYI - You can often get a rough idea from here... If McMaster Carr doesn't sell it, there's a good chance it isn't made.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#drive-belts/=68y8lo
Shannon --- such good info! Now we'll know where to go if we need to find a strange belt!
Vester --- luckily, ours has a safety release that goes off when I try to put jeans through it. (Well, I don't think it's lucky when I have to wring the jeans by hand...) I'm still really careful, though.
Check the correct tension. To low a tension causes slipping, which will destroy the belt in short order. To high a tension increases the load on the bearings and pulleys which can damage them. Usually the motor is mounted on a slider or pivot so you can change the tension of the belt. Unfortunately methods to check the tension can vary per manufacturer. Typically it involves measuring how much force it takes to push in a belt a certain distance in between the pulleys. Download the Gates manual if you cannot find anything else and look for the belt that most closely matches the one you have. You can measure the force with a unster or a kitchen scale and a piece of wood if you don't have anything else available.
The numbers are the manufacturer's code. AFAIK they aren't standardized.
I cleaned the drain. I even ran a snake through it, but couldn't find anything blocked. It still won't drain.
The Maytag I picked up for $5 works after putting a new cord on it, now I need an agitator. That's the only part missing.
Hey all. I've got an old Maytag Wringer Washer, model # E2LS, I think. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to get the agitator to release, so I can unclog it. It won't drain and we already took the hose off and cleaned it, so I think the clog must be below the agitator, but I need help with removing it. Any advice? Thanks, guys. Space
I noticed a few comments about asking how to remove the agitator out of an old wringer washer. I've recently come in to possession of a Simplicity Wringer Washer and the agitator is in need of repair. Just wondering if anyone has been able to figure it out.