Kenmore Washer 110.20922990 fills, but won't agitate, drain or spin

I just replaced the pump after it started leaking (last week some time). A few days ago it stopped working, acted completely dead. Not a sound, nothing. Now, however, it makes a humming noise when I try to get it to agitate or drain/spin. On a couple occasions, it decided to start spinning (albeit with a louder sound than normal), but most of the time...nothing but a hum.

I checked the pump and it's clear. I checked the drive coupler and it's fine. The clutch looks ok too. It's harder for me to troubleshoot the washer with the case off because a repairman once clipped the timer connector and now we only have cut wires (which I join with plastic cone-shaped wire connectors). I think I might be able to bypass the lid switch by connecting the gray to tan wires coming from the timer, but I don't want to blow anything up so haven't tried it. I've had this washer apart more times than I can count in the last couple of years and I'm very familiar with much of the workings of the machine, but this issue has me stumped. Any ideas? I desperately need to be able to do laundry.

The transmission is fairly new (within the last year), the motor is from an older machine so could be that I suppose, the clutch is fairly recent, the timer has been replaced in the last 4 or 5 years, the lid switch isn't terribly old.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

Trudi

 

2 wires to lid switch not colored green can be jumped. Unclip water pump from motor and pull off shaft. Try washer in spin , If it works something wrong with pump. If no noise in any cycles check white wire going to motor, Leave in spin and wiggle wires to see if starts>

 

Ok, I took the outer shell off, jumper-ed the gray and tan wires to bypass the lid switch and turned it on. I acted like it might try to do something in the line of spinning, but stopped and just hummed. I took the pump off the motor shaft and tried again. I can see the motor trying to turn and it does turn a little bit (more with the pump off than when it was on), but then gives up and just hums. Does this sound more like a motor issue or capacitor or something else?

Oh, I checked for loose white wires going to motor but everything looks fine. I wiggled any white wires I saw, but none felt loose.

Thanks!

 

You may have something under the basket. Have to take off cabinet and agitator, than the nut on top of basket. basket lifts off. May be stuck and and lightly tapping on basket shaft usually will loosen it. Basket will bend if hit to hard.

 

With pump off the motor, clamp a pair of vice grips to the motor shaft and rotate by hand CW for spin. It should spin without too much resistance. You could also chuck a drill to the shaft and try it that way. CW for spin, CCW for agitation. If it seems to work this way, probably not something jammed between the tubs.

 

I can freely turn the motor shaft either way with the vice grip attached, however the basket only turns when I turn it CW. CCW doesn't do anything to move the basket. The noise is definitely coming from the motor and when I tried it again just now, it agitated for a little bit, then made a loud noise (louder than a hum), then went back to humming. I thought I smelled a little electrical burning smell, but it was faint and disappeared almost immediately as soon as I turned the knob off so it might have been just my imagination.

 

CCW isn't supposed to move the basket, CCW is for agitation and should cause the agitator to move back and forth. You say you just tried it and it agitated for a little bit and stopped? Tub is full of water? Place timer to drain function. This is one click after agitation. The 2 minute drain period bypasses the user speed switch and part of the motor centrifugal switch. Does it work ok there? Have you tried different speed settings? FYI, this washer has a dry agitate function for testing agitation without water in the tub. Dry agitate is one click of the timer before drain. This is in regular cycle only.

 

Tub is full of water (& clothes) and it won't drain. Motor doesn't do anything when I set timer to drain. Changing speeds didn't make any difference.

 

Try spin mode with motor sitting on floor by itself. If it just hums again, spin the shaft by hand to see if it will start. If it does, you may have a bad capacitor, motor switch or timer.

 

I put it in spin and the motor spins like crazy when it's disconnected from the transmission and just sitting on the floor.

 

At this point I would be doing some electrical troubleshooting with multimeter and wiring diagram in hand. Need to check voltages at the motor while it's trying to run. Probably beyond your capabilities and a bit too involved to try and explain it over this forum. The other option is parts swapping.

 

I do have a capacitor* I can swap out so will try that. What other parts could it possibly be? Motor, yes, but what about transmission? Pump is new and clear so it's not that. Transmission and timer have both been recently replaced.

ETA: *I did have a capacitor, but it was in sad shape and it broke when I tried to disconnect it from our old parts washer.

 

It could be the capacitor or the motor. The best way to test for a bad capacitor is to replace it with a new one. You can check it with a meter to see if it's shorted and some meters will test the value of the capacitor but these are static tests and the only real way to test them is with an expensive capacitor analyzer. If it still won't work with a new capacitor, then you must take some voltage measurements to determine if it's a voltage drop problem due to faulty wiring, wiring connections or contacts in the circuit. If you have the proper voltage at the motor when it's energized but won't rotate, then either the motor is bad or the pump or transmission is bad. You have tried it without the pump attached and the transmission appears to be ok since you can easily rotate the input shaft in either direction.

 

When you turned the motor by hand did the basket turn? If not did you look under the basket?

 

Problem also occurs for agitation cycle and drain only. This rules out something between the tubs.