D Vautier
10/2011
I felt kind of challenged when my son told me the Maytag washer would not run. We have another washer so it was not a critical issue but I decided to fix it anyway. And here is my tormented tail of woe.
The entire Maytag Neptune experience is one of those love-hate things. The machine is in fact a beautiful invention with some terrible defects. The biggest ones were the now famous R11 problem along with noisey motors. Another was bearing replacement. I can well understand that any front loader will eventually blow it’s bearings but replacing the bearings can be quite difficult on this machine even while using information on the internet. look here for some additional information on bearing replacement.
But the problem I ran into this time was totally inexplicable. When I pressed start the machine ran for 10 seconds and as soon as the motor kicked in it would stop. The Neptune likes to tumble clothes just about during all cycles: wash, rinse, pump, flush. So all cycles performed fine until the motor started than it would shut off.
My obvious suspect was the motor board. I removed it and noticed that the two 470 mfd capacitors had leaked electrolyte. I ordered another board on ebay. I also ordered some 470 mfd caps of higher voltage. When the new (used) board arrived it also two had leaking capacitors. I replaced the caps and tested the old caps and they checked out and took a charge. I put in the motor board and the machine still shut off when the motor started as I expected.
My attention was now on the motor itself. I removed it and took it apart. It showed no sighs of wear at all. The bearings and windings looked good. None of the coils showed stress. There were no shorts and the resistance was fine. The tachometer looked good. Next I ran voltage to the motor board and the motor ran fine. I hooked everything back together and the washer continued to shut down after a few seconds.
I removed and examined the main board, there was no sign of failure. I tested the voltages to the main board and it checked out. I decided to replace the main board anyway. There was no change. The Maytag continued to shut off as soon as the motor started.
I began to suspect the timer. I removed it and tested as many contacts as I could. All were OK. I reinstalled the timer and there was no improvement. Next I began testing the switches. They were all working. What to do next?
At this point I became truly desperate and began to believe the machine was haunted and that some evil spirit was dwelling therein. Maybe some holy water and prayers would work, or perhaps one of those Indian rain dances, or some garlic.
To summarize
1. changed motor board
2. tested motor
3. changed main board
4. tested timer
5. tested on/off switch
So in utter desperation I got an old machine on Craigslist and started changing parts. The first thing I noticed was that the craigslist unit had bad bearings and was pretty much totaled. I did notice that it went through the cycles OK and had the upgraded motor, the one that didn't growel. I tested the new motor and motor board and they worked so I put the upgraded motor on my machine and tested it. It worked fine but the machine as expected shut down as soon as the motor started.
Working under the thought that if I changed all the components in the machine I would eventually stumble upon the part that was causing failure. I changed all the top switches. The machine ran! It was one of the top switches all this time that was causing shutdown even though I had tested each switch. Being a religious man, I did not determine which switch it was for fear of unleashing an evil spirit upon the world.