DWCA500AAW Admiral Dishwasher - Instructions

1. Turned power to the unit off.
2. Used a star bit to remove the 7 screws holding the door panel in place.
3. Handed each to my 2 year-old grand daughter.
4. Removed a 1" switch metal retaining plate and a black plastic cover. Removed one screw holding the switch in place.
5. Gently lifted out the old switch and compared it to the replacement switch.
6. Inserted the two black connectors into the new switch.
7. Removed each of the four wires connected to the old switch and connected each, in-turn, to the new switch. Removed the exterior black handle from the old switch and snapped it into place on the new switch.
8. Put the switch into place, reinstalled the black plastic housing cover and long 1" metal switch retaining panel.
9. Set the door cover in place and let the 2 year-old screw in the 7 retaining screws.
10. Don't have to listen to the wife complain about the dishwasher anymore.

First, removed end cap in steel sliding upper rail, second, removed broken roller, third, attached new roller, you can look at other rollers to see how it goes on, fourth, feed new roller into track, replace end cap. Takes less than 10 min, saved 85. 00 Bucks.

removed the door gasket by just pulling it out and pushing the new one in its place. very easy, took five minutes at most. Then removed the 7 screws holding the inside of the door in place, removed the dispenser assembly, held by two drive screws and replaced the dispenser door latch grommet. Finally, removed the insulation foam gasket. Had to scrape the old adhesive from the door as the old a\gasket had disintegrated. This took the most time. Then just pressed the new foam gasket in place. Reading the comments from others was a big help. Don't think I would have replaced the dispenser grommet had I not been warned about it. I'm sure it was part of the problem. All is well now, no leaks.

Took off old part. Modified new roller w'knife. Found a nut and bolt in scrap pile. Attached.

This ended up to be a (2) phase project. The first repair was to replace the door seal and inner door foam. Thanks to earlier online comments this part was really easy, but we still had a small leak. When I had removed the interior face of the door panel to replace the inner door foam, I had noticed the insulation was wet and deducted that the 'soap cup door latch gasket' was the real culprit so I had to place a second order (Phase 2). The order came quickly and in time for next Saturdays to to list. My advice is to replace all 4 items at the same time and save on mailing cost and repair time; reservoir O-ring, soap cup door latch gasket, inner foam gasket and door gasket. net repair time, about an hour start to finish.
Don and Rosie
Rochester, NY

The initial repair was more involved due to figuring out how to get at the problem. A foam sealer strip located at the bottom of the inner door had lost it's seal. I first sent off for one and it was of relatively thin material. It was carefully installed but still leaked. I ordered another one from Part Select and it had thicker foam. It was installed right over the previously installed strip and made a tight seal. (knock on wood)

I ordered the part and it fit perfectly!! About five minutes to screw it onto my faucet and problem solved!!!

I first removed 7 Torx screws holding the plastic housing to the door. Then removed two hex screws holding the
dispenser in place. At first I thought that the wax motor was broken, but measuring it with an ohm meter, it had the same resistance as a new wax motor (about 2-3 kOhms). Examining the release mechanism it looked like the stem at the back of the latch was a bit bent. I replaced both the latch and the slider. However, I probably only needed to replace the slider. After reassembling the pieces, the soap dispenser now works. By the way, as another poster noted, you can only test the mechanism when the dispenser door is closed and the latch is
displaced from its normal position.

The wax motor seemed to work.
At first I thought something was broken and I tried to figure out the "theory of operation" Working the actuator of the wax motor, I COULD NOT GE THE LATCH TO MOVE THE WAY I THOUGHT IT SHOULD. I ASSUMED EITHER IT WAS BROKEN IN SOME WAY I COULD NOT DETECT OR THERE WAS A FLAW IN ITS DESIGN!

It took a long time to figure out the latch would not be worked open unless it was actually holding the lid- this positions the latch at "half mast" and allows the mechanism to "pick it up from there" and open the rest of the way. So once I figured that out, I concluded the failure was really just worn out parts that were out of tolerance for how this "half mast" position and opening was supposed to work. So I ordered all fresh pieces just to be sure, assembled it (very easy) and put it in (easy). It all works fine now.

First I called a repairman. He saw it was a certain model Maytag and would not fix it. It washed, but would not drain, so rather than buy another I took about an hour to carefully remove the washer and the motor / bowl unit from the body. Then it was easy to see what was wrong. The problem was a broken lifter arm in the bottom of the bowl. This caused the drain solenoid piston to "travel" too far and actually dislodge from the solenoid during use. You have to remove the lower spray arm, drain grate and then the lifter is a little black plastic "arm" on a metal rod that is actuated by the solenoid under the washer. The lifter fits over the rod and is held with a snap ring. Re-assembly was easy.

float was missing palnut and letting the float slide up too much causing small leak around the float

Whoever manufactures this part, hope they read this and strenthen this part. The very thin legs break very easily.

I removed the threaded broken-off part from the extension thing. The spay arm came off, since nothing was holding it on any more. I pried the cover off below that - 4 tangs.
Then I used needle nose pliers to unto the strange pointed nut that holds the spray arm support in place. Then removed the borken support, replaced with the new and reassembled in the reverse order of disassembly. Really pretty easy.

Use towels to catch water that spills from unit. Lay unit on side to expose bottom. Remove plastic retainers, rear wheels, and bottom cover. Disconnect inlet and discharge hoses. Tie pull cord onto each hose separately. Temporarily re-install rear wheels. Set uinit upright. Remove two star screws from underside of wooden top. Slide top forward to release and remove top. Remove tie strap holding hoses to inner bracket. Lay unit on side again and pull hoses out. Remove discharge hose first to allow removal of inlet hose from plastic housing on back of unit. Tie pull cords to new hoses. Pull new hoses into unit. Reconnect hoses. Turn unit upright. Replace tie strap on bracket with new hoses. Hoses are marked as to where they should be secured to the bracket. Replace top. Remove old door gasket by pulling from one end of gasket. Clean gasket groove. Push new gasket into place. Close door to seat gasket. Remove and replace faucet adapter kit. Run unit and check for leaks. Lay unit on side, remove rear wheels, replace bottom cover and plastic retainers, reinstall rear wheels.

After performing some maintenance to get the water flowing properly through the system (that's another story) the door was leaking very badly during any test run of the dishwasher.

We thought it was the gasket because the old one was calcified and dried out from years of harder water.

We ordered the new one and in minutes after receiving the new gasket we had a firm seal and our dishwasher was back in action.

The rear right caster (wheel) under our fairly new portable dishwasher broke. Upon looking up the part, I discovered that it did not bolt into place, meaning that the exterior skin of the dishwasher did not have to be removed and that more than likely I could fix it myself.

The replacement wheels from Partselect were nicer quality than what the original was and showed up just two days after they were ordered.

However, getting what remained of the broken caster out was frustrating. I am not unhandy around the house, having put in two new bathrooms and a staircase.

But after yanking and prying on the broken caster for 20 minutes (slamming my fingers into the floor every time the pliers slipped), I could see where most people would give up and call a repairman. Finally, with help from small pry bar, the broken caster popped loose. Thankfully, putting the new in was as simple as sliding it into place.

Unfortunately, after all that work, we discovered the new caster was slightly taller than the old, leaving the dishwasher with a distinct wobble that my wife said was unacceptable. She, of course, had not been repeatedly introducing her hand to the floor.

I had ordered two replacement casters, thinking that another of the originals might break. But getting the second one out proved just as difficult as the first, even with the help of the pry bar.

After much cussing and kissing of finger booboos, our Maytag dishwasher is as good as the day we brought it home.