MDB7130AWS Maytag Dishwasher - Instructions

I surfed the net using phrases like "dishes not clean" and found a series of possible solutions. When I noticed that the water in the washer was cold, I realized it was a heating element issue. Using a multi-meter set to the lowest resistance I tested both ends of the heating element (OF COURSE I SHUT OFF ELECTRICITY TO THE DISHWASHER FIRST!!!) and found it read a steady 16 ohms. Then I followed the orange leads to the limiter, removed the leads and tested resistance and found it at near zero. Touchdown.

I ordered the new limiter, had it in a couple of days and installed in in 5 minutes. The hardest part was putting the metal cover back on the bottom of the unit.t

I first disconnected power from the dishwaher at the breaker panel. Then, removed 4 screws on the front of the dishwasher and removed the lower panel. I removed the two wires (compression fittings, by hand). Then I used an adjustable wrench to remove the two nuts which retained the element. I opened the diswasher door and extracted the old element. I reused the rubber O-rings from the old element and placed the new element into the dishwasher. I replaced the nuts and wires. I reenergized the circuit and ran the diswasher through a normal cycle. Note: I had plenty of towels on hand just in case the old O-rings did not perform. No problems encountered. I replaced the front cover and loaded have checked under for leaks during the last two wash cycles. Note: be sure not to over tighten the element nuts as they are plastic and will strip out. I used the model number to obtain the new part and all went flawlwssly. Thans!

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.

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

We were happy to find the basket we needed listed on your website, even after we could not find it on the Maytag site. It was perfect. I can't believe we lasted almost 2 years with the broken basket we had.

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 bottom rack was easiest, just picked it up out of the dishwasher and moved the sprayer and the silverware holder from the old rack to the new rack and set it back in the dishwasher. The top rack was a little tricky, it took a minute to figure out to remove the little end-caps on the runners and then it just slid out. Slid the new one in, replaced the caps and moved the upper rack basket. It took less than 15 minutes to fix and now it's like a brand new dishwasher!

I googled the simptoms online, and found that the most common cause for a door leak was the door seal. I purchased the seal online from PartSelect.com. Two days later, the part arrived. I pulled out the old seal and pushed in the new one. No tools required. That fixed the problem. While looking at the parts diagram, I noticed that my dishwasher didn't have the water deflectors installed. I don't know if they were ever there. They were cheap, so I ordered them online and slid them into place in less than 10 seconds. Again, no tools required. Dishwasher runs great, no leaks.

Our first effort was to replace the lower washer arm that had splits in the sides of this plastic part. While this increased the water pressure in the wash cycle some it was not enough to adequately wash the dishes. We read that someone else had to clean out the filter which was below the lower washer arm assembly. Thus, we took off the loweer arm assembly by screwing off the hold down assembly in the middle of the arm. We then took off the pump cover by removing the 6 screws that hold it in place with a #3 metric allen wrench. When we took of the cover we could see that the pump filter was so covered with deposits that it was not letting the water through to the pump. Rather than spend hours trying to clean the filter and pump cover we decided it was easier to repalce them. Thus, we ordered the parts and replaced them. The dishwaster is now working fine. We appreciated the information that others had shared that helped us find and fix the problem.

The real cause of the leak had nothing to do with the foam strip. The latch for the front loading door at the top needed to be adjusted to hold the door in tighter to the rubber door seal. This simple adjustment stopped the leak but since the foam seal was all encrusted with dried detergent from probably years of absorbing the leak, I replaced it with your new foam strip. I used a screw driver with torx bit and removed the stainless screws holding the inner door to the outer door. Once these were separated I removed the old foam strip using a putty knife and lacquer thinner. Placing the new strip onto these cleaned surfaces was the easiest part of the whole repair.

The dishwasher is well engineered to perform this work.

Remove the bottom two panels to provide access and visibility to base of pump motor.

Locate plastic pump locking lever and push toward rear of DW to unlock pump from DW.

Inside the DW remove basketsand spray arms. Revove screws holding cover over pump motor and remove cover.

From below raise pump motor and support with block (piece of 2x4 worked well).

insde DW, removre old gasket, clean well around pump and botom of DW, install new gasket.

From below remove block to drop pump motro back into place, and re-tighten locking lever by pull toward you.

re-assemble inside componets, run through a rinse cycle to test for leaks and replace bottom panels.




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Suspecting the problem was a sticky gasket on the old detergent cup lid, I replaced the lid.
First remove the old lid by pushing one of the hinge pins (the one without a spring) out of the cylinder hole in the dishwasher door. Important: before completely removing the lid, note how the spring is installed on the other pin. Then, simply install the new lid and spring and push the non-spring pin back into the cylinder hole in the DW door.
My dishwasher now works fine! :-)

I was able to remove the old handle and place it on the new basket - using only a screw driver.

I removed the plastic retainer that held the lower spray arm in place. After removing the lower spray arm I was able to remove the 6 hex screws that held the cover over the filter screen and the discharge housing assembly. I was then able to remove the bolts that held the upper part of the discharge housing assembly, and replaced it with the new part that I received. The rest of the job was simply putting it back together.

Note: While repairing the broken part, I noticed a small leak under the machine around the float assembly. This was simple to fix. Remove the small lock ring on the bottom of the float. Pull the float out and clean the grease and soap scum out of it. Put it back in and attach the lock ring. No more leak and the water gets turned off when the float activates the switch. Something that everyone should check periodically.

I had two problems with the dishwasher. The top basket was loose, but the main problem was a plastic part inside the bottom assembly.

The part was backordered, so I re-ordered it through Sears. They said it would arrive in two days. Theirs came in two weeks, and their customer service was terrible.

Your "backordered" part came in two days, even before it was supposed to come had the part not been back ordered. I am delighted with your customer service and your company.

The illustrations on your website were excellent. They helped us not only to identify the part, but to diagnose the problem.

This was my first purchase through your company and if I ever need parts again, there is absolutely no reason to go anywhere else.

You have an excellent company, and great website! I bookmarked your page for future purchases.