ALW540RMW-PALW540RMW1 Amana Washer - Instructions

to replace the seals is the easier part of the job. I Removed the front panels and removed the front screws for the top and opened up. Then you have to remove the agitator, then the bell plug, the bolt holding the bell along with the bell, then the 1-1/2" nut under that. then slide the plastic washer that fits into the splne. to remove the drum you have to remove the plastic top to the drum assembly. Then you can remove the drum along with the along with the alumunum splined hud that is atrtached the the metal drum. Before removing the drum the seal under the plastic washer mentioned above needs to be removed. once the drum is out you can in bolt the aluminum splined hub from the metal drum. The outer plastic drum has a seal that is glued and slides over the vertical flange. The glue is not included in the kit. once the botom seal is installed. install the new aluminum splined hub to the metal drum. install lower seal to botom of the splined hub. reinstall the hub. once the large nut and plastic spined washer is installed. The top seal neds to tapped onto the hub agian with an object that matches the dia. of the seal flange. the n install the bell, nut ans plug. The bell does not like to align to the splined shaft, do not force it. reinstall the agitor an assemble the rest.

Biggest trick is getting the agitator off. It seems like it is bolted on. I used a piece of braided cotton cord to run under both sides of the agitator and just pulled real hard. It WILL pop off.

Next the old seal will also seem to be attached. The edge is firm but not bolted. A small prybar will help.

Easy repair to do, but it did not fix my problem. I decided to get a new washer rather than go through further disassembly.

remove agitator then remove center bolt from hub, match bolt with longer bolt so that gear puller will work. install bolt and gear puller and twist top of gear puller until hub is removed. remove old seal ,use sand cloth or emery cloth to remove all deposits from shoulder. make it shinny, use some dawn dishwashing soap to line the inside of the new seal at the bottom and slide into place.take a piece of 2" PVC about 4" long and slide over the top of the seal and tap with a rubber hammer until seal is seated firmly on shoulder. look to see that there are no gaps with a inspection mirror or a make-up mirror.If their are no gaps ,install the hub and tap on the new hub with the rubber hammer. the hub will not seat all the way down so use the old bolt to pull it down, now take out the old bolt and install the new one, this is because the new one has lock tite on it ,your done!

Screw broke lose in agitator from drive bell stripped (plastic) for transmission gear. Received new Drive Bell and had to lightly cut out old from Agitator housing with saws all, cleaned years of soap build up on steel spline with wire grinder, lubed the Drive Bell inter and pounded on to spline gear with rubber mallet, I thought a bit too much force but what the heck I landed to the same bearing point as before. Work Out Great.

We promptly received the part and easily installed it with no tools. We had an excellent experience. We found the old fabric softener dispenser after installing the new one. Now, we have two.

Found out that these switches go from time to time and are usually the culprit when the washer won't operate. Opened the cabinet facing. Warning: there are plenty of YouTube videos on opening Maytag washers. None helped me with this model. I ended up finding the screws to open near the floor on front. Once it's opened, just replace the faulty switch, reconnect and you're in business. Getting the washer opened was about the hardest part of this repair. Total cost: Less than $30.

We did not have instructions on how to remove broken agitator. Looking online, we found easy instructions but found it difficult to remove the agitator even though it was supposed to be an easy task.
Our particular model was supposed to "pop" off with little resistance. Not so!
It took some stong muscle and will power to remove the part but putting the new agitator on was simple.

Since the agitator and bell housing seperated as once piece from the drive shaft I didn't have to remove them and the schematic showed how the agitator snapped on to the bell housing and the parts I needed for the fix. The new seal went on with no problem, I just used some of the supplied grease on the tight spots. The hardest part was attaching the bell housing. It came to within an inch of the top of the shaft with no problem with a rubber hammer. But the top screw shroud broke when I tried to hammer it the rest of the way using a wood dowel and a block of wood. I couldn't even get the threads of the supplied screw to even touch the drive shaft. So I bought a longer (1 inch) cap screw from the hardware store and added a washer and suplied ring. After torqing it to 5 ft-lbs instead of the 10-20 the plastic beneath the screw was looking kind of thin and stressed and I was afraid of it breaking through or the screw snapping off in the shaft, so I left it alone and used some silicone caulk to seal in the plug that goes in on top of the screw since the side of the shroud broke off. I slipped on the agitator and am testing a load now as we speak. If I get ten more years out of the washer it will definitely be worth the $100 in parts and shipping !