MAH6500AWW Maytag Washer - Instructions

Off with the door. Off with the front panel. Lift the top and you are looking at the boot. Remove the boot retaining wire . Remove the boot and reverse the procedure. It's a snap.

Wow! Thanks to the customer info/hints already posted the repair went super smooth and was relatively easy to accomplish. $70.00 for an easily replaced part sure beats $1,000+ for a new washer. Super fast shipping reduced down-time significantly!!! From start to finish the job took less than 30 minutes. Thank you so much.

Basic disassembly as described earlier.Some tips I found helpfull. Use vice grip pliers on spring.it will keep a grip on the spring hook and you can exert more force to pull the spring.Th bellows was very sticky and hard to slip into place. I put a litle silicone lube ( stuff you use for pool pump gaskets )on the bellows. It made it slip into place easly.

Despite the reviews by people who installed this part themselves, I knew that any type of repair was beyond my ability. I enlisted the assistance of a cousin who is a trained, professional appliance repairman. Despite not having instructions, with his experience things went well until he found he did not have the unique wrench that would have made life easier, but he was able to adapt and use the tools he had at hand. Unfortunatley, after more than twos hours attempting to install the wire around the boot, he realized that he could not do it alone, I had to help him and together, we were able to install the wire. It would have been helpful to have step by step instructions and a list of necessary (or at least useful) tools.

Download machine service manual from internet. This makes dismantling easy and prevents damage to component parts.

Dismantle as per manual and remove old bellow - easy.

Re-install new bellow on tub rim - EXTREMELY difficult. The spring that tensions the wire that holds the bellow in place is extremely powerful and in attempting to stretch it it often slips off the tub rim taking the bellow with it so you have to start all over again. It took me 2 hours to realise I would never be able to do this alone. With the help of a second pair of hands this was accomplished in 20 mins with some difficulty.
The rest of the installation and re-assembly was done without difficulty.

Removed the door and front panel with ease. Then came the spring and cable. People who say it was easy are not telling the whole story. Removing the spring was okay except for it flew across the room. Putting the new cable on with a pair of needlenose pliers did not work for me. I had to get a spring tool like you use on brakes on a car. Once I had the tool and secured the cable in place with a piece of wire I got the spring on. Everything except the spring took about 15 minutes.

Follow the suggestions on the rope tied to the side of the washer, then mechanically lever the spring open. Only change I would incorporate is using a block of wood to keep the wash drum from moving over as you pull on the rope to open the spring up. GREAT AND EASY FIX!

removed the door &the top took the tightener off the bellow took old one out put new one on and clean all parts and put it back together works like a new one love it.

Set my iPad on the dryer and played the video. Could not have done it without it. Putting spring back on was the hardest, fell off once. Took that long because video connection timed out and had to get another coffee. Part delivery was quick. Found the drain tube out of the bellows was clogged. If it wasn't for the mildew on the bellows could havw fixed the problem if I had known about a drain at the bottom of the bellows.

Parts Select suggested the fix with a 99% rating that it was the drain pump motor. When I got the old pump out it was clearly not working. It took 4 days to get the part, but after getting the part it was just plug and play.

Basically the problem was the bearing replacement. Although you cant get them on PartsSelect, I got the seal kit on the site. The seal kit is easy, the bearings took two days and an air hammer to extract them and a big hammer to get them back in. All in all it was worth it,

I followed the video for the installation. I did find that installing the spring was no way as easy as it looked in the video. Otherwise, OK.

Had to remove the door, the face of the washer, and two face pieces between the washer and the stacked drier. I then removed and replaced the bellow. The installation of the new bellow was difficult, the first time. Getting the silicone part onto the tub is tricky as is re-installing the cable and spring. I must have not gotten the cable properly seated on the lower lip as it leaked and I hade to repeat the job the next day. The second time around was much easier. There is a learning curve, even for me, a retired electro mechanical tech. I thing someone who is not very handy would have trouble with it. This repair should be considered only by someone of intermediate or better skills.

Moldy bellow was the reason I replaced the bellow. It tried cleaning the bellow numerous time over the last five year, but once the mold sets in, it's a losing battle. A highly mold resistant bellow would be nice. The available video was invaluable. I would not have purchased the parts if I had not seen the video. I spent a few more dollars for additional parts, because once I got started I did not want to find a bad part and then not be able to complete the repair in one try. Since the bellow was moldy, I expected the door boot drain hose would be moldy also, so, for a few more dollars, I replace it also. Worth the effort. I took me, just under two hours to complete the job, with the help of my wife. I'm some may be thinking, what did she do? She cleaned the parts I took off, so they were clean, well at least cleaner, when I put them back on. This washer was nearly ten year old and had never been apart. I could have finished the replacement bellow in less than an hour, but I took some time to clean inside the washer while it was apart. That's just the way I roll. Fitting the bellow to seal properly was not as simple as the repairman made it look on the video, but that was because he had done this before, probably many time over. He knew what it felt like to fit it and snap it into place. Once I got the feel of seating the bellow, it went smoothly. The boot cable and spring are a bit tricky to hook, as anticipated; I read some previous experiences. So, I thought about how I was going to secure the spring in order to stretch it to the other cable hook. I decided to use two pairs of vice grips to hold the spring and cable hook end. I have two small to medium sized vice grips, which worked perfectly. Otherwise, it is very difficult to pull and hold a pair of pliers closed, at the same time. I sit at a computer most days and am not used to a mechanics world. Use your brain when you don't have the brawn. Job done, no leaks.

On-line instructions were found easily enough. And followed easily. Hard part was placing the cable and spring which secures bellow on drum. One instruction said "you cannot do this by yourself" (I couldn't see how help would have "helped") the other said "this was the hard part" of repair. I weight 115 lbs and it took me 1/2 hour to finally get the spring hooked through cable end it's a very STIFF spring! I only had a short pair of needle nose pliers - an 8-inch pair would have given me more leverage and shorten "hook-up" time.