LWS55AW-PLWS55AW Speed Queen Washer - Instructions

This was the second time for the repair. The original bearing lasted 5 years then became noisy. Replaced it, and the unit worked great 5 more years and the noise came back. So I knew exactly what needed fixing what to order, parts wise. This is not a project for the faint of heart, you will completely disassemble your washer to change out the main bearing. Roughly here are the steps: 1, pull out the agitator with a good firm jerk up. 2, remove the rubber plug in the center of the drive hub, 3 remove the bolt you have just exposed. 4, pry up on the hub, use a puller if you have to to remove it. 5, pry off the cone shaped rubber seal and remove the large main nut from the drive shaft. 6, remove the 4 bolts holding tub, 7 remove the front panel and unscrew the front of the top panel, tip the top up. 8, lift out the tub, 9, remove the 6 large springs holdig the inner assembly to the base, 10, disconnect the water to tank hose and the fill level hose, 11, disconnect the motor cable at the motor, 12, free up the drain hose and pull it, 13, have a helper lift the inner assembly out and move it to a work area, 14, unbolt the drum from the base, motor, and counter weight 15, pry the drive hub off the transmission shaft, 16, remove the rubber seal from the drum, 17 flip the drum and remove the 3 bolts holding the bearing in place. Reverse to put it back. These steps are from memory so they may not be exact. The exploded views on PartsSelect.com web help, as to the instructions that come with the parts.

Water was leaking on the floor during the wash cycle and especially during draining of the washer. I removed the front panel at ground level and watched while draining after a rinse.

I t was obvious that water was spraying from a hole in the rubber end of the hose (the hose is a fused assembly of a plastic section and a rubber section).

So, I finished draining, removed the hose (required pliers to squeeze off a hose clamp).

Upon inspecting the hose, it was also apparent that the hole was caused by rubbing against a support bracket for the motor. This should not happen, but it did because the plastic standoff supposed to keep the hose away from the bracket was installed 180 degrees backwards.

So, I simply replaced the hose and turned the bracket around to the correct orientation.

Everything worked as planned and my repair cost was much less than if I had called someone out.

Unplugged the washing machine and turned off the water to the machine. Removed the two front covers; unhooked the two front springs; removed the (4) motor mounting bolts; unhooked the two hoses for the water pump; unhooked the wiring harness; removed the belt from the driven pulley; pulled the motor assembly out; removed the (3) screws to separate the water pump from the motor; removed the belt from the motor pulley; installed new belt and repeated above in reverse to put everything back together; started washing machine and it worked great.

Removed the front of the washer, then lifted the top up and held it up with a prop. Pulled the agitator straight up and started the disasembly. Using the photos in the hub and seal kit was a big help. The large nut on the output shaft had to be cut off with my dremel tool and the hub removed with a wheeler puller. Assembly was pretty much straight forward. Primed the pump and started the machine for the stated time and was a sucess.

This is not a bad repair, but give yourself some time. I did not have to take the tranny and motor out, but the inner and outer tub and all related parts had to come out, along with the outer tub base. If you are replacing the tub bearing, you HAVE to order the seal kit. Don't try to skimp like I did, since you will need the seal kit as this is what causes that bearing to fail in the first place. We forgot how quiet the washer was after I fixed it, and it saved us from buying a new washer since we were ready to say the heck with it and buy a new pair. You might need an 1.5 inch socket to get the big nut off the spindle, but I was able to get with a visegrip and hammer. The nice thing about this repair is even if you screw it up, you won't have water all over the place because of the seal design. I just checked under the washer a few times for the first few weeks and all seems fine.

I first unplugged the washer. I removed the 2 screws that hold the front panel and removed the front panel, they are located at the very bottom outer edges of the front panel.
I then removed 4 of the large springs that are attached to the drum, this washer has six but I only removed the front 4. Removed the two hoses going to the water pump and drain hose, removed 4 bolts that attach the motor to its mounting bracket. Unplugged the wiring harnesses going to motor and what looks like a capacitor mounted to the side of the motor.Then I removed the drive belt. ( when the machine would first start to spin it would make a clacking noise which ended up being a chunk out the the drive belt causing the belt tenshioner to slap causing that noise and letting the drum spin during the wash cycle. So far very easy. I then removed the motor and when it is disconnected you can then remove the water pump. Three hex head bolts need to be removed and it pulls right off. I then removed the six bolts that hold the brake pads in place. I applied silicone grease to the new brake pads and installed them. The pad at the back of the drum was very hard to line up with the holes. I used a very small screwdriver to line up the disc brake mounting holes to get the bolts started and it worked fine. I then put it all back together and it works great. I have to add that I have been an auto mechanic for 28 years and not to brag but this is not your average repair job.

Took off the agitator, removed inner tub, exposing the hub drive. Found fusion between hub drive and agitator shaft. Rather than using a wheel puller as instructions recommended I got my masonry hammer and removed the drive hub in pieces. Removed debris from the tub. Installed sealant around lower seal as instructed. Re-assembled inner tub, agitator with new upper seal. Plugged in the washer, turned on the water. No leak. Happy happy.

After removing the agitator and drive bell by pulling on them HARD, I found that the lock nut and hub were corroded in place. I used grinding wheels to remove them which took over an hour. The internal and external threads needed to be cleaned up with tap and die and the splines had to be filed in order to get the new hub on the shaft. I did not use antiseize compound. The tub seal went on easily and the lock nut was guestimate torqued using a wrench made for water heater elements. The drive bell seal was very stubborn. It is normally pressed on with a special tool, but I had scrap pipe sections that fit the inner and outer press-points and used a large hammer to drive it into place. The washer does not leak any more. Total time was around four hours.

Remove the electrical power plug and disconnect the water hoses at the back. Remove the lower front panel by taking out the two screws at the bottom edge. Then lift out the upper front panel which exposes the two sheet metal screws holding down the top panel. Lift open the top panel and secure it up about 90 degrees so it doesn't flop over backwards. Twine tied to something overhead works fine. Replacement procedure for the valve is obvious, once exposed.

I did as the directions said that came with the kit. Except everything came off by hand until I got to the hub nut. Instead of waiting for another shipment and buying a tool I would have used once and never touched again I called SEARS and a technician came to my house because I did not have the hub nut hex wrench. He called it a spanner wrench. Once he used the tool to get off the nut I was in business. Until I had to put the nut back on. I ended up wrapping a towel around the end of a 12" adjustable crescent wrenc and litle by little smacked it with a hammer until the nut looked like it was all the way down. Just to put the nut back on my way took almost an hour alone. The directions said that a puller was needed to get off the adjutator shaft (unsure of correct name), but it came off with a little wiggleing. Once I put the new one on it would not budge off so a small puller would have been needed to remove it if I needed to again. And puting it back on was a chore in it self. I ended up using a hammer and 6" 1/2" drive extension with a 20 something MM socket on the end to force it down all the way. And the shat that the large seal goes over also requires a tool which is also not mentioned until you read the directions. I was able to twist and force on the new one with a little bit of included grease around the meeting surface. For the most part the directions were correct, but left out a bunch of nice to know things that the average person who is not mechnically inclined may not have figured out. Overall the whole procedd was pretty easy once all the tools were available. Suggestions I would make are to say in the advertisement of the seal kit that the Hub nut hex wrech (spanner wrench) and seal tool will be needed inorder to complete the removal and/ or installation. Which are sold seprately.

1st, I removed the top, back and side panels. Then removed the plastic parts off the top of the tubs. Next removed the agitator from it's hub. In the center of the agitator hub was a retaining bolt to be removed next using a 7/16" socket. Had to use a gear puller to get the agitator hub up off it's spline. Then there were four 1/2" socket size hex bolts to remove facilitating the removal of the inner stainless steel tub. Next was the toughest part of my task, the removal of the large hex nut holding the inner tub hub down. Since I did not have a socket large enough to fit the nut, I used a ball peen hammer to loosen it by striking it on it's hex flats in an angle that would tend to drive it in a CCW rotation. It took several blows but finally it began to loosen. Then removed it with my Channel Lock water pump pliers. Once the Inner tub hub was removed, the lower seal was accessible. Removed the old seal from the outer tub flange, and scraped off all the old sealant with a razor blade scraper. Then installed the new seal according to the instructions supplied with the new hub and seal kit. Re-assembled the washer, ran it through a cycle while it was still out in the garage to ensure the leak was fixed and was happy to find that indeed it was. Everything went fairly well if you overlook the slight cut on my right thumb I suffered while re-assembling the covers. It wasn't too bad, a band aid fixed it up.

I removed the front cover to gain access to the motor. I saw that the belt was starting to get chewed up so I removed it. While looking at the schematic on Parts.com I noticed the Idler Pulley Wheel was much larger then one currently on the machine. I ordered that also in case I needed it. I needed it. Once I replaced the belt and the pulley the machine ran better then ever. Originally I thought I just needed the belt but thanks to Parts.com I realized I needed a little more. Thanks.

I followed the instructions that came with the hub and seal kit, which were pretty well written but not terribly detailed. Once I got into the job though, I felt confident that the instructions told me all of the important information--the rest was common sense. If you're reasonably handy you can pull this off.

The instructions call for some specialty tools, which I was able to do without by using the following:

• Drive Bell:
The old drive bell slid right off without a puller--I think I got lucky on this one.

To install the new drive bell I used a long 1/4-20 bolt, nut and fender washers. I spun a nut way up the bolt then slid the fender washers on. I threaded all of this down into the transmission output shaft until it bottomed out. Then I turned the nut down to push the washers and drive bell down until it hit bottom. Then I backed out out the bolt and washers and installed the shoulder screw.

• Hub:
I used a generic wheel-puller I already had to get this off and it came off with little effort. I put the old shoulder screw back into the top of the shaft for the point of the puller to sit on so it wouldn't mess up the transmission output shaft or threads (obvious, I know but a bad thing to overlook).

Drive Bell Seal:
• This calls for seal tool #293P4. I'm sure the seal can be installed by hand but it happened that the two extension tubes from my Shop-Vac were exactly the right diameters to seat the bottom and top parts of the seal.

• Lint filter:
The instructions just say "remove lint filter" but it was pretty stuck on and seems pretty fragile so I took it easy. I used a small scrap of 1/8-inch plywood to slide under the edge until it popped off.

The instructions say not to use the four rubber washers on the bolts that attach the inner tub to the hub if the machine has a stainless tub. Mine has a stainless tub and the original bolts had rubber washers on them so I used the new washers when i reinstalled the inner tub.

I found the 3M-800 Scotch Seal industrial sealant at a local appliance pats distributor. I researched it and it seemed like a specific enough product that it wasn't worth risking the whole job to use something I already had like Lexel. I learned that the reason it doesn't come with the kit is that it requires Haz-Mat handling, which would probably double the cost of the parts kit. One set of instructions I read from Maytag said that "the customer can use the machine after 15 minutes". But the sealant tube says it fully cures in 1 - 3 days. So I squirted out a ribbon on a piece of paper when I did the job so I could monitor the drying time and split the difference, allowing it to dry overnight. Seems as though that's long enough.

I did the job step-by-step and it seems to have worked. The first load is running right now and so far it's dry as a bone.

One thing I noticed is that some of the parts seem to have been updated over the original ones to improve performance. The drive bell and associated seal have a more sophisticated mating relationship that seems as though it will provide a better seal than the original.

Good luck

I searched "sav2655aww repair" (my model number) on the internet, and found people who had the same problem - and did the same repair. Some put up very detailed instructions.
Anyway, with instruction, it was a pretty easy job. Remove the front panels, disconnect the hoses from the water pump, unplug the electrical connector from the motor, remove the 4 bolts that hold the motor mount, and slip off what was left of the belt. To replace the belt, I also needed to temporarily remove the water pump (3 torx screws) from the motor, because the belt snaked in between those two parts. Once replaced, I remounted the motor, slipped the belt over the main wheel (under the tub), set the belt tension wheel to take up the slack, and reattached the hoses and wires. Surprisingly, the belt replacement took care of the noise (the whole unit would sway out and repeatedly hit the front panel during a wash - I suppose it wasn't agitating or spinning correctly). Works like new.

Unplug washer, turn off water supply, disconnect hoses from washer valve(have bucket ready for water remaining in hoses), Remove bottom front panel by unscrewing two hex head screws near floor then pulling panel toward you and down, remove top front panel same as bottom to expose screws securing washer top, lift washer top and prop open or tilt back onto counter(hold washer lid when tilting back). The inlet valve is on the back right. Label and unplug wires, unscrew hose clamp and remove hose, go to back of washer and unscrew plate holding valve and remove. Mount new valve to plate and fasten from back of washer, reconnect hose and wiring, close cover and fasten screws, replace front covers and secure, reconnect water supply hoses(do not over tighten), turn on water and plug in washer.