How to Troubleshoot & Replace Whirlpool AP6014843 / WPW10074580 Washer Agitator Inner Cap

The upper agitator was moving freely and an obvious repair was needed.. A simple search revealed the part needed, (dogs) I decided to replace a few other parts as well.. (dust cap seal, agitator dog assembly/kit, though the cap itself wasn't needed, nor the dog assembly as they were in good condition but the minimal price difference determined my purchase) I still did laundry while waiting for the part, not a big deal in my mind, just perhaps slightly less efficient but not a detriment to the cloths.. A single bolt holds everything together and it couldn't be easier to access the damaged part. ***If you have the model with the 4 white tabs holding the upper and lower agitators together, don't worry so much about them.. 2 will likely break even though I used a small flat screwdriver to pry them back a little.. mine were melted/fused from manufacturing, but the bolt and washer will hold everything together when you reassemble..*** It took me 3 times longer to clean the parts than it did to simply replace the part, but take the time to clean the agitators, now is your opportunity and you will feel good looking at bright clean agitators for many loads to come.. The new dust cap was actually a slightly thicker plastic than the original so the fabric softener cap wouldn't click into place, not a big deal (I ended up using the original cap with the new seal) As soon as I assembled the parts I could feel the new dogs working which resulted in a nice money saving smile!.. Reassembled the agitator stack and began testing it out.. Finding the parts I needed, instructional videos, and online chat help is why I love APP and fixing my own equipment.. This is one repair that may seem more complicated than it actually is.. you can do it!!.. 

Installed new agitator 

I purchased the parts from Appliance Parts Pro, and then followed the simple method shown in the repair video provided on this website. I appeared like a pro to my wife because it took me less than five minutes to do, because I knew what tools and steps to take (thanks to the AppliancePartsPro video.) Agitator works great! 

Disassembled and confirmed the clutch was bad. Also noticed a slight leak from the transmission shaft seal. Ordered replacement clutch, seal and oil from appliancepartspros.com. The parts arrived very quickly and exactly as ordered. Their repair videos were very accurate and made the job easy. I accomplished a quality repair at a reasonable cost. My thanks to the folks at appliancepartspros.com for making it possible! 

Used your video and removed agitator and found dogs totally missing. Replaced dogs using agitator repair kit, replaced inner cap and rubber washer and thrust washer. Filter plugs on my old unit do not come out. They seem to be attached from underneath the basket. I called and one of your techs spent 20minutes with me trying to figure out the problem. He consulted an older tech who said that the filters may indeed be attached from the bottom of the basket and the new ones would not fit. All that and I still had not solved the problem. I was not about to attempt the basket removal. I scratched one of the filters and realized that they were covered in matted lint. A scrub brush to each filter did the trick. All the lint removed. Wife happy. Very satisfied. 

Put in new parts after cleaning dispenser well in agitator column. Easy to do but takes some care to bottom out the inner cap assembly to keep the three distribution holes totally uncovered . All went well. 

Had to destroy old top and bottom agitators in order to expose the rusted and rounded center bolt holding it on because normal socket on extension did not work. I bought a bolt/nut extractor kit in order to remove the center bolt. After removing the bolt, I was able to install a new thrust washer, agitator assembly, bolt, and dust cap. I am a retired appliance repair person. This may have been a little too challenging a job for the average home owner to do considering the difficulty of the repair. 

I started by removing the old agitator, which was more difficult than it should have been because the head of the bolt had rusted badly. A 7/16" socket would not grab the bolt, so I had to use the next smaller metric size to remove it. Taking the agitator apart revealed several suspicious parts so I decided to just order a complete replacement. It only took a few minutes to replace the agitator, now that I knew how to remove the old one. I have one suggestion for AppliancePartsPros to consider. All of the parts arrived in a box but the replacement agitator has a few parts at the top that fell out of the top and were loose in the box. Fortunately, nothing was lost, but something bad could have easily happened. I suggest putting a wad of paper in the top of the agitator in the future. This should keep the loose parts from falling out. One thing that was not a pleasant surprise for me was how expensive the agitator grease is. A small container is almost $27. It seems to me that this ought to be $5 or less, but perhaps this is an area where the manufacturer makes some big bucks. Anyway, dealing with AppliancePartsPros was easy (I have done it before) and I would recommend them to everyone! 

Replaced the complete agitator assembly. 

Replaced the two filter plugs and the inner cap.