Do-It-Yourself Story

I replaced the broken drive belt first and noticed the drive pulley loose. The nut that had held it in place had backed off. This resulted in significant wear on the pulley hub. I just tightened it up and installed the belt. I noticed the belt had a tendency to change its position on the pulley depending on the direction of rotation. I was a bit concerned but decided to see what would happen. This fix lasted for about a week. The belt came off the pulley and broken again. I called a repairman to inspect the drum bearing. He told me that the washer could not be repaired and told me to come to his shop and look at new machines. He tried to sell me both a washer and dryer because my machines were apparently junk and that I was lucky to get seven years of service out of them. I declined his offer as do not have a money tree in my yard. I then purchased a new pulley and belt (which is what I should have done the first time). The only problem I ran into was installing the pulley. The drive shaft flats had been a bit deformed. A couple of quick passes with a file took care of this. Then it was just a few taps with a plastic hammer and it was on. You need to be careful when tapping the pulley as this will bias the drum forward and it may make some noise when you rotate the drum. One tug towards the back of the machine and the correct alignment was restored. The machine has been running flawlessly and I saved myself $1,4000.