I ordered the spin bearing replacement kit and the recommended tool. I recruited a friend of mine to help me. By the way, we are both women, (age 63 & 55) our husbands were not available to do the job and I (the 63 yr old) was adamant about not calling a repair man! I had never repaired a washing machine before but I have done other repair jobs, I like a challenge and with all the YouTube videos available I felt confident that we could do the job. We watched 3 videos total, one would skip a step and another would not explain things so we could understand it. One video showed to put lubricant on the bearings and another did not. (We did put lubricant on them.) The most difficult step was getting the tub out - when the video says to use a 2x4 board with the jack, don’t use a 1x4, it will break. When the video says not to tighten the bolt too tight don’t tighten it too tight - it will break. One video said to put the BOTTOM bearing on the tool, then put the washer on the tool, (instead of putting the washer in by itself under the spacer) then put these parts on the all-thread of the tool. This will keep the washer straight - this worked perfectly. The spacer was actually off center but the shaft straightened it without needing to re-do that step. We could have used a little more muscle doing some of the repair but we managed. It took us about 8 hours but 3 hours of that was was searching for tools and cutting the 2x4 to use to get the tub out. If we had to do it again I think we could do it in 2 hours or less! My machine purrs like a kitten now!
I used my previous Maytag washer and dryer for 18 years then passed it on to a young married couple. Not sure if it is still working for them or not. I was a little surprised when I had problems with my current machine that is only 4 years old. BUT the first machine was used for 2 people and my current one was used doing laundry for 12 people for the past 6 months. Two families (our good friends) lost EVERYTHING in Harvey (the flood), therefore my machine was used every day! I am very pleased with my Maytag Bravos XL washer and dryer AND I am very pleased that we were able to repair it WITHOUT calling on the repair man or our husbands!!