Lg AEN73131406 Drive Shaft And Shifter Assembly OEM Part

Our LG WT5001 top loader washer had gotten progressively worse over the last couple years. It started with a rumbling sound with seal squeaking noise. The rumbling kept getting worse until finally there is a metal on metal scraping sound. The bearings in the clutch/transmission were worn out to the point that the direct drive motor rotor (what you see when you turn the washer on it's back and look underneath) was rubbing on the motor stator core. The bearings were worn out and allowing the magnets in the drum to scrape on the metal stator core poles. There was no damage yet, and no leakage, so I bought the "Housing Assembly/Clutch" here and followed the excellent YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa6_ViM3xug and replaced it. It took me longer than a professional but the job was easy. The part was a perfect factory replacement and the washer works like new again, quiet and smooth. My only concern was that the part was mailed with poor packaging, loose in the box and the shafts punched holes in it during shipping. I was worried that the shafts might have been bent in shipping, but it wasn't and the drum and motor run true, smooth and quiet with no wobble. I had all the tools to do the job except the 38mm socket which I bought at an auto parts store. All tools required were typical, except the impact tool to remove the tub hub nut. My advice is to wear hearing protection when you remove that nut using the impact drive. The impact sound inside the tub is deafening. Also a torque wrench is needed to tighten the motor nut to 88 ft-lb, and a variable speed drill driver will save you a lot of wrenching.

Replaced clutch assembly. The agitator plate came off easily for me, but the big 38mm nut holding the inner tub to the axel was seized up and difficult to remove. I first tried using a pipe wrench and striking it with a small sledge as in the videos, then tried with a 12" adjustable and the sledge, but could not get it to budge. I ended up going out and buying a 38mm socket (note that most of these are 3/4 inch drive sockets... make sure you have one or buy an adapter to save you another trip back to the hardware store like me), but couldn't get it to move with the socket and a 1/2 drive wrench either. I ended up bringing in my compressor and a 1/2 inch impact wrench and it came right off. I had almost given up and was shocked when it started turning. Besides the couple hours wasted on trips to the store and spending about 30 mins trying different things to get that nut off, the most time-consuming part of the whole thing was the cleaning. The inside of the plastic outer tub, the stainless inner tub, and pretty much everything else in there was *nasty* even though I do bleach loads, run vinegar, and the tub clean packets pretty regularly. Though it took a couple of hours, the best part about doing this yourself is that you can clean everything up really nice. Knowing that the water I washed my clothes in for the last 9 years was mixing with all that sludge and mildew grosses me out. It's one of those things I was probably better off not knowing but at least now I know it's clean! It was a good half day project with all the cleaning and trips to the HW store, but it sounds like new now and is working great. Thanks for all the tips and help in the videos and reviews.

Here is where I have to caution you the videos are great but not all LGs are the same. The part fit great but here is what I found. To start off taking the the top off, it is shown in the video to slip a putty knife to release the clips that hold the front edge of the top and they show that those clips are steel and that is what I did. Not on mine (an Model WT8401CW Product Code: T1024ADF.ABWEEUS) this has plastic clips and work by taking out the two rear screws in the back then lifting the top slightly in the back and sliding the top forward towards the front super easy if you know that. Unfortunately I did not know that and ended up breaking one of the plastic clips. So be careful and look for the screws in the back of the top first and take them out and try to slide it forward it could save you a lot of time and headache. everything else went as expected per the video however upon reassembly is where I ran into another issue and that is the Rotor Assembly (the part with all the permanent magnets on the motor) This had some debris in it that I did not see or even look for and after reassembly and a test run there were some noises coming from the rotor so after taking it back apart I discovered the debris. Because the magnets are very strong it is difficult to clean it out because just blowing it with compressed air did not work because the magnet was holding the debris inplace. I ended up using a small precision screwdriver and a small thin piece of aluminum (Remember this is magnetic and steel tools are hard to control when near the magnets) to coax the debris to the surface from in between and around the magnets and then use a stiff brush (Plastic) to remove them along with my fingers. It does work ok now and have run a load or two through the washer. As far as tools I had to borrow an impact to get the common nut off and buy a 38mm socket but all the other tools I had already. I would do this again if needed and save hundreds of dollars doing this myself. it would be nice to have a video on how best to clean the rotor and maybe one that warns about taking the top off because had I known about the two screws and that the top will just slide off I could have saved half an hour in this process.

We took the washer apart. and used the online videos (very helpful)! Used the diagram to figure out what to order. Parts came quickly and were packaged well. We put the new pulsator assembly and housing assembly in. Put all the rest of the parts back together and everything is working great! We really were grateful for the help ; )

I was able to diagnose the problem very quickly by searching the forums and videos online. I found a YouTube video for the LG top load washing machine (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZKgP6hu8Fk). I was amazed at finding this video and the relative simplicity of the LG machine. I was then able to dis-assemble the machine in my garage and remove the part in question with relative ease. I should note that I had to use an electric impact wrench to remove and install two nuts. There is a 38 mm nut holding the drum to the top of the clutch housing and a 25 mm nut holding the magnetic rotor to the bottom of the clutch housing. I should also note that I found the bottom 25mm nut to be loose (hand tight) on my machine (I had never taken this machine apart until now - a possible factory assembly defect??). The machine is repaired and back in service - the wife is happy again...