Kenmore 500 washer wont agitate.
Originally posted as solution to Kenmore 24992300 failure to agitate and loud whirring noise during spin cycle.... Hope this helps:The problem as I noticed it was that the washer would start making a
super high-pitched and very loud whirring noise during the spin cycle,
and that when I would open the lid, the drum would not be spinning, but
when I would close the lid, the drum would start spinning. I was okay
with this during that load but after reading here and taking it apart, I
realized what had happened:The agitator dogs are supposed to
have a 3-toothed profile on each one, but they become worn over time due
to being made of a soft plastic. The dogs should "throw out" into an
inner ring gear during normal operation, turning the entire drum. But
when they became worn enough to slip, they would still throw out,
grinding them at very high speed into the inner ring gear. Since they
are made of a softer plastic than the gear, they were just getting more
and more worn. I assume the way this was supposed to fix itself
was that when the outer tooth on the dog became worn, the next one would
engage, but that didn't happen.Because the dogs are made of
such a soft plastic, I was able to cut a new tooth profile into each
one, so that when they were put back in they would function correctly.
It takes very little effort and a few minutes with an x-acto knife to
cut the right profile.I'm going to buy the replacement dogs,
which being a manufacturer substitute will hopefully be made with a
better tooth profile, from harder plastic, or both.As another
note, who knows how long the dogs weren't engaged correctly during
agitation, causing clothes to sit without really being washed, but
without the high pitched air raid siren. So probably a good idea to
replace or repair them immediately, even if you can get it to work
intermittently.