There is a tiny possibility that the motor has seized. To test this possibility, remove the top of the machine and take the drive belt off. If the drum now spins easily but you can't turn the motor spindle by hand then the motor has siezed, if the drum is still stiff but you can turn the spindle of the motor by hand then the drum is siezed. A replacenemt motor will probably set you back around £100 ($170) this may make the machine a write off. Worst still, and I'm sorry to say, far more likely is that the main bearings in the drum have broken down and siezed. The smell is from the motor buring out as it tries, and fails to turn the siezed drum (or siezed motor bearings). Under normal circumstances, to test
your bearings, open the door of the machine and by putting a little lifting
pressure on the top of the inner drum, attempt to rock the stainless steel
inner drum up and down. The outer
drum is mounted on springs and shock absorbers, so it will rock about (and it
should do this) but the inner drum should not move up and down in relation to
the outer drum. There should be ABSOLUTELY NO PLAY between the 2 drums, even
the tiniest amount will mean the bearings have failed. Having said this, if your bearings have siezed, there may be no play in the drum because they are jammed solid. If the bearings have siezed, then other symptoms that have been leading up to the failure will typically include: A
clonking noise as you lift and release the inner drum (this is the inner drum
rattling on its bearings and/or hitting the outer drum), but as I say, with siezed bearings, this may not be the case. You will
have become aware of the spin cycle becoming far noisier recently and possibly
even a grinding crunching noise when the machine spins. A leak
from under the machine, which you will probably be able to trace to the back of
the machine, coming from the centre of the drum. This is a result of the
failing bearing allowing water to escape through the seal at the rear. If it is the main bearing (and I can't imagine any other cause other than the motor its self seizing) then this
is NOT a job for the uninitiated DIY enthusiast as it will mean stripping the machine
and removing the drum from the chassis, splitting it, removing pressed in
bearings and then sourcing and re-fitting new bearings. To
be frank, the cost of a bearing set (if they are replaceable, and most are)
will be about £20 ($30) or so. But it's a long and horrible job if you haven't
done it before. I know professionals who claim they can do a bearing change in
under an hour, I've done a few and it takes me about 2 hours by the time I
When you turn the stiff drum by hand, it may not only be stiff, but you may be aware of a grinding crunching noise that you can also feel transmitting through the drum as you turn it at the same time (the broken bearing catching up on smashed bits as you turn the drum)
Testimonial: "thanks for your reply very interesting read think we are going to cut our losses and get a new machine had this 4yrs and its used practically every"
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