Washing machines are essential part of every home and it is very important to have a functional washing machine at all times. If you have kids then you know that your washing machine is doing at least one load of laundry (if not two or three) every day. If your washing machine stops, the repair is at least 150 $ (because this is the price of most simple repair) and the pile of laundry is getting bigger every day of waiting for someone to come to repair it. In this article we will show you how to repair the most common thing on washing machine with direct drive.

washing machine

Before we continue with the explanation of the repair we will cover the basics first. Almost everybody knows that there are two types of machines when the position of the loading door is concerned, there are top loading washing machines and front loading washing machines. Top loading machines are popular in the USA, while in Europe front loaders takes majority of the market. Also there are two main types of transmission when it comes to washing machines, the belt system and the direct drive. The difference is that on the direct drive the drum is directly run by the motor and on the belt system machines the rubber belt transfers the motor power to the drum.

direct drive

By our opinion the direct drive system is much better solution because there are less noise and vibration than with the belt system. Because of that most of the new washing machines have the direct drive system and because of that we will show you how to repair the most common problem with direct drive washing machines, the motor coupling. The motor coupling consist of two plastic flanges and one flexible rubber coupling. The most common thing is the broken flange but the couplings come in sets for under 10$ a set and it is better to replace the whole set.

motor coupling

In the video below you will see how to disassemble the top loading washing machine with direct drive and how to replace the motor coupling. If you have front loading washing machine with direct drive the system is the same only the motor is on the rear side.

Required tools:

1. spare motor coupling

2. screwdriver

3. pliers

4. claw hammer

5. tubular box wrench spanner

Video source: appliancemike