Completely stuck removing bearing from WP Duet - help!

[Kerry Byron]

Okay, so long story short, I got a 'broken' Whirlpool Duet washer from my friend, and he said all it needs is to remove the bearing and replace it (not sure how he knew that, psychic I guess).  So we fire up this here video and follow it to a T.  Perfect, no problems until we remove the plastic tub surround, flip it over and try to knock out the tub and bearing/shaft combo.  Aaaaand, nothing happens.  We follow directions perfectly, but do a few more things like remove every possible piece of crappy old ball bearings and mangled metal rings, etc, and also painstakingly use a mallet/screwdriver combo to tap exactly on the parts of the bearing without smashing the whole thing.  We are careful, we try every suggestion we can find.  It finally goes down, centimeters at a time, over many hours.

So, right now the bearing is stuck around maybe 4cm down past the metal surround attached to the plastic casing.  And it's just not moving.  I finally caved and sprayed the whole thing with WD40 to see if it could loosen something.  Then we just switched to a sledge hammer and screwdriver to just muscle the thing out of it.  We did this super carefully, no stripping or denting.  And it just won't drop through.

Okay, so do we keep at it?  Knowing we have basically tried everything (it's up on the buckets, we whacked it with the wood and sledge, we cleaned out the inside, etc.) we can think of.  I guess the main question is if we keep going at it with the screwdriver and sledge, where should we apply the most force, to the outer or inner rings on the bearing?  We don't really know what the whole thing looks like, so it's hard to troubleshoot.  And basically we have been doing that for a while and it's no longer moving, even centimeters at a time.

This was a really great deal and we would love to be able to replace the bearing and get on with it, but this puppy won't drop out.  And all my clothes are dirty!

Any help or suggestions past the regular 'put it up on buckets and use a piece of wood', since we are passed that step at this point, would be completely awesome.  Thanks so much for this site!

[Jerrod Sessler]

Kerry,

I am sort of confused.  Do you have the shaft out and you are trying to remove the bearings or are you still trying to get the shaft out?  I will start with that and respond in more detail to what I think it may be next.

Jerrod

[Jerrod Sessler]

Kerry,

It if is the shaft you are still trying to get out, let me explain the problem...  You are getting TOO MUCH BOUNCE through the plastic housing and the buckets you have it sitting on.  You need to put the edges of the plastic housing on something really solid like some wood blocks or something even harder but make sure to protect the surface so it doesn't damage the plastic housing.

Additionally, the screwdriver should be tossed across the garage because that is not the right tool.  You get way too much deflection and bounce, etc.  You need something solid to stick down there.  A good option would be a heavy piece of steel pipe or shaft. Or, take a 1/2" socket drive extension with a heavy socket about the size of the shaft or a little smaller.  Then get a sledge and pound it out.

WD40 is a good option but a penetrating oil would be much better.  Note... Make sure that you are not supporting the clothes basket that is connected to the other end of the shaft.  It should be hanging freely so it can move down as you pound the shaft out.

Jerrod

On Wednesday, November 7, 2012 8:23:55 PM UTC-8, Kerry Byron wrote:

[Kerry Byron]

Yes, it's the shaft we are still trying to have drop through.  We will take your suggestions and give those a shot tomorrow for sure.  I thought of the bounce factor, but thought, how much bounce can the buckets actually have?  A lot I guess, lesson learned!  

Thank you so much, I cannot say how helpful your video and this site has been.  I talked to some appliance repair places and not only would they not help me with anything I tried myself, but they said the bearing seal and bearings could not be replaced, the only option was to replace the whole thing for around $600.  Well, this single mom does not have $600 laying around, so your help is invaluable.  Plus taking stuff apart is fun:)

Thanks again, I'll try your suggestions and hopefully we can pound it out.

KB

[Jerrod Sessler]

GOOD FOR YOU KERRY!  I am proud of you.  Ping me if you have more problems.

Jerrod

[Kerry Byron]

One more quick question that I forgot last night is that for a while it seemed like everything was moving smoothly, but then it just stopped moving at all.  What are we actually hitting?  Or is it just stuck inside the shaft?  It's just hard to picture.  Setting up in a bit here to try one more time to get it to release!  Thanks so much.

[Jerrod Sessler]

Kerry,

One thing I thought of this morning is that you could have the shaft cocked a bit which is preventing it from moving.  In other words, it is a little bit sideways.  So, flipping it over and pulling the drum side to side may help release it a bit.  Just be very careful not to pull on the inside of the drum too much.  I have heard of one case where guys were standing on the housing and pulling on the drum and deformed the inside drum and ruined it by doing this.  It is ok to gently put something between the drum and the outer housing to try to push it side to side a bit and straighten up the shaft if it is cocked over.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Jerrod

[Kerry Byron]

Okay, so I did everything you suggested and I can't get it to drop even a half a centimeter.  Man, so frustrating.  The entire tub appears to be loose, it moves all over the place, rotates fully (Short video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlG399JHrTw&feature=youtu.be ).  The inside bearings do too.  It is just somehow stuck and will not let go:(  

Any other suggestions before I take it out to the curb?  I hate to give up when we seem to be so close, but if a sledge hammer can't get it to budge, I'm not sure what else to do!  Your help is so appreciated, thanks for sticking with me.

KB

[Kerry Byron]

I suppose I should offer any of the parts off this one to other folks on here, it's perfect except for getting the tub separated!  So close yet so far...  :(

[Mosfetman]

Kerry, 

Don't give up yet. What part of the country are you in? Maybe one of us thats close to you can help. 

I removed my bearings by propping the tank assembly on a truck wheel (no tire) laying on a piece of plywood. It supports the entire assembly really well and makes for a stable work environment. 

Using a 16" length of pipe and a hammer, just slide the pipe in and "hug" the hub to ensure that you are just tapping the race of the bearing. If your bearings are stuck, visuall inspect which side is high so you can start hitting the opposite side. Once you are unstuck, just go around and hit the race every inch or so...

I am assuming that you have removed the retaining ring..

In the event that you do scrap the project, I need a new pulley and could use a good spider...mine is heavily patched. 

Let's hope someone is close to you and can help. I'm in the dallas area. 

Jerry

[Jerrod Sessler]

Kerry,

It will come out.  The reason it is spinning is because the inner bearing is still engaged.  Verify that the drum is hanging freely when you are pounding it out.  In other words, only the plastic should be supported around the edges.  You can pound on anything you want inside the shaft area.  The bearing may come out with the shaft.  At this point that is ok as you can always cut it off the shaft once it is out.

Get a big guy to come give it a few whacks.  It will come out.

I could not view the video as it is set to private.  Make it unlisted or public and let me know and I will watch it.

Thanks,
Jerrod

[Kerry Byron]

Thanks so much!  Sorry about the video, I fixed it.  I will give it one more shot and try to get everything up on something much harder and more stable.  I'm fresh out of truck wheels, but I'm sure I can find something comparable.  I think I will pony out the cash for an actual pipe as well, since that makes the most sense to me.  My clothes better be the cleanest I have ever experienced after this!

THANKS again:)

KB

[Kerry Byron]

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!  It finally knocked out with some incredible muscling and twisting.  You guys were right.  Totally awesome.

So, couple questions.

1) Confession time... I used the illicit screwdriver to knock down a side that was stuck, but of course, it got jammed into the bearings ring when the whole thing fell out.  Upside?  The whole thing fell out.  Downside?  I got the screwdriver stuck.  15 mins of muscling it around with all sorts of tools haven't budged it.  Bringing me to...

2)  Do I need to bother getting the screwdriver off, or will cutting out the bearing off take care of that?  I couldn't get a great view of what all needs to go and needs to stay, seeing as how no one in their right mind would go about doing this repair the way I am.  I'm just awesome like that.

I should be good to go once I get this whole shebang sorted, then back to the video!

KB

[Jerrod Sessler]

WOW Kerry-

Good job!  Glad it finally came loose for you.  OK.  Good photo.  Not sure if you know it or not but part of the outer bearing is actually still stuck on the shaft.  You need to get that off first.  While you are working, you may consider screwing the nut back on the threads at the end of the shaft just to make sure you don't hit them with a hammer and damage them.  You may need to spin the nut on and off as you remove pieces of the bearings.

If you need to cut the bearings off then you can do it with a hack saw but it will take forever because you don't have enough space there.  If you know someone with an air compressor and a die grinder then that would work in 3 minutes!  If you have a simple 4" grinder (can buy them pretty cheap) then that would work really well also.

IF YOU HAPPEN TO NICK or GRIND a small section of the shaft then it is not a big deal at all UNLESS it is in the spot where the seal sits at the bottom.  Be very careful not to damage that surface because the drum needs to spin inside the bearing and keep ALL water away from the bearings.  It doesn't matter at all if you have nicks or rough spots in the shaft else where as long as the shaft is mostly in good shape.

Your screw driver will come out once you cut the bearing off or if you put something under it and pry it up.  Taking it off will loosen the bearing up a bit also.

Good work so far.

One final note.  If you don't know what the bearing parts are by looking at it then look at the new ones and make sure you remove all of the pieces before you continue.  For example, I said above that you still have part of your outer bearing on the shaft.  There is a remote chance that you still have part of the same bearing stuck in the housing of the tub.  You will have to pound that out before you install the new bearings.

Before you do the re-assembly, you will want to clean up all the surfaces and possibly even use a little abrasive to make sure things fit properly.  The bearings should not be loose at all but they should slide together with some lubricate with fairly little force.

You are doing it!
Jerrod

[Jerrod Sessler]

Kerry,

I was just looking at the photo further and something looks odd on the shaft between the bearings.  There are some humps or ridges there that seem out of place.  I can't tell enough from the phone what that is about.  It could have something to do with why it is not coming apart however.

Jerrod

[Yummy]

I had the same problem, complained to whirlpool twice and the sent me a new outer drum two pieces and a stainless steel drum all for free,, just had to be nice to them,,, the first time they tried to brush me off with had to purchase and have a tech. crap.... got courrieord fee in a week, washing machine like new now and only said to me now no more warantee,,, I said No Problem.... Call them. https://secured.whirlpool.com/Service/SrvTechAdm.nsf/0/eab852a13fbc842085256aa200643dd6/$FILE/Duet%20Job%20Aid.pdf

[Kerry Byron]

Hi Jerrod!

I'm back:)  So after a break, I got back to work on the washer and everything was perfect until I tried to put the shaft through the new bearings and it went through the first but not the second, so it's now stuck halfway on.  Trying lots of rotation and wobbling to see if it can't just settle on its own, then nothing moved so used a little more force, still nothing.  I filed down the ridges that you spotted, but not too much because I didn't want the snug fit to go away.  It appears that the bearing missed that, and is stuck further on though.  F-word.  Any idea, other than starting over?  I think I'm cursed...

Kerry

[Kerry Byron]

Okay, scratch that!  I was annoyed so I went back and reread your last comment and noticed that that upper part doesn't have to be snug/smooth, so I Dremeled it until it was a little more even and the dang thing slid right on.  So, here's to reading the advice the first time.  Sorry about that, and thank you for noticing the ridges.  Now to reverse the steps and cross my fingers.  Thanks so much!

Kerry

[Kerry Byron]

Hi Jerrod,

So I have one more question, and thank you for all your help so far!  

I had accidentally damaged some of the threads on the shaft, so that I couldn't get the locking nut to go on all the way.  Faced with no other option other than replacing the whole thing (I had even tried recutting the threads myself with a jewlers saw!), I bought a 5/8 inch course rethreading die and rethreaded it.  This seemed to work very well, though I didn't force it down toward the end when it was getting a bit tight.  The locking nut went on, though it didn't feel the same as the one that came off (obviously).  I reassembled the unit and put a laundry load in to test, medium spin cycle.  It spun for about 60 seconds before it was wobbling back and forth so much I canceled it and figured that locking nut must have come off.  There were some choice words spoken at that time.

So, my thought are that there possibly wasn't enough of the shaft coming through the bearing to reach the locking threads part of it, so should there be more shaft that comes through so that it can get down there?  When I rewatched your video, I though maybe you had an extra 1/8 - 1/4 inch of the shaft exposed.  Everything seemed flush, the spider, the locking nut, and the bearings are all correctly installed.

I didn't reopen it today, but I can tomorrow.  Do you think I can we use another kind of nut to get it down far enough to reach the locking part of the threads?  Oh man, it's been such hard work and to finally get through and have it not work... I think the word crestfallen plays well here:(

Any light you can shed would be great, it would be so nice to finish this project successfully.

Kerry

[Duane Campbell]

Hi I am having the same problem as this guy, byut with a twist, the center ring and ball bearings came out of the top tub bearing, except the outer ring, is stuck in there, and I cannot get it out???? HELP the bearing and shaft are not in the  bottom yet, as I freaked out when I could not beat the blankity blank blank out of there, I have been working on this WP cabrio for 1 whole week, trying to get this out, I do not have all the handy dandy tools that you should use, because I live on disability and frankly dont have the funds for the tools. I got all the other stuff, out and this ONE outer ring is holding me up! We need it bad no money for a laundry mat, were running out of clothes, lol Can you help this backwoods hick?

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[washerr...@gmail.com]

Duane,
If you have some sort of long shaft then make it work.  Some ideas are a piece of metal pipe or a piece of rebar or something.  Ideally, a long chizzle would be nice in this situation.  You need get something in there to beat that ring out.  If you have a way of cutting it (die grinder or similar) then you could also cut it to relieve the pressure to get it out.  You can also heat it and then cool it with ice which will shrink it down and will help it to pop out.

You are close.  Keep going.  You must have something laying around that you can use to get that ring out of there.

Jerrod