When a load goes OOB in a spin drain machine you usually have way too little clothing in the machine for the amount of water you used, or you are washing very heavy towels etc with much lighter items like sheets.

Rapid-Dry 1010 Frigidaire washers are one of my favorite Frigidaire machines I have two of them.

Can be adjusted for wear and the tinniest drop of high grade silicone oil could be added when you have it apart.

You want to be very careful not to get any lubricant of any type on the drive rollers, if you do the machine will not run until you get it all off.

Under the ball joint you will see a castellated nut. Turning that nut will be tough but it is supposed to be tough. You can turn it with a bicycle wrench and you only need to turn it between 1/32-1/16 of an inch to shore up the bearing. It will feel very tight but that will eliminate the knocking which is caused by wear of the delrin bearing inside against the ball. It does not need lubricating, the delrin is self lubricating. 

The rollers are also self lubricating with a very dry black lubricant the only comes into play when they are turning, as the rollers heat the lubricant flows-- at room temperature it looks and feels like a black tar--well sometimes they used a gray compound too.

The biggest noise is created by loose or dirty clutch plates. They can chatter.

On the lid there maybe a loading diagram to show you how to load in quadrants, and for a solid tub machine the more clothes packed in the better. I've seen Robert cram towels in there thinking uh oh but his loads always balance- BASTARD !

Also a neat trick I've learned from JohnE is cut 4 squares of rug grip and place them under the legs , she won't move until hell freezes over.

My "Fringedaire" used to walk all over the basement from one side to the other, now she is locked down !

Yes there is one lock screw, not two , never two , never saw two !

Wonderful machine for laundry. I wouldnt get into the clutch unless you really feel the need. Sometimes they just smooth out after use too.

Its very important to load properly because you machine I think was introduced before the "Sure-Spin" clutch. That was introduced to create a lot of slip at start up so clothes didn't lump up in the wash water and cause OOB.

I love these machines and I'm glad you were fortunate to find one. There were so many of them around here in the late eighties and early nineties, but they must have all been dumped.

I'm also glad you found this site and had the same epiphany that most of us experienced. I still think the Rollermatics were some of the coolest washing machines ever marketed.

Wow, this does have the variable water level and 4 spin speeds. 

Very Nice!  Congratulations!  I've never seen an "Imperial" before, just a Custom Imperial.  I have two '67s similar.  A Custom Deluxe and a Custom Imperial.  If you need advice this is a great place for it.  I've had these machines apart in every form and fashion possible in the last 7 years I've been a member of AW.  Check out my threads on here.

Beautiful and rare pair, it is so cool to find a QUALITY low use pair of machines that have been well cared for as well. What is the story about these machines that allowed them to survive?

These are fun machines to use but if you do more than a few loads of laundry a week I would hope you have other machines to share the work, keeping these machines going would be about as much work and expense as trying to drive a 67 Oldsmobile Tornado every day to work etc. and the parts for this washer and dryer are even harder to get than parts for the Olds.

Keep us posted how you make out with these machines, there are several members here including myself that know a lot about these rare and unusual machines.

John L.

You do not even have to remove he agitate arm to tighten and lubricate the agitate ball, however if the sealed bearing is starting ti fail in the arm assembly you would need to replace the complete the arm assembly.

Let's talk about what is happening here.  First rule that I operate by is that if it ain't broke don't fix it.  Please tell me ( and the rest of us following here who are also experts ) what is wrong with the machine and the agitate arm.  A video would be nice too.  What I don't want is to see you tearing into something unnecessarily.  What you probably saw come from the top of the ball joint was a small piece of the wicking material from inside that is getting rotten.  Even so that's not a cause per se to tear the whole thing apart.  Let take this one step at a time together.  At this point there is no need to remove anything from the machine.

I also read above that you mentioned that you thought the ball joint was making some noise, just a little, and at times.  These mechanisms aren't noted for their quiet operation and if the machine has been sitting a while a good workout may be just what is needed to settle it down.  I've seen many a Frigidaire act strange after sitting too long.

You will need to make it public some how.

I sincerely don't think you have anything there to be concerned about.  Most of the Rollermatics I've heard (including my own) sound like this or louder in some cases.  Most 1-18's are definitely louder.  Others here may differ on my opinion however.  Phil is more attuned to the sounds than I am and can maybe provide futher advice.   Other members as well have taken to great lengths to sound insulate their machines.

Phil, by the way, while we are discussing these particular machines have you ever come up with a good solution to replace that darn ring nut that holds on the clutch?  All of them I've worked on always breaks the locking tabs off and then you have to mess with using Loctite.

What's the little red light on the extreme RH side of the washer panel?

it tells you in rinse when lint is being taken away. TOL item.

That sound is not bad for a rollermatic but it could be a worn agitate shaft bearing which is no great shakes, or the castellated nut still isn't tight enough. The clue is the rate of tapping its in time with the agitation.

I don't think a single part is interchangeable, Frigidaire [ GM ]was smart enough to upgrade almost every thing when they went to the larger capacity 1-18 machine.