YAY!!! My WO-65 Unimatic is working again!!! There are still a couple slight bugs though....

Well, thanks to our wonderful webmaster, my Unimatic has it's new oil bellow and is running again!!! That new water bellow was a BITCH to get on! Had to let it soak in hot water, then lube it up with some soap then wrestle with it for a good half hour to get it on the cap of a bottle of liquid Tide so it could stretch out over night! Then, I had to wrestle with it some more to get it to FINALLY pop onto the tub lip. THEN I had to wrestle with that GOD DAMN clamp and get it back in place using a mirror, C-clamp, and a pair of needle nose pliers!

Anyway, point is, I got it on and the machine working again, however it has some bugs that I've noticed and want to work out!

First, a few loads after I got it, the timer stopped advancing, I thought the timer motor had gone which wasn't the worst thing in the whole world, I can still use the machine! However, I noticed tonight that during the longer periods of letting it run (the wash which I let go for 8 minutes and the final spin which I let go for 5 minutes) As well as the fills which lasted a little over 5 minutes, it would still advance the timer but only once in the period of time before I needed to advance it... I take it that that means the timer motor is not dead, but merely running quite a bit slower? Is there something I could look at? Perhaps a place that the timer motor just needs a little lubrication? Also, not sure if this has to do with the timer, but every now and then, even when there is nothing else running on the same circuit, it pops the breaker halfway through throwing the water, I'm not using the machine again until I know for sure what is going on!

Second, something is up with the cold water valve... It seems to stick closed fairly easily... When I first turn on the machine, the water coming out is HOT even though I have warm selected, then it cools down to warm after a few seconds. I tend to prefer to do cool rinses vs. warm rinses in this machine since it does a wash and 2 full rinses in warm water, 3 tubs of warm water seems excessive to me, however... A couple seconds after I turn off the hot water, which is through a ball valve, so it only turns 90 degrees to shut off, the cold water snaps down to trickle... It works for a couple seconds at full blast then snaps down to a trickle. When I turn the hot back on, it does the same thing as when I start any other fill, it gets really really hot then cools down to warm after a couple seconds... What is going on?


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Post# 363966 7/14/2009 at 19:18 (5,391 days old) by pulsator (Saint Joseph, MI)
Checkrate/Likes Well, thanks to our wonderful webmaster, my Unimatic has it's new oil bellow and is running again!!! That new water bellow was a BITCH to get on! Had to let it soak in hot water, then lube it up with some soap then wrestle with it for a good half hour to get it on the cap of a bottle of liquid Tide so it could stretch out over night! Then, I had to wrestle with it some more to get it to FINALLY pop onto the tub lip. THEN I had to wrestle with that GOD DAMN clamp and get it back in place using a mirror, C-clamp, and a pair of needle nose pliers! Anyway, point is, I got it on and the machine working again, however it has some bugs that I've noticed and want to work out! First, a few loads after I got it, the timer stopped advancing, I thought the timer motor had gone which wasn't the worst thing in the whole world, I can still use the machine! However, I noticed tonight that during the longer periods of letting it run (the wash which I let go for 8 minutes and the final spin which I let go for 5 minutes) As well as the fills which lasted a little over 5 minutes, it would still advance the timer but only once in the period of time before I needed to advance it... I take it that that means the timer motor is not dead, but merely running quite a bit slower? Is there something I could look at? Perhaps a place that the timer motor just needs a little lubrication? Also, not sure if this has to do with the timer, but every now and then, even when there is nothing else running on the same circuit, it pops the breaker halfway through throwing the water, I'm not using the machine again until I know for sure what is going on! Second, something is up with the cold water valve... It seems to stick closed fairly easily... When I first turn on the machine, the water coming out is HOT even though I have warm selected, then it cools down to warm after a few seconds. I tend to prefer to do cool rinses vs. warm rinses in this machine since it does a wash and 2 full rinses in warm water, 3 tubs of warm water seems excessive to me, however... A couple seconds after I turn off the hot water, which is through a ball valve, so it only turns 90 degrees to shut off, the cold water snaps down to trickle... It works for a couple seconds at full blast then snaps down to a trickle. When I turn the hot back on, it does the same thing as when I start any other fill, it gets really really hot then cools down to warm after a couple seconds... What is going on?

Post# 363972 , Reply# 1 7/14/2009 at 19:49 (5,391 days old) by qsd-dan (West)
Checkrate/Likes Congrats! Sticky water valves seem to be common on Frigidaire's. Probably age related though. I have to manually adjust the water flow from the pipes on my WCI-63. I'm afraid to take the water valve apart and clean it since these water valves are nearly impossible to find. Once of these days I'll get the balls to do it.

Post# 363977 , Reply# 2 7/14/2009 at 20:07 (5,391 days old) by supremewhirlpol ()
Checkrate/Likes Maybe possible bad or sticky contacts in the timer. I have this issue sometimes with the spin and wash contactors of my 3 phase commercial FL. water issues? Possible build up of mineral deposits in water valves. Be sure that you check your hoses, and look for debris on filters at the ends of the hoses. if there are filters on the ends of the water valves, check those too. Check your faucets also, make sure that there is not mineral build up in those also.

Post# 363996 , Reply# 3 7/14/2009 at 21:33 (5,390 days old) by swestoyz (Cedar Falls, IA)
Checkrate/Likes Jamie, my sympathies to you for using a c-clamp for the water bellows ;-) The water valves on the WO washers have a thermostatically controlled warm water output. The timer will energize both hot and cold solenoids and allows the thermostat to regulate the output temperature of the valve. If you cut the hot water off completely the thermostat in the machine will shock itself closed on the cold side trying to allow mostly hot water to flow. The original valve on my WO-65 has since gone on the way side, and I am saving my NOS valve for the WI-56. I am using a Maytag thermostatically controlled three temp valve, with the cold lead from the timer on the warm valve, in conjunction with a ball valve to throttle the output to fill the machine in 5 clicks of the timer. I wonder if the timer is a low flow timer, but the washer shouldn't be drawing so much current to blow a 15A breaker. Something is amiss there. Ben

Post# 364101 , Reply# 4 7/15/2009 at 09:12 (5,390 days old) by unimatic1140 (Minneapolis)
Checkrate/Likes Jamie as for the timer you might try taking the timer motor off and adding a few drops of oil to the round escapement gear assembly. Be careful not to add too much oil because you don't want the oil to get into the timer contact box itself. As for the water valve you can use a new water valve, but since the water flow will be much greater than the original you can splice a little flow ball valve in the middle of the hose that supplies the fresh water up the machine to the flume. Did notice during your visit last weekend that I did that to the fresh water supply hose on the Apex behind the machine? Tonight I will take a picture of it.

Post# 364402 , Reply# 5 7/16/2009 at 04:45 (5,389 days old) by chestermikeuk (Rainhill Home of the RailwayTrials Merseyside,UK)
Checkrate/Likes *Fixed* Hi Jamie, glad to here the Frigidaire is back in action, its worth all the effort... question, you and Ben referenced a C-Clamp, is this an original part or is it a best fix for a vintage machine?? cheers, Mike