Even if the glide isn't in perfect operation the washer should still in theory agitate with ease.  More than likely the oil in the transmission has become thick and gooey which will become a common issue as the 60's and 70's Maytags that are in operation age.  The old oil not only causes the gears to bind but the top agitator shaft can bind in the upper housing due to a lack of good lubrication as the oil no longer splashes up to keep the upper bearings wet.  The typical symptom is very slow agitation when the machine has sat without use for a day or so and often times after a few minutes of agitation the speed will increase close to normal.

I've included a video below that will walk through rebuilding the motor glide with the 205000 kit.  The kit will include four new square glides and enough poly lube to do the job.  Otherwise, if the slow agitation issue persists you may need to determine if the washer is worth a transmission rebuild or not.  There are several threads here in AW that walk through the rebuild process quite nicely.

Good luck!

Ben

And old oil are often problems in the older style MT helical drive washer transmissions, often too a little water gets past the top water seals and can even size the agitator shaft in the top transmission bearings. This and completely worn out damper assemblies [ down to the metal ] are the two most frequent reasons that our customers give up on their MT washers.

I always thought it might be an interesting experiment to drill a hole in the side of a MT pit-man style transmission and change the oil to some much better new oil and leave the washer on its side for a few days or longer so the oil could get into the top bearing area and see if this would revive an old transmission. The drilled hole in the aluminum transmission case could easily be tapped and plugged to seal the oil in after it was changed.

This might be a good experiment for one of the MT fans in the group.

PS Hi Dustin, When these two belt MT helical drive washers have problems starting it is easy to add a motor start capacitor in the start winding circuit. MT was too cheap to include a capacitor as standard equipment but always offered one as an accessory when customers had starting and fuse blowing problems with their washers.

John L.

Dustin -

I certainly hope the issue is solely the motor.  I will mention that I've seen several low use or even an NOS 60's Maytag that was never used where the oil turned to sludge.  Low use doesn't necessarily mean that the oil will be perfect.  Often times it actually can do the opposite and breakdown over time from non-use.

If you want to isolate the issue to just the motor, you can remove the drive belt and push the motor forward a bit so the shaft doesn't drag on the base plate.  Start the washer up and if the motor continues to act similarly then you know you have a motor issue.  Otherwise, during spin the belts are designed to slip enough during take-off AND the motor should pull forward (towards the rear of the machine) on the glide enough that the centrifugal start switch should instantly be satisfied enough to switch over to the run side of the motor. 

Ben

You NEED a motor start capacitor, I can't believe how long this is is being drug out, it will make a big difference whether your problem is low voltage, or a less than perfect motor carriage and drive belt.

I said that MT offered an service capacitor kit for this and ANY MT DC two belt washer that did not originally come with one just for SITUATIONS like this.

It is very hard to cure a slightly low voltage problem like this in a home, you all can debate about bad outlets, wiring loading of circuits all month long but none of it will make any real difference.

I have been dealing with problems like this every working day in peoples homes for around 40 years now.

You can simply use the motor start capacitor from any WP built DD washer for instance, it will not harm the motor or the start winding, you could even wire in two capacitors in parallel with each other for an extra kick.

To wire in the capacitor you remove the wire at the motor going to the start winding and plug it on one of the terminals of the SC then take another piece of wire and go from the other terminal of the SC and back to the motor.

Dustin, you can always contact me if you have any questions, John L.

Yes a SC can be added to some refrigerators to make the compressor start more reliably under low voltage conditions, or cases where the sealed system does not balance out fast enough, or the compressor is a little tight etc.

"I remember when I was a kid, the family around the block had a refrigerator with hot chassis. When you were hanging out in their kitchen, you learned rather quickly not to hold the handle on the refrigerator and the kitchen faucet at the same time. Nobody died. "

We had the same problem in our house when I was a kid...but it was the Kitchenaid KDS17A that was the culprit...and it was installed by the dealer!  If one touched the dishwasher AND either the fridge or the kitchen sink/faucet one would feel quite the jolt.  My dad ended up installing a better ground for it and we haven't been shocked since and Mom is on her 3rd dishwasher and 3rd fridge.

Before I was a nurse I worked with electricity.  When daddy built his new music studio I wired the electrical panel for him.  I personally think fuses are safer too.  My paternal grandfather had a breaker panel that was installed in his house when it was built.  One of the breakers stuck and his AC/Furnace package unit burned up!  My dad refuses to upgrade their fuse panel to breakers...he built the house in '68.  My house was built in '56 with fuses.  At the time, EVERYTHING was electric and at some point the owners overloaded everything causing some melted wires at the panel.  The owner at some point in time worked for the gas company and he removed every major electricity consuming appliance and replaced them with gas, except for the AC.  So now, this house's largest power consumer is still the AC...and that circuit never gets warm.