As many of you probably saw, Launderess posted about a Norge Timeline washer that was for sale on Craigslist. It's similar to the one I recently picked up with Paul. Now, he's got a second one! 

This one has a lighted timeline and turquoise accents!!

I'm sure he'll post more pictures once he gets back home!

Well, that's what Hubby thought about this weekend's rescue mission to pick up the Norge washer in Rochester... LOL

The person selling the machine said he 'had a feeling' that someone might want it when he found it in the basement of a house he was clearing out.  I've kept his number as he says he does find old appliances from time to time but doesn't know what to do with them!

So, what I've got here is a model AW 450 Norge Timeline automatic washer - with the Safety Spin lid switch, no less!   When I inspected the washer yesterday, I spotted a date stamp of 7-7-54 on the tub brake solenoid.  This may be a 1954 model - that year is badly underrepresented in my washer, dryer and dishwasher collection.

As Phil noted, the panel has turquoise accents and the panel should be lighted (I'll get to that in a minute...).  

Note the 'radio dial' style of pointer on the Timeline cycle control.  Neat!!  I was encouraged to note that the Timeline was at the end of cycle position (unlike '8 of 56' where the Timeline was stuck at the troublesome 6-minute point of the wash cycle). 

This one has a white tub - ooo.... aaah   

Tub seems to be in pretty good shape, but there was a good accumulation of crud at the bottom of it.

And this looks like a possible source...  That upper rim looks kinda corroded alright. 

Something was telling me that this washer is not as low mileage as '8 of 56'.

The rear panels from the timer box and the washer body were missing and I noticed a few loose wires.   In the 40s there was an expression 'loose lips sink ships';  today, Hubby's saying is 'loose wires start fires'.  Sheesh, just because I flamed out the Inglis and a Kenmore washer... 

Note the wires in the console box.  Those black wires look to have deliberately disconnected.  Well, the one that wasn't burnt anyway!

Note that there was no wiring diagram pasted to the back of the tub... However, the 1957 Norge Manual has the diagram for this model and I was kinda able to figure what wire went where.    Those loose wires hanging at the rear of the washer body would have connected to a relay that in turn was connected to the lid switch and would have fed the panel lights.  So, I concluded that at some point the lid switch had been bypassed and the relay removed.  The burnt wire was still a mystery... I fear that perhaps the panel light or lid switch shorted at some point and caused that connector to flame out.   I guess it made sense to have a relay to not subject the switch to a sudden high power arc when restarting the machine with a tub full of clothes.   But I was keen to test the machine, so I studied the diagram to figure out how I could possibly bypass the circuit for the lid switch on my own before I realized that someone already did!  The wiring fairy definitely visited this washer at some point during its active service.  

What had been done actually made sense to me, so I figured I might be ready to test the washer. 

However, I noticed that a part of the power cord had been damaged.  I did notice that the section of the cord near the plug felt brittle so I decided to try cutting the cord at the damaged section to attach a plug for testing.  

It was good intention, but when I tried to strip the insulation off the the cord, the insulation for the white wire just disintegrated!   I hooked up a new cord rather than risk yet another visit from Hydro Quebec and the local Fire Department.  

Well, I'm still here writing so the machine did not go up in a big blue flash... LOL 

Amazingly enough, the washer motor powered up immediately.  I could hear the timer motor running and the fill solenoids buzzing.  The washer advanced into wash and....  The motor still ran but there was a big struggle with the agitator - it just wasn't turning.   I tried to advance the Timeline to spin - again, the motor seemed to be running nicely but the spin just wasn't happening.   I took a peek behind the machine and I could see the the belt riding the pump and transmission pulleys.   I was surprised by this as I had been able to turn both the pump and transmission pulleys by hand.  The pump did give some resistance, though and the drive belt looks glazed.  

So my next step shall be to remove the pump and see if I can clean it out to get it turning smoothly again; I may just pop in a new belt, too.  

I did notice that there was a lot of clanging and rattling in the tub as the washer attempted to wash or spin. Methinks I deposited some bits of the top lid rim that were badly rusted when I moved the Norge.  

I'll know more this coming weekend, I hope!!

Wow, cue up that 'Twilight Zone' music - the Norge from Rochester is just like the one in the lower right hand side of the washer line-up in the Tide ad!

I visited Paul earlier this weekend and made two videos!

So, as you saw from those videos that Phil posted,  I managed to get the machine to spin and agitate.  I managed to free up the pump enough to keep it from stalling the drive belt, but as you could hear in the videos, it wasn't a happy camper.  Likewise, the rubbing or scraping sound heard during that spin test kinda scared me.  

Fortunately, Phil was game to hang around in Ogden Friday afternoon and we did some exploratory surgery...  We popped the cabinet off the machine (definitely a two-person job).  Even I could immediately see what the source of the scraping had been. 

It was this.... 

I had already observed some rust damage under the tub lid rim.  It had weakened enough that the tub gasket probably gave when the washer was moved out of the basement where it was found and then to the scrap dealer's garage. 

I've already coated those rusty edges with POR15 but I don't think I'll put the gasket back.  The '56 doesn't seem to have one and it seems to not cause any trouble.  Well, in the 3 or 4 loads I've done in that machine so far... 

I was still a little paranoid about rust, so I thought it might be prudent to pop the agitator out to see what the drive post looked like.  

I called on the 'Turban of Terror' and was easily and safely able to remove the agitator. 

Look maw, no rust!

That was a huge relief. 

There was still some gunk in the tub and I thought it would be a good idea to flush the outer tub to remove any further bits of what used to be the lid rim.  

It was well worth the effort!

So, I knew I had to take the pump apart and lubricate the drive shaft.   No problem!

I also wanted to test the Timeline cycle control to be sure I wouldn't get stuck at an eternal 6-minute wash.  It seemed to work absolutely fine.  

And bonus - the wiring bojackery that had been done to bypass the relay and lid switch (both parts were MIA, not surprisingly) preserved a circuit to the panel and water temperature selector switch.  Yay!

Of course, I'll have to go on a hunt for some oddball light bulbs now... 

And as today was a rainy day down in Ogden, I thought it would be appropriate to give the water valve a once-over.  

It was good and scaled up but I was able to clean it up reasonably well.  

Unfortunately, it's a thermostatic one and when I tried simulating a 'warm' temperature setting, all I got was hot water.  I'm not really surprised (and to be fair '8 of 56' is doing the same thing).  I'll be replacing the water valve for sure on both machines. 

Stay tuned for this weekend's progress report!!

It looks like Paul will have two working Norges soon! 

Todd:  Amazingly enough, this AW450 pretty much did start up when I plugged it in.  I did have to change the power cord, but that's probably a good thing to do anyway on a 60-something year old washer.   I was extremely lucky but I also think that the Norge washer transmissions were built like the proverbial brick s.... er, schoolhouse, yes that will do...   Of course, we'll have to see what happens with the first water tests - I'm hoping that I'll get that far this coming weekend.  

For me to find two Norges in relatively short order and to have both of them come back to life so quickly is making me think it's time to start buying lottery tickets... LOL

Eddie:  Depending on how Chris reacts to having another washer in a million parts in the garage, I may be the one needing to visit the Cape for a few weeks, never mind the Norge!!

Now, I've gotta get really brave and start working on the other machines in the 'project area' in the garage - I think by now, I should stop being scared of the GE's....

The transmissions were built well and one of the reasons they were so noisy.  That and bolting it to the bottom of the wash tub inside the echo chamber/drain tub was another!

The lower bearing sounds good in spin but like mine, yours has a little shimmy-shake while agitating, too.   I replaced the lower bearing in mine with a used one I had and it's better but not gone completely.   

I used mine over the weekend for a load of whites and you could just see the dirt running scared out of the socks when that agitation started.  If the noise doesn't scare out embedded dirt, that giant agitator does.

After a very hectic week (Hubby was delayed in Brazil due to theft of all his luggage, iPhone, travel docs, passport, etc) and when he finally got back on Thursday, he learned of the passing of a colleague at the University of Montreal and he attended the funeral Saturday. 

So, we only got down to Ogden on Saturday afternoon; I still managed to get a few things done with latest Norge.  

Reassembly was the word of the day... I put the pump back together again. The gasket was shot so I used the Permatex flexible gasket compound to make a new one. It seemed to hold water, so I put the pump back and installed a new drive belt. 

I also took the opportunity to clean out the hard-water scale from the fill flume inlet.  I hope this will reduce potential splashing on the water temperature selector light bulb.  I don't want this Timeline to cause anyone to flatline due to accidental electrocution!

With Hubby's help, the cabinet was set back onto the washer frame.  That, probably more so than removal of the cabinet, is definitely a two-person job.    I re-installed the agitator also.  I managed to do that alone... LOL

I didn't put the Timeline cycle control back in at this point; it was a good opportunity to clean the plastic lens.  It's going to glow nicely.  

I also gave the back panel on the Timeline a cleaning - it's in amazing shape!

Here's the challenge in putting a Norge cabinet back together...  The part of the fill flume that goes into the tub has a soft foam gasket that has to be compressed good and tight to be able to re-attach the funnel.  The Norge doctrine doesn't say so in as many words, but it's a bit of a pain; fortunately, there is an illustration showing how to wedge the flume into place and this was a great help.  Amazingly, I managed to not damage the funnel in any way during re-installation.  Phew!

But by the time I got through this, the whines and whimpers that signaled someone wanted their supper got too much for me to ignore.   Canyon, on the other hand, just sat there patiently watching me...  LOL 

So, that's all for now.  I'm hoping this coming weekend will allow me enough time to get the new water valve and cycle control (with new light bulbs, bien sûr) installed and the wires all reconnected so that I can at least get a couple of tests done.   

Oh, and I found a date stamp of 1-15-55 on the Timeline control - looks like I got me a '55 model and not a '54 as I had initially (and incorrectly) guessed.    Stay tuned!!

I did manage to get the rest of the Norge put back together and got some further testing done yesterday.  

I'll start with the good news; I managed to get the wiring all back together again and the lighted Timeline is stunning!   I goofed with the bulb size for the water temperature light, though.  I used a 4 watt bulb instead of an 8 watt one and it definitely isn't enough to brightly light the amber and red lenses to indicate warm or hot wash.  

I installed a new water valve and it seemed to work fine.  To be fair, I was only using cold water though!  It filled the tub nicely anyway. 

And we had agitation!  Notice the lack of noise from the pump now.  I guess having some water in there flushed out the last of the residue that had been rattling around.  

Sigh... It SEEMS fine, but note my reaction when I looked at the back of the washer!  Ooopsie, indeed!

Water was just cascading from the bottom of the outer tub; most of it was flowing right through the center shaft where the transmission drive is.  I suddenly realized why there had been so much rust on the top of the main transmission pulley...  Water had obviously been gathering there for a while before I found this washer!  

If I had been smart enough to pull out the inner tub when I had the cabinet apart, I'll bet a turquoise Mixmaster that I'd have found rust damage to the outer tub.  I'm going to guess it's pretty bad damage, too, given that the machine looks as if it has seen plenty of laundry duty.

However, I did buy the machine as a parts machine and this will be its fate.  I was in a bind as to what the heck I would have done with it if it had been 100% intact and operational.  

I am trying not to take this one as a failure - I learned a heck of a lot about servicing Norge washers between this one and the '56 that came from Massachusetts.   In all probability, I'll swap the console from the 55 onto '8 of 56' - I'll get a more reliable Timeline cycle control and a lighted panel that way.  And the 55 console is turquoise, too...  

With other the other parts, that lower-mileage '56 model should be around for many, many years to come now.  Well, I hope!

Ah, but you're welcome to come and play with the '56 anytime!  I may get my act together and have the ABC at least partially restored by then with any luck...  

Gravity drain!  Just put it next to a floor drain and make sure it's grounded :-)

Could the outer tub boot be ripped?  That was the case with mine - water all down the center.  I can give you the Volkswagen u-joint boot part number I used to fix my Timeline, worked perfectly.

Greg, there is a very good possibility that the boot is ripped.  I'll take the tub out and have a look-see...  

Nifty that a Volks u-joint boot can be used as a replacement.  Thanks for letting me know (I'll want that part number for future reference for sure!!)

Greg?   (ducks and runs....) 

Someone just posted this on Flickr.

So Hubby just shrugged his shoulders and sighed - but the '55 Norge is staying in the garage for a spell and will be one of two major summer projects for me this year. 

I'd like to get the tub out of the washer to inspect the tub boot (and if it's bad, I'll be looking for that VW U-Joint seal!).  However, I don't know what this kind of bolt is even called, let alone what kind of tool I'm going to need to remove the bolts. 

Does anyone know what these are called? I found no clues in the Norge manual I have; could these be called 'clutch' screws?? Where would be a good place to find the tool needed (automotive or industrial tool sellers)?

Ken, Malcolm - Thank you!!  It looks like it is a 'clutch' screw indeed.  

Now, let's see what kind of a funny look I get from the folks at the local Crappy Tire when I try to buy a screwdriver that can remove one...

Hi Paul, I don't think that you need to remove any of those screws to replace the outer tub boot, I think that you can lift out the inner tun with the transmission once you disconnect drive line parts below, Greg  can let us know for sure.

Those CHSs are screwed into pot metal and the likley hood of ever getting them out is nil.

Thanks, John!  I re-read the section of the '57 Norge service manual and it does say that the entire transmission and tub can be removed as one unit after having loosened a couple of set screws.  I didn't really look carefully at the spin shaft and tub brake area on this one -  I'll have to take another run at it this weekend.   

So many washers, so little time....