Remember this?  The poor dear has been sitting patiently in the garage since last December...  It was high time I did some exploratory surgery on it.

The drain and fill flume hoses were nice and brittle and the belts were in pretty sad shape.

Amazingly, the flexible hose from the tub to the pump seems to be intact still.  

Jon tested the motor when the washer was first delivered to Melrose by Eddie - it's a Delco!  According to the wiring diagram on this washer, the motor could have been a Delco or a Westinghouse.  

Added bonus, the pump seems to turn smoothly still.  

This doesn't look too encouraging...  If I were a betting person, my money would be on 'it's gonna leak'... LOL

BUT it doesn't look anywhere near as bad at the drain port on the Blackstone BA600, so even I should be able to fix this.  

My suspicion about a leak was also supported by the hose clamp on the pump.  That screw and bolt are rusted good and solid.  This is perhaps the one time where I was wishing the hose clamp was a Corbin...  GRRR!!

So, with a tub repair required and my discovery of the existence of another boot (I guess between the tub and the outer cabinet), taking the top off and tub out would be essential.  

Removing the top was easy enough.  Despite having a wiring diagram, I still marked the positions of the wires leading down into the washer body.  Better safe than sorry!

I decided to try testing the timer only after I got the top off (I could have done that some time ago, but no...).  Fortunately the timer motor runs nicely and the timer advances.  Geez, it's a noisy one - you really hear the cams clicking and springing as the timer advances.  

And last but not least, I found a date stamp on the front lip of the cabinet.  Wild coincidence, that week of November 1956, over in Appliance Park in Louisville, my '56 GE Combo was rolling off the line.  

Of course, I now have to wonder if the ABC would be considered as a 1956 or a 1957 model.  I'll be losing sleep over that for weeks... LOL 

So, here's the downside of the splashy agitation... The rear part of the lid was good and rusty!

The inner tub looks pretty good.  The coating on the inside of the tub looks as if it was applied in a hurry; I'm thinking that this washer has been 'under the knife' before.  

I'd noticed some difficulty lifting the lid and it seems to be missing some kind of spring/balancing mechanism.  I'll be studying the '55 Kelvinator manual carefully to see how I can remedy this.  Of course a lid with a window might just turn up... It could be anywhere; even Iowa... 

So, referring to that 1955 Kelvy manual, I kinda figured out that I should be able to remove the tub and drive shaft assembly in one unit.  But to do so, I'd need to remove the pulleys.  Seemed easy enough...

I had to remove the cross brace at the bottom of the cabinet.  Word of warning to anyone else who may tear into an ABC machine like this- there's a ball bearing the size of a small egg at the bottom of the brace plate.  Losing it is not an option... LOL  Well, the plate came off fine. 

BUT, this is where I'm stuck for the moment: the agitate pulley is not attached to the drive shaft with a hex nut. The manual calls it a 'split pin' but when I described it to Phil, he said it is really a 'spring pin' or 'roll pin'.  Anyway, the manual said to 'drive out from either side of the pulley'.   Sounds easy enough, but I don't seem to have the appropriate tool or punch to accomplish that.  So, I'll be on the hunt for one of those this week.  I hope our local Crappy Tire knows what the heck I'm talking about!

And I still have to get that pump clamp off somehow.  So, I've got some challenges here.  And it looks like POR15 is going to be my new best friend....  Stay tuned!

Paul, do you have a Dremel tool?  I've used one several times to cut clamps and such when I've worked on my old truck.  Just be careful not to cut too deep!

Eddie, I think only the Kelvinator version had the 'Creature From the Black Lagoon' fins...  LOL   This one doesn't, alas, but I'm not kvetching!

I did some serious work on the ABC O Matic over the long St-Jean-Baptiste Holiday weekend down in Ogden.  I was disputing those claims about these machines being "easy" to work on just because I had quite the time taking the blessed thing apart!

So, I figured once I drove the pin out of that larger pulley (it's a 1/4 inch punch that did it), removed pulley, then found a series of spings, washers, clamps and finally these odd-shaped pins (don't even know what the correct term for them is).  It was a slow process and I was being very, very careful, but I did get the washer tub out at last! 

And the inner tub was now viewable by all...   I was very happy to see that the second tub boot was still more or less intact!  I'll need to clean that up and do some water testing, though.  

I managed to get the pump drain out;  that drain port was not in as bad condition as I thought. Phew! 

But that clamp for the pump drain hose was rusted good and solid.  I had to chisel the poor thing off.  

Good news, though - the pump still turns freely and the impeller seems to be in good shape.  Yay!

The outer tub rim was good and rusty... curse that splashy washing action... LOL

The 'vacuum breaker' for the water inlet worries me.  it looks like it had been "fixed" with some caulking goo at some point.  I'll try cutting a new gasket and it will probably get reinforced with some silicone too.  We'll see how that works out.  

I'll need to replace the top tub gasket and the rear tub baffle gasket.  I'm hoping that I can substitute modern weatherstripping.  A trip to Home Depot will be in order!

I gave the tub bottom and rim a good brushing with the wire brush - there were a few rust spots that worried me...   But it's nothing a coat of POR15 won't cure.  Well, I hope... 

This scared the wits out of me at first... That hole in the agitator base plate looked like it was a bad thing. But after I cleaned it up, I realized the hole is perfectly round and concluded this was intentional.  Given that the original boot was pretty torn up, there had been a good amount of water gathering in here.  That problem with go away on re-assembly.

Well, assuming I can get the washer back together again...  As mentioned, I'll have to put my thinking cap on to replace the original gaskets.  Hopefully there will be more progress to report after this coming long weekend.  

I spent most of last week visiting with jetcone (Jon), Greg, Fred Nelson, and Phil down on the 'cape and did some substitute parts shopping along the way.  My plan for this past weekend was to water-test the outer tub to make sure that center boot was still OK (It looked good, but looks can be deceiving in this game!).  

I intended to use the old tub to pump drain hose; probably not a good call to begin with but I managed to mess it up when I tried to reinstall it...

While cleaning it, I noticed a small tear which was probably the reason for the rust at the inner tub outlet and leakage on the pump itself.  

Trying to get the not-all-that-flexible-anymore lip around the tub drain outlet did not go according to plan... As my late grandmother would say 'Well, that's torn it, duckie'.    Sigh....

I tried to get a sink drain flange like what I used on the '57 Hotpoint but I bought one that was just a wee bit too big.  I'll be doing a tour of the local plumbing stores in and around St-Hyacinthe this week to hopefully find something that will fit. 

I was kinda ticked off, but I had a couple of new machines to play with and that took my mind off things.  I'll be posting about them in detail but just to tease everyone, who knows what the Jacobs company made back in the late 1940s???  Stay tuned... 

The stars aligned very nicely late last week.  Hubby headed off to a summer meeting on Thursday and the weather forecast was looking iffy for most of the weekend of the 9th and 10th of July.  But since I'm retired, I took off on Thursday night bound for Ogden with one mission in mind - get that ABC back together again! 

I still had some parts to replace though and I made some creative purchases...  Anyone who heard rumours of weird-sounding guy in the weatherstripping aisle of the Home Depot in Cape Cod, well, that was me!  LOL

But I still had to figure out what to do for a tub drain... I wound up using a bathtub drain flange.  It fit, but I couldn't find a nut to fasten it to the tub bottom.  I set it ever so carefully into place with LOTS of blue silicone. 

I let that set overnight on Friday.  

Imagine my relief when I poured some water into the tub Saturday morning and found it held vater!  

So, while waiting for the inner cabinet to dry, I figured I'd spiff up the wash tub.  60-some odd years of detergent residue came off surprisingly easily. 

Now for my first creative washer part substitution using weatherstripping...  

At the top of an ABC or Kelvinator washer there is a rubber strip that covers the water exit holes so that all the water doesn't get splashed out during the wash cycle.  But when the washer spins, the strip will flex and allow the water out.   Needless to say the original strip was in pretty bad shape in the washer, but with a bit of cutting, a self-adhesive door sweep did the trick! 

I had noticed an awful lot of grease and goo on the inside of the washer cabinet.  Some of the 'things' looked like dust bunnies that had detoured via the La Brea Tar Pits... 

I used varsol to clean the base up and wow, what a difference it made.   I even wipe the generations of dust off the wires - can't make any mistakes now... LOL 

The last thing I did on Saturday was to clean up the cover of what ABC called the 'vacuum breaker' for the fill flume.  It looked pretty bad, so I treated it and the part of the back cabinet where this is installed to a coat of appliance epoxy. 

And while this dried overnight, I treated myself to an evening of Hi-Fi therapy starring Benny Goodman, the '56 GE Hifi, and several darn nice gin and tonics.... 

Sunday dawned cloudy and rainy. YES! A perfect day to spend in the garage and not be guilted out by the dog. 

So I started by cutting a new gasket for the the vacuum breaker.   I managed not to cut my fingers - bonus.  The darn thing just kept reminding me of the cup for an athletic supporter...  Yeah, the varsol and paint fumes were getting to me...  LOL 

On reinstallation, I figured a coat of blue silicone wasn't going to hurt.  

So, now I was ready to get the tub back in and start re-installing the spin and drive mechanisms and pulleys.  

It seemed easy enough, but I made a near-fatal boo-boo with the order of the thrust washer, spring, and woodruff key mounted above the spin pulley.  When I tried to spin the tub manually, nothing happened...  

Here's the lesson learned - take lots of photos during disassembly!  These and the '55 Kelvinator manual got me out of this potential mess. 

Getting the agitate pulley off was a bit of a pain.  It was a LOT of a pain putting it back on again - EEESH!  I had to heat the pulley to loosen it up.  But when I tried to push it onto the agitator shaft, I kept pushing the shaft out.

A sledge hammer and a box of tiles helped.  Hubby would have been better in this case however... 

While parts-shopping on Friday, I definitely remembered to get new belts. So on they went on Sunday!

It was going fine until Canyon said he was going to call the Eastern Townships Neglected Puppies helpline.  I told  him he couldn't dial the phone with his paws.  Never saw a dog flip me off before.... 

So I fed him, but I kept at it.   I wanted to get the pump back on.  

The good news was the substitute drain to pump hose I had fit the drain flange I cobbled in.  The bad news is that it was too big for the pump inlet...  Not a problem when you have lots of spare 1 1/2 flexible tubing lying around.  Full disclosure - I did coat the top of the inlet area with more blue goo.  The pump seal between the base and housing was shot, so I beefed that up with some liquid gasket.  

But there was just one thing I couldn't figure out... The pump is driven by a drive wheel that contacts the agitate belt, but I couldn't seem to make them connect.  I thought perhaps the drain hose would provide tension, but this didn't make any sense to me.  Yeah, I know, this is ME saying that... LOL    I figured I'd sleep on that one.   

So for my last trick on Sunday, I figured I'd make some more creative use of weatherstripping.   

A replacement seal for a floor sweep made a good fitting sub for the gasket that had been at the rear of the washer top.  A little cut here and some blue goo to hold things in place and voila!

The top of the washer cabinet had a gasket that was rusty and too inflexible to re-use, so I called on my old pal closed-cell foam tape.  Again, some more blue goo to hold things in place and it seemed good to go. 

At this point I was ready to pass out from hunger, so I had a brief bath in varsol (my fingers looked like a Smurf's...) and I called it a day.  

So on Monday July 11th, the first thing I did after putting on a pot of coffee was to consult the '55 Kelvinator manual.  That problem with the pump tension I was concerned about?  I simply had to install a spring to tension the pump.  Woo hoo!

With the pump safely installed, I figured it was high time I did something about water supply.  I had the original water valve but I honestly didn't expect it to be good.  When I tested the solenoid on the hot water inlet side of the valve, I found it was completely dead.  However, the coil on the '55 Norge solenoid that I replaced fit and still worked, so I tried it.  Much to my amazement, the thermostatic components in the valve still worked.  Huge bonus!

And of course, I couldn't forget the agitator boot.  The original one was pretty far gone and amazingly enough, I found a source for new ones!!  But before installing the agitator drive plate, I used my brand new grease gun to add some fresh grease to the drive shaft.  

I replaced the power cord and put the washer top back on... So what's next??

I couldn't resist plugging it in....  And this what happened:

But would it spin, especially after my near-miss???  Oh yeah!

So, I figured it was a case of 'just add water'... LOL

So I'm not quite ready to slot the ABC into the Ogden Laundry just yet...  I do need to fix that leaky pump (that won't be a big deal) and I do still need to test the water valve and hope that vacuum breaker doesn't leak. 

But then, oh boy... I've got a few more washers to play with than I thought I'd have this year...  Musical appliances anyone??

What a great looking washer Paul. Congratulations. Can't wait to see it doing it's maiden wash.

Wow Paul that was quite a rebuild, it was neat to see that washer all apart and running again.

My parents first automatic was a 55 Kelvinator and it is probably one of the reasons that I am in the repair business today, as a kid I watched the local repair guy do at least 6 different repair jobs [ timer replacement, inlet valve rebuild, they removed the Delco motor and sent it out for rebuilding, new centrifugal switch, boot replaced under agitator, cabinet to pump hose replaced ] on that washer and my Father did a few more. I used to lay on the floor and watch the repair guy work on the washer.

Finely when the thing just would not spin anymore it was replaced with a CO-OP washer by Franklin in 1960 and my Dad left us kids play with it for a week or so outside before it was hulled away. Automatic Washers were not very well built or durable in the 1950s that's for sure.

Its really neat to see you getting this machine working Paul, can't wait to get up there some day and see it in person. I really think that you should take on fixing Combination washer-dryers after getting this going.

And to think you were having all this fun on my birthday, lol, look forward to seeing you guys at the Wash-In, Yay.

John L.

I only got down to Ogden around midnight Saturday and spent the day Sunday doing yard work (OK and a couple of garage sales...) but yesterday, I made time to look into the leakage issues I'd noted with the ABC-O-Matic.

I had noticed a bit of a drip at from the hose to the vacuum breaker assembly.  Piece of cake! A coating of that wonderful blue goo took care of that. 

And there was still the pump housing drip.  No surprise - that original seal was broken and no doubt the source of the drip.  

This got a coat of blue silicone topped with a layer of the flexible black gasket compound.  Worked like a charm!

I figured a full cycle test with water was in order... I was using the garden hose as a supply but the ABC cycled through the 'shampoo', wash, spin, rinse, overflow rinse, overflow water flush, and final spin.  Things got a little splashy, too... 

BUT... I have a new leak when the washer spins. 

It seems to be coming from the right side of the damper plate under the washer.  This drops water on the agitate pulley and propels it around the base of the washer cabinet.  I'm guessing that the splatter build-up I cleaned off of the cabinet base was due to this leak which got into the bearings and mixed with grease to cause the grimy splatter. I also guess the leak is only happening when there is a fairly good level of water in the tub.

Sigh... 

So I have a couple of thoughts (yeah, I know, they're usually wrong...LOL) about where this could be coming from.  It could be a problem with the inner tub boot OR with the water seal at the bottom of the drive plate on the wash tub.   This really ticks me off 'cause I had both parts exposed and they seemed OK (note to self - get eyes checked).   And now I have a dilemma - August is going to be a month of crazy hell with Chris' mother, sister, and 3 nephews visiting from the 1st to the 18th.  I know I'm not going to get out of the kitchen long enough to make a triple Manhattan, never mind disassemble the ABC.  

But on the other hand, I have two weeks still and I'm armed with fresh memories of how to get the son-of-a-gun apart and back together again.  Oy!

And before I go off on another wild goose chase, if any of you other ABC or Kelvy owners have run into an issue like this, please let me know.  

I got lucky with my '59 Kelvinator.  I did take the outer tub boot out and cleaned everything and reassembled the lower boot with some RTV around both the tub and the outer tub. 

You say though that it leaks when the wash tub is full of water?

Ben, it seems to leak when spinning out a full tub of water and during the overflow flood rinse.  I am scared to death that it's the tub seal that's on the tub drive shaft itself.  

Clearly the 55 Norge it's been sharing garage space with has been a bad influence... LOL

It better not leak from that wash tub - I found a brand-new production tub boot!

So, I spent a pretty busy weekend down in Ogden getting ready for the visiting hoards who will arrive August 1st.  Even Hubby was not kvetching about having 9 working washers and 4 working dryers at my disposal in the Ogden Laundry.  I dredged out some sheets that were still in the box from our move from Mountain Lakes to Ogden in '07 and sheesh, were they dusty!

I was still of two minds as to whether I was up to taking the ABC apart again, so I compromised.  I popped the top off and ran some water into the tub in stages, to try and see where the leak was coming from.  Well, it didn't take long to see the drips...  Then I had a crazy idea (correction - yet another crazy idea...) - I tried running some hot water into the tub to soften the lower tub boot.  After a soak, I found I could just get my hand under the tub to the lower boot clamp with a stubby screwdriver, so I tried tightening the boot clamp. 

Amazingly, the drips slowed down!  But they didn't stop altogether so I will have to get that blasted tub out again and have a closer look at the boot.  I am hoping that it's not torn but I'll only know once I get to it again.  I'm really hoping that just removing it and reinforcing the seal with blue silicone goo will do it... 

I'm also hoping to get back down to Ogden earlier than Saturday to take another run at this.  The way I see it, if an ABC service rep could tear the washer apart, change a boot, and get the machine back together again in a typical service call, it's got to be doable...  

Keep yer fingers crossed for me!

This weekend was what I figured would be my last chance to get the ABC apart and hopefully fixed so I made darn sure I left myself enough 'machine time'!  I still had lots of stuff to do (MIL and first nephew arrive tonight!!) but on Friday, I took the 'ol ABC apart again. 

Experience is truly a great teacher - I got the son of a gun apart in 1 hour 15 minutes!  Phil was heading down to visit and hop over the border into Vermont and caught me working on the machine... LOL   But what I was really trying to do was get to the lower tub boot... 

I am very lucky that the boot was still intact and fairly supple.  I had visions of a cracked or torn one... 

However the top of the boot clamp worried me somewhat.

I cleaned the tub bottom opening thoroughly and, yes, you guessed it, added more blue goo to help seal the boot tightly. 

AND I found I had made a really good boo-boo when I took the boot clamps off in my first faulty inspection of the lower boot - there was a distinct flat spot on the boot where the clamp was meant to rest.  I did not notice that and when I put the clamp back on, it was not in the 'correct' position.  Foolish, foolish me...  The lesson learned here is take the time to inspect a part like this carefully. Otherwise, you get to do it all over again like I did!

By the time Phil got down to Ogden, I'd poured some water into the tub.  It was holding - a most promising sign!

I had thought about doing this, but Phil reminded me to put the tub back in and try a deeper water test.  Recalling that the overflow flood rinse is when I first spotted a leak the last time around, this was a must!

With a second dose of water, all seemed to be fine and dandy.  I was feeling relieved.  And hungry by this point... it was something like 8 PM Friday... LOL

On Saturday, I was busy with other stuff (like playing with a 'new KDS55... LOL) so I just let the tub dry.   On Sunday, I steeled my reserves of patience and began reassembling the drive mechanism.  

Amazingly enough, I got everything back together in just under an hour!  It was far, far easier this time - I knew what NOT to do and I had Hubby helping me hold the agitator shaft in place while I wrestled with the drive pulley. 

Of course, after tipping and pounding, I was scared something got worked loose again.  

Nope.  It held vater!!  Note the rarely-seen optional ABC Filter-Circulation-Flow hose... LOL 

So, I just HAD to hook the washer up for a test...  All seemed hunky-dory!

I watched with trepidation as the cycle advanced into the overflow rinse...  How would my boot repairs hold up??

Oh yeah, baby!!  

I did my 'happy dance' around the garage and even sang a few choruses of 'Everything's Flowing Through Hoses' (well until the dog complained...).  I was pretty darn happy.  Even Hubby was impressed - he wondered out loud if the Altorfer Brothers might be hiring repair people... LOL  

So, it may not happen until after the visitors head back to the UK and I would like to do something special to celebrate our 25th Anniversary on the first weekend just the two of us will be back down in Ogden, but I'm itchin' to get the ABC down into the Ogden Laundry for a maiden wash.  Then of course will come the ultimate decision... Which washer will get bumped from its slot to make way for the ABC...  Decisions, decisions... 

Way to go, Paul!  Nothing like a "dry" Magic Minute!  :)

Ben

Paul, very thorough indeed! You'll get lots of years of fun out that machine. I want to mention you should coat the clutch shoes with some vaseline, you can poke it up in there with an ear swab. Very important to clutch operation in these machines as the clutch needs to slide otherwise you'll burn out the motor with a full load going into spin.

And if it gets heavy use then redo this once a year.

=Jet

Thanks everyone!  I'm really anxious to get a load of laundry in this...

Les:  this model of the ABC doesn't have a lighted dial or control panel, alas.  If it isn't considered sacrilege, I'd like to add at least a panel light.  This console deserves to be lit up, I think!

Jet - thanks for the reminder about the clutch!  I had a read post you had put up about your ABC that mentioned to do this.  And I will!  

So, I had a houseful of in-laws for most of August which meant I wouldn't have a lot of time to futz around with washers.  BUT I managed to squeeze in a little time for a test of the ABC with laundry in it.  I didn't show the wash part of the cycle, 'cause I was checking for leaks and didn't want to interpret a splash from the tub as a leak.  

I was less than pleased with the test... I did not like the way that wash tub leaned to the right and I really did not like the thumping I heard.  That 'thump' had been an issue for a while methinks... The cabinet was definitely bowed out on the right side just about where the bumper is.  Trouble is I didn't notice this until I cleaned the cabinet (which was very much worth it - the original finish is still remarkably good). 

And oh yeah... I still noticed leakage from the around the damper plate under the cabinet.  GGGGRRRRR!!

So, back to my doctrine I went...  The 1955 Kelvinator manual made mention of centering the tub by adjusting these spring clamps, which I tried with no real luck.  That tub was still listing... 

However, I also had a 1960 Kelvy manual and for that model year, there were 4 of the spring clamp supports, not two.  I also found it odd that like the '55 manual said, my '57 ABC had the clamps at right angles.  Even odder, there were actually three brackets to hold these clamps on my '57 and surprise, surprise, there was no clamp on the left side of the tub... 

Well, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I put the one that had formerly been on the rear of the cabinet on the left side. 

And it sure seemed to look better after that!

Now, I didn't take any more pictures from here on in (I was hiding in the garage...LOL) but I still had that confounded leak.  Again referring to the 1960 Kelvy manual, the number 1 cause of a leak from the tub bottom was identified as a drainage issue...  It also suggested that perhaps the agitator boot was loose. 

I knew the pump was working well enough, but it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks that I was using a new style of drain hose (2nd photo) that is kinda narrow.  I swapped it for a larger diameter one and when I tried a full cycle test, I still observed some dripping but I also noticed that water was running out of the drain hose during agitation.  Why?  The agitator boot was not just loose, the blasted thing came off during the first wash test.  

Needless to say I was kicking myself for that!  With a little struggling, I got the boot on much more snugly AND I tightened it but good.  Two more cycle tests revealed no 'new' leaks and I was elated...  

I'm not going to get back down to Ogden until the Labor Day long weekend (damned washer convention in Beltsville...LOL) but when I do get back there, there is TON of laundry waiting for me and hopefully the ABC is going to pitch in.  Stay tuned!

Oh Paul, this is great news!  I've enjoyed this thread, and it may have re-kindled my appreciation for these pretty cool washers.  I haven't used my Kelvinator in over 5 years.  I should hook it up this fall.

Ben

Hmmm....  creative plumbing in the Ogden Laundry...  Looks like a 'new' washer has made its way into the basement.

Now where does this all lead to??

If you guessed the ABC-O-Matic, full points!   Yes, it was high time I gave this washer a test-drive.   First, I did a brief test to ensure the water valve was still working and there were no immediate and obvious leaks.   

It passed the test with flying colours.  

So, I figured I was finally ready for the 'Maiden Wash'!

And I didn't make this test easy for the ABC - the maiden wash load is made up of bunch of gardening clothes.  That pair of denim shorts is really dirty!

It's not a complete cycle video (and full disclosure, I was remiss to film the splashing around because of the wood basement floor) but you get the idea!

And here's proof that X-Centric washing action really does shake the dirt out!

For some reason, this reminded me of a detergent commercial where the neighbours were gossiping about how Mrs. X had 'the dirtiest wash water in town'.

But how did the clothes turn out?

Just fine, thank you!  I was pleasantly surprised at how clean the shorts turned out.  And I was also surprised at how well this machine spins - it came up to speed quickly, the wash water drained well and the clothes were damp dry.  Wahoo!!

Well.... no.

I still have to get my sorry behind over the Vermont border to pick up... a window lid for the washer!  A huge thank you to Greg for that one!!

I know it wasn't 'original equipment' but I really want to add some lighting to that control panel.  It deserves it, don't ya think?

As for installation... well....  I did observe a couple of drips from the cursed damper plate area again.  I guess the weight of a good tub-load of clothes shifted the way the tub seats on the lower tub boot and I'll also guess that I'm not going to make this problem go away quickly or easily.  The lower tub shaft seal is probably what needs to be replaced - heaven knows if that can still be found.  In the meantime, I don't think the ABC is going to be a daily driver, alas.  I will make a point of picking up one of those washer spill trays next time I am stateside and near a Home Depot or Lowes (for some unknown reason, these are not available here in La Belle Province).  

This is too cool a machine to give up on and I will still play with it, not to worry.

And now I know my ABC, perhaps it's time to attack a GE...  LOL 

Congratulations on saving a neat old washer most people would have scrapped. And yes I agree the control panel would benefit if it were lit up.  

Yep, that's what I thought, too...  LOL

Gansky1 (Greg) was kind enough to send this window lid my way but with the visitors and the big convention, I only got around to picking it up last Friday.   By Friday evening, it was installed.... 

I shot a couple of videos, natch...  Here's one of the machine as it advances from Shampoo to Wash.   Lots o' suds and splash!!

I still am planning on adding some lighting to the control panel BUT that's on hold for a while - I'm undertaking a renovation project down in Ogden that will hopefully be completed before the winter. And it's collection-related, so I'll be posting about that as things progress.