Thread Number: 73796  /  Tag: Modern Automatic Washers
Mod shifter in Vertical modular washer 		[Down to Last]

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Post# 974904   12/21/2017 at 16:19 (2,309 days old) by chetlaham (United States)        

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When the mod sifter is engaged by the electronic control, is power applied to the motor sifter continuously or is power removed once shifted into spin?




Post# 974916 , Reply# 1   12/21/2017 at 17:37 (2,309 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
the optical sensor

 is always energized and varies from 0 to 5 vdc, via an upsurge resistor on the pcb. A rotor on the gear case acts as the optical throw for the shift when either spin, or agitate is called for by the pcb. It energizes the motor for the shift when it see's the rotor has stopped. A limit switch cuts the motor off when the shift is complete in both directions.

Post# 974918 , Reply# 2   12/21/2017 at 18:08 (2,309 days old) by chetlaham (United States)        

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Thanks :)


But the 120 volt portion of the sifter can remain continually energized, correct?

Post# 974984 , Reply# 3   12/22/2017 at 09:09 (2,308 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
Not sure chetlaham,

 am as confused on that as you are.
The site I read that from didn't explain it.
I am not able to find service or schematic manuals online for the vmv free of charge.
I only have them for the old direct drive hall sensor stator/rotor HE design.
The tech sheet taped to the lower front of the cabinet should have the voltage and current specs for all components. Ironically, mine is missing since it was serviced in 2015.

Post# 975029 , Reply# 4   12/22/2017 at 16:38 (2,308 days old) by chetlaham (United States)        

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Darn tech guys. Here is a pic from the service manual going to the first VMW, not sure how relevant it is to today. I am still unsure how long J16 stays energized, or if its continuous.

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Post# 975069 , Reply# 5   12/22/2017 at 23:01 (2,308 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        
Only active during shifting

 As you can see here, the mode shifter is a simple sychronus motor, like the ones used in timers:






It hooks into the splutch assembly and all the actual shifting is done in there.

There is a small simple switch checking whether the position is set for washing or spinning. That is probably what fails on these all the time.
The assembly also incorporates the speed sensor checking for basket speed and movement. The reference surface for that optical sensor is in the torque converter transmission, and it appears that it is actually 2 optical sensors right beside each other so they can check for direction of movements as well.

What I suppose is that the machine waits till the speed sensor clears the basket as stationary.
Then the shifter motor activates. One direction is shifting wash to spin, the other reverse then.
Looking at the diagramm, if the position switch is open, it indicates the spin setting of the drive system. Thus, spinning should be the normal and more stable state of the transmission.




Here, you can see the transmision system:







What becomes obvious is how shifting into agitation is managed:

The drive shaft that is the input to the converter is 2 parted: The middle metal stem and the outer beige plastic piece.
The middle piece is for the agitator and permanently bolted to the drive pulley.
The outer beige plastic piece is conected to the basket.
That beige part on the drive shaft connects via its teething to the inner circle of teeths on the white dome shape plastic piece you can see on the table in the video nicely.

That white piece is the main shifting piece and has three interaction surfaces:
First, that spring pushes it down towards the floor.
This would usually push the teething on the white pieces bottom flat side (its second interaction surface) into the teething on the upper flat side of the drive pulley. Via these teethings on the flat sides, motor and basket are now connected directly.
The third interaction is the shifting part, the ring with these bumps that conincide with the bumps on the retaining ring that is hooked onto the tub. The flat side of the shifter ring is where the dome part glides on with its little outwards facing lip.

These bumps on the shifter ring have a slanted surface and then a flat part.
Simmilar bumps, just mirrored, are on the corresponding side of retainment housing.
The white dome then glides on the flat side of the shifter ring. This allows for independent rotation of each other, but the shifter ring and dome can only move up and down together.
Thus, the bumps of the 2 shifter pieces are always in the same position in relation to each other, no matter how the basket moves. That is so that the washer surely knows that moving the shifter ring actually moves the bumps into the needed poition and not offset by a bit.

Now, for understanding, you could imagine 2 of these shifter rings, one the mirror image of the other, resting ontop of each other.
If the bumps don't align, the heigth of the stack of the 2 rings is the heigth of 1 bump plus material thickness.
If you then turn the rings so that the flat parts of the bumps align, the heigth of the stack would be bigger by 1 bump as these bumps are stacked now.
However, if you only slightly move them again, they verry easily slide back into the more compact position. Thus, if one of these parts should break, misalign or otherwise not fullfill its job, the washer falls back into spin mode. This protects laundry in that case as then there can't be movement of agitator and tub in relation to each other. If it would fail into agitation mode, and try to spin with that, the basket and agitator would spin in contradicting directions at high speeds, ripping the laundry apart.

So, if the bumps of the shifter ring and the retaining housing align, their heigth as a unit is greater.
As the retainer can't move down as its clipped into the tub, the ring and thus the dome are pushed upwards
This lifts the teething on the bottom flat side of the dome piece up, disconnecting it from the flat side of the drive pulley.
Usually, now, the tub would move independently of the drive pulley and thus independent of the agitator as well.

But the transmission on these machines appears to have a system that makes connections so that if the basket is not driven by the splutch in spin position it is driven via the agitator drive shaft through the torque converting transmission, but in reverse direction to the agitator.
Driving that beige piece on the input drive shaft of that tranny-thing appears to "override" the transmission for both agitator and tub.







Now what I wonder: What is inside the torque converter transmission?
It has to be pretty little and cheap, yet relativley stable.

Post# 975083 , Reply# 6   12/23/2017 at 01:39 (2,307 days old) by chetlaham (United States)        

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Excellent explanation! :)


How does the splutch shift back? Is 120 volts just removed from the synchronous motor?

Post# 975101 , Reply# 7   12/23/2017 at 07:22 (2,307 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        
Motor reverses

 These motors are like microwave turntable motors. One time they are energized they move in one direction, the next time in the other.

So it energizes to shift, deenergizes once shifting is done and only reemergizes the next time a shift is needed.

Post# 975354 , Reply# 8   12/24/2017 at 19:41 (2,306 days old) by chetlaham (United States)        

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Thank you Henene, that makes perfect sense now.


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