Maytag washer blows fuses after unbalanced load

[everysandwich]

Well, I attached the green wire to the front panel faceplate. Then it stopped again while filling with water. My wife says it stopped as she was lowering the lid. Now the fuse is *not* blown, so maybe that fuse switch is flakey as noted above. We sure blew enough fuses troubleshooting it. I put a new timer in this about six months ago, incidentally. I'm beginning to think it's time to start with a new washer. Didn't maytags used to last longer than ten years?

[HayZee518]

I sometimes work on maytag commercial washers around where I live. this guy that runs the laundromat has 12 maytag machines from circa 1989. occassionally we change belts and I have replaced a drive motor, other than that not much has gone wrong. be careful inside the machines. what may look like a ground wire just because it's green may NOT be a ground but part of the washer's electrical circuit. There's a green wire in my machines that has a hint of a black tracer on it AND it is NOT a ground!

[everysandwich]

Thanks, Hayzee. Another reason I think this is a ground wire is because it's connected at a tab with the green wire from the chassis. In other words, a green wire screwed to the chassis goes to a tab on the timer. From that tab sprouts this wire with the meat cleaver end. Only when I attached it to the faceplate did the machine come to life. That's when we thought all was well -- until it simply stopped filling with water. This time though, the fuse did *not* blow, so that's why I think attaching the green wire to the faceplate solved at least one problem. It might be coincidence, but my wife was lowering the lid both times when the water stopped, which makes me suspect some other switch.

[HayZee518]

I've got a blueprint on the maytag-s I work on. On the timer itself is a ring tongue wire terminal with the color green that grounds out the metal frame of the timer to chassis ground. The lid switch of the machine starts and stops the machine whenever the lid is raised. The tub fill switch is a diaphragm switch that connects to the tub with a hose. The tub fill also comes off a cam on the timer. The so called meat cleaver thingie is called a spade terminal.

[everysandwich]

Thanks, captain. I'm getting appliance smarter each time I come here, though admittedly I'm starting at a pretty low level. So yesterday the wife bailed out the water from then the machine stopped filling and would go no further in the cycle. This morning I started it again and kept the lid closed. It filled up again and stopped, again refusing to go through the cycle. Maybe unattached spade connector and the repetitive fuse blows have trashed my timer?

[everysandwich]

update -- washer is dead as a doornail after it stops filling, though fuse is good. Advancing the timer does not bring it to life.