Whirlpool WP8543666 Washer Agitator Washer OEM Part

I watched a few on line videos. Found 2 easy things to check. The motor coupler then the clutch. It took me about 30 minutes to get everything apart and find out which problem it was. Went on line to Appliance Pros.com and ordered the new clutch.It came in 2 days. Took less than 30 minutes to get it on and get everything back together. It was awesome.

Researched typical causes for this problem online and replaced the part that seemed to be the most likely culprit: the clutch assembly. I purchased this part locally and installed it, but the problem persisted. Enlisted the assistance of a local repair technician who diagnosed the correct parts that needed to be replaced: basketdrive and washer drive block. Ordered these parts through AppliancePartsPros, and much to my amazement, received them the next day. Replaced these parts with the aid of one of the excellent instructional videos on the site, and now my washer is working again.

I started by removing the old agitator, which was more difficult than it should have been because the head of the bolt had rusted badly. A 7/16" socket would not grab the bolt, so I had to use the next smaller metric size to remove it. Taking the agitator apart revealed several suspicious parts so I decided to just order a complete replacement. It only took a few minutes to replace the agitator, now that I knew how to remove the old one. I have one suggestion for AppliancePartsPros to consider. All of the parts arrived in a box but the replacement agitator has a few parts at the top that fell out of the top and were loose in the box. Fortunately, nothing was lost, but something bad could have easily happened. I suggest putting a wad of paper in the top of the agitator in the future. This should keep the loose parts from falling out. One thing that was not a pleasant surprise for me was how expensive the agitator grease is. A small container is almost $27. It seems to me that this ought to be $5 or less, but perhaps this is an area where the manufacturer makes some big bucks. Anyway, dealing with AppliancePartsPros was easy (I have done it before) and I would recommend them to everyone!

Ordered the replacement parts, I had to remove the washing machine tub to remove the old lint filter because the new parts wouldn't snap into place with the old lint filter in place. It was a fairly simple repair and the Appliance Pros video was very helpful.

Found that by manually spinning agitator one direction it seemed free, but spinning counterclockwise it seemed to stick a little. Pulled dispenser and agitator and found the agitator washer hole was oval rather than round. Replaced the agitator washer and the washer seems to sound normally for now. Not sure if the new agitator washer will eventually grind down due to non-circular action from the transmission, or if the agitator and clip will keep the transmission centered long term. Should mention I was getting a dark metallic ring around the top of the water level in the tub, but have cleaned also. If I begin seeing the ring again, I'm sure I have more work to do. If not, might have been a simple and inexpensive fix.