washing machine not agitating

wife complained about washing machine making bad noise and she said it was not spinning. So being the good husband that I am, after she yelled at me 8-10 times I stopped what I was doing and sure enough she was right , the washing machine wasn't working correctly. Started testing the agitator by spinning it back and forth. it would only catch on the dogs every once in a while. the washer is only 3 years old, thought maybe one of the kids toys or lint was interferring with the dogs, pulled this dispenser off the top and then another plastic cap with a black o-ring off and found the agitator and dogs gears worn down and chipped. think it was a 3/8" socket I used, but you need a long extension to get to it. Part was labelled well and it was very easy to order. problem I had was when the new parts came in I had ordered the agitator repair kit ($16) and the thrust spacer ($5). Well it's not that $5 is alot of money but the spacer I had was worn and I was in there anyway so why not. The agitator repair kit comes with a thrust spacer but it was not shown on the otherwise very detailed pictures. So it would cost more for me to pay the shipping to return the unused part than not. the agitator repair kit description reads "This nine piece agitator repair kit comes with a two and a half inch cam, a thrust spacer, and four dogs (agitator dogs) but the thrust spacer is not shown. You could say I was 30% more into parts cost and make it sound worse. Had I been an actual repair man instead of a home do it yourself kind of person, probably would have known to call and speak with a rep vice going at it online solo. anyway, 5 minutes and the washer was back up, wife was happy, and I was able to continue with what i was originally doing.