LW3903L (P1122404L) Amana Washer - Instructions

Removed the front of the washer, then lifted the top up and held it up with a prop. Pulled the agitator straight up and started the disasembly. Using the photos in the hub and seal kit was a big help. The large nut on the output shaft had to be cut off with my dremel tool and the hub removed with a wheeler puller. Assembly was pretty much straight forward. Primed the pump and started the machine for the stated time and was a sucess.

This is not a bad repair, but give yourself some time. I did not have to take the tranny and motor out, but the inner and outer tub and all related parts had to come out, along with the outer tub base. If you are replacing the tub bearing, you HAVE to order the seal kit. Don't try to skimp like I did, since you will need the seal kit as this is what causes that bearing to fail in the first place. We forgot how quiet the washer was after I fixed it, and it saved us from buying a new washer since we were ready to say the heck with it and buy a new pair. You might need an 1.5 inch socket to get the big nut off the spindle, but I was able to get with a visegrip and hammer. The nice thing about this repair is even if you screw it up, you won't have water all over the place because of the seal design. I just checked under the washer a few times for the first few weeks and all seems fine.

After removing the agitator and drive bell by pulling on them HARD, I found that the lock nut and hub were corroded in place. I used grinding wheels to remove them which took over an hour. The internal and external threads needed to be cleaned up with tap and die and the splines had to be filed in order to get the new hub on the shaft. I did not use antiseize compound. The tub seal went on easily and the lock nut was guestimate torqued using a wrench made for water heater elements. The drive bell seal was very stubborn. It is normally pressed on with a special tool, but I had scrap pipe sections that fit the inner and outer press-points and used a large hammer to drive it into place. The washer does not leak any more. Total time was around four hours.

Took off the agitator, removed inner tub, exposing the hub drive. Found fusion between hub drive and agitator shaft. Rather than using a wheel puller as instructions recommended I got my masonry hammer and removed the drive hub in pieces. Removed debris from the tub. Installed sealant around lower seal as instructed. Re-assembled inner tub, agitator with new upper seal. Plugged in the washer, turned on the water. No leak. Happy happy.

I did as the directions said that came with the kit. Except everything came off by hand until I got to the hub nut. Instead of waiting for another shipment and buying a tool I would have used once and never touched again I called SEARS and a technician came to my house because I did not have the hub nut hex wrench. He called it a spanner wrench. Once he used the tool to get off the nut I was in business. Until I had to put the nut back on. I ended up wrapping a towel around the end of a 12" adjustable crescent wrenc and litle by little smacked it with a hammer until the nut looked like it was all the way down. Just to put the nut back on my way took almost an hour alone. The directions said that a puller was needed to get off the adjutator shaft (unsure of correct name), but it came off with a little wiggleing. Once I put the new one on it would not budge off so a small puller would have been needed to remove it if I needed to again. And puting it back on was a chore in it self. I ended up using a hammer and 6" 1/2" drive extension with a 20 something MM socket on the end to force it down all the way. And the shat that the large seal goes over also requires a tool which is also not mentioned until you read the directions. I was able to twist and force on the new one with a little bit of included grease around the meeting surface. For the most part the directions were correct, but left out a bunch of nice to know things that the average person who is not mechnically inclined may not have figured out. Overall the whole procedd was pretty easy once all the tools were available. Suggestions I would make are to say in the advertisement of the seal kit that the Hub nut hex wrech (spanner wrench) and seal tool will be needed inorder to complete the removal and/ or installation. Which are sold seprately.

1st, I removed the top, back and side panels. Then removed the plastic parts off the top of the tubs. Next removed the agitator from it's hub. In the center of the agitator hub was a retaining bolt to be removed next using a 7/16" socket. Had to use a gear puller to get the agitator hub up off it's spline. Then there were four 1/2" socket size hex bolts to remove facilitating the removal of the inner stainless steel tub. Next was the toughest part of my task, the removal of the large hex nut holding the inner tub hub down. Since I did not have a socket large enough to fit the nut, I used a ball peen hammer to loosen it by striking it on it's hex flats in an angle that would tend to drive it in a CCW rotation. It took several blows but finally it began to loosen. Then removed it with my Channel Lock water pump pliers. Once the Inner tub hub was removed, the lower seal was accessible. Removed the old seal from the outer tub flange, and scraped off all the old sealant with a razor blade scraper. Then installed the new seal according to the instructions supplied with the new hub and seal kit. Re-assembled the washer, ran it through a cycle while it was still out in the garage to ensure the leak was fixed and was happy to find that indeed it was. Everything went fairly well if you overlook the slight cut on my right thumb I suffered while re-assembling the covers. It wasn't too bad, a band aid fixed it up.

I followed the instructions that came with the hub and seal kit, which were pretty well written but not terribly detailed. Once I got into the job though, I felt confident that the instructions told me all of the important information--the rest was common sense. If you're reasonably handy you can pull this off.

The instructions call for some specialty tools, which I was able to do without by using the following:

• Drive Bell:
The old drive bell slid right off without a puller--I think I got lucky on this one.

To install the new drive bell I used a long 1/4-20 bolt, nut and fender washers. I spun a nut way up the bolt then slid the fender washers on. I threaded all of this down into the transmission output shaft until it bottomed out. Then I turned the nut down to push the washers and drive bell down until it hit bottom. Then I backed out out the bolt and washers and installed the shoulder screw.

• Hub:
I used a generic wheel-puller I already had to get this off and it came off with little effort. I put the old shoulder screw back into the top of the shaft for the point of the puller to sit on so it wouldn't mess up the transmission output shaft or threads (obvious, I know but a bad thing to overlook).

Drive Bell Seal:
• This calls for seal tool #293P4. I'm sure the seal can be installed by hand but it happened that the two extension tubes from my Shop-Vac were exactly the right diameters to seat the bottom and top parts of the seal.

• Lint filter:
The instructions just say "remove lint filter" but it was pretty stuck on and seems pretty fragile so I took it easy. I used a small scrap of 1/8-inch plywood to slide under the edge until it popped off.

The instructions say not to use the four rubber washers on the bolts that attach the inner tub to the hub if the machine has a stainless tub. Mine has a stainless tub and the original bolts had rubber washers on them so I used the new washers when i reinstalled the inner tub.

I found the 3M-800 Scotch Seal industrial sealant at a local appliance pats distributor. I researched it and it seemed like a specific enough product that it wasn't worth risking the whole job to use something I already had like Lexel. I learned that the reason it doesn't come with the kit is that it requires Haz-Mat handling, which would probably double the cost of the parts kit. One set of instructions I read from Maytag said that "the customer can use the machine after 15 minutes". But the sealant tube says it fully cures in 1 - 3 days. So I squirted out a ribbon on a piece of paper when I did the job so I could monitor the drying time and split the difference, allowing it to dry overnight. Seems as though that's long enough.

I did the job step-by-step and it seems to have worked. The first load is running right now and so far it's dry as a bone.

One thing I noticed is that some of the parts seem to have been updated over the original ones to improve performance. The drive bell and associated seal have a more sophisticated mating relationship that seems as though it will provide a better seal than the original.

Good luck

To remove the drive bell, I drilled numerous holes through the top and split it apart with a screwdriver. The hub was really stuck and due to the unavailability of a 6" puller, I was forced to drill holes in the center section, tap the holes and use a harmonic balancer puller, PB Blaster, and propane torch to remove the hub. After removing the hub, I found small holes rusted through the outer tub. These I repaired with JB WaterWeld quite successfully. The new parts were well made and went on easily in about 45 minutes.

remove agitator then remove center bolt from hub, match bolt with longer bolt so that gear puller will work. install bolt and gear puller and twist top of gear puller until hub is removed. remove old seal ,use sand cloth or emery cloth to remove all deposits from shoulder. make it shinny, use some dawn dishwashing soap to line the inside of the new seal at the bottom and slide into place.take a piece of 2" PVC about 4" long and slide over the top of the seal and tap with a rubber hammer until seal is seated firmly on shoulder. look to see that there are no gaps with a inspection mirror or a make-up mirror.If their are no gaps ,install the hub and tap on the new hub with the rubber hammer. the hub will not seat all the way down so use the old bolt to pull it down, now take out the old bolt and install the new one, this is because the new one has lock tite on it ,your done!

Taking the hub out was a promblem because, with a puller it did not come out. It broke off while pulling out we had to drill it
out had to brake off.You need a 1 1/2 inch deep socket with a impact wrench. It was a hassel but got done. I replaced the whole seal kit and it is still leaking it leaks from the bottom of the tub. It leaks worse when it has a heavy load I dont know what to do.Need help.

We promptly received the part and easily installed it with no tools. We had an excellent experience. We found the old fabric softener dispenser after installing the new one. Now, we have two.

We did not have instructions on how to remove broken agitator. Looking online, we found easy instructions but found it difficult to remove the agitator even though it was supposed to be an easy task.
Our particular model was supposed to "pop" off with little resistance. Not so!
It took some stong muscle and will power to remove the part but putting the new agitator on was simple.

Removed the front panel, could see water leaking from the tub area near the shaft in the center of the machine. Dripping out once the water level reached the hub. Swing the top up, remove the large plastic ring at top of tub. remove the top of the agitor, pulls off easily. Remove the agitator with a firm pull up, not as easy but does come off. Removed the 4 bolt holding the tub. 2 broke off, but not to worry, the new kit has a complete hub. Pulled off the bell seal, pry up. Used an impact gun with 1-1/2" socket to remove the nut. The hub was frozen to the shaft. Tried a puller but ended up breaking the hub. I finally cut it off in pieces and pryed it off (the hardest part of job). Cleaned up the spline with a small file and patience. Installed the new seal kit. Ended up buying the M800 3M sealant on line. I went this far, another $40 for that. Fitted it all back up per instructions. No leaks. All good.

My Amana washing machine burned up a second belt in about three weeks. Prior to that, the spin cycle was very loud. Online research revealed the problem was most likely the hub bearing. I ordered a new bearing, belt and hub and seal kit. The repair is a difficult one as the parts have been on the tranmission shaft many years with the mounting corrosion and mineral build up. I was able to pull the agitator off with no problem. The drive bell would have been easier to pull had I used a gear puller but did not own one. I use two crow bars to lift it off the shaft and I knew I'd be replacing it anyway so was not concerned about damaging it although I didn't. The most difficult part to remove was the large hex nut. I didn't want to purchase the tool to remove it so I used an open end adjustable wrench adn a hammer to remove it. However it took many hours of soaking the nut in sprayed on WD-40 to loosen it. For a while I thought it wasn't going to budge. Oh and btw, the nut comes off counterclockwise on this model. This is important. Other makes of washers have left handed threads, requiring clockwise removal, but this one does not. The hub assembly was pulled using the crow bar method. Again, it was going to be replaced anyway. The lint filter was cleaned and reused. The remainder of the dissassembly went OK using the directions in the repair manual. http://www.scribd.com/doc/8677902/Amana-Top-Load-Washer-Service-Manual. Reassembly went fine using the repair manual accept that the new drive bell was much more difficult to drive onto the shaft than I thought it would be. I eventually got it on using my shop vac rigid tube to go around it and hammering on a block of wood placed on top of it. I also used this shop vac tube to seat the seal that goes on the shaft just before the drive bell. It was the perfect tool for it as I wasn't going to purchase the special tool suggested in the repair manual. I'd already purchased $185 in parts. The kits come with grease but not the anti seizure compound or the industrial sealant needed. The anti seisure compound can be purchased from an auto parts store. It's not expensive. The industrial sealant is expensive. After researching what it was and why it was needed, I took a chance on silicone sealant. I'm not suggesting it is a good substitute but my washer has not leaked after 5 loads. Plus the sealant is really a backup to the main seal that goes on the transmission shaft before the hub assembly. But I'm pleased overall with the parts and accompanying directions and the washer is working great, spinning quietly. This is not an easy repair. It takes patience and a place to work on it. Frankly, with other things to do as well as go to work, it took me four days to complete, mostly due to the difficulty in removing the large hex nut. It might be worth investing in the removal tool if you're unsuccessful using home tools. Good luck.