3RMTW4905TW0 Maytag Washer - Instructions

There are youtube vids on how to get the thing open. I just wish I'd known the following: 1.remove agitator BEFORE opening the unit up and leaning it back (much easier to work inside the tube with it upright). 2. be aware that a free-floating part known as the skate plate can dislodge while the unit is on it's side/back. It is a generally triangular piece of flat-ish metal between the base of the tub and the top of the drive-train chassis. If it doesn't line up properly after you replace the parts you're going to get a noisy, clanking spin cycle the next time you run the thing (as I discovered).

The prooblem started with the hole in the bottom frame, for tub spring wore through, spring fell off, then a spring retainer worn broke in 2 releasing 1 suspention spring. All springs were about to fail, metal very thin at at the contact points. Drilled a new hole for the new suspension spring, replace all 3 brackets, worn also, springs, and retainers with a small dab of grease at the contact points. The new springs mad the tub more stable than before the failure, and silent when spinning or washing. Be careful to get the springs in the right direction, then the spring comes over the outside the brackets and retainers, other way they rub in spots. On this machine one was backwards from the factory 18 years ago, surely that accounts for more stable running.

Took the cabinet apart really easily with Part Selects helpful video. Removed old suspension springs by removing outer brackets on two of them and by using pliers on the third one. The tub spring was totally missing. Put on two new brackets and springs with the nut driver. Then stretched the third spring into place. Replaced the tub spring by stretching into place and then put cabinet back together. All done very quickly!!! Now it works perfectly and runs very quietly.

First, unplug the unit. Remove the two screws on each side of the control panel on the back. They are located at the top corners of the unit. The base is held on by clips you press in on from the bottom. You will have to reach in over the tub and press in on clips, one each on the far side. At the left, you will be able to feel the lid switch, the clip is just to the left of the switch. It is about ½ inch wide, press firmly with your thumb. You may want to wear glove for this unless you like battle scars. Once done the control panel should hinge up. The switch is on the left side. To remove the switch, I first detached the wire harness to the control panel and unscrewed the grounding wire. Open the lid and the switch pulls right out. The new switch drops right in. Attach the wire harness and grounding wire. Place the control panel back side first at an angle making sure the back metal panel is lined up, once in place it should snap back in place when pressed down firmly. You might have to reach in over the tub again and pull the clip down (keep Band-Aids on hand). Plug the unit back in and you are good to go. Raise and close the lid, you should here the switch click on and off.

Follow the video to remove the cabinet. Did NOT have to lay the unit on its back in order to replace all 5 springs. These may be easily replaced with the washer standing upright. The back Suspension Spring was removed by using the access hole in the back of the washer to remove the screw holding the back spring bracket in place. Reassembled the cabinet per the video. Except for moving the washer around, this was an extremely easy repair. To facilitate moving the washer - use Moving PADS placed under the 4 feet of the washer.

Disconnected electrical and then water inputs on the rear of the cabinet. Tipped the machine onto its front. Found that a spring was unhooked and dangling from a bracket. I searched for the location to secure the spring and found a hole on the rear base of the cabinet rusted through. I drilled another mounting hole nearby, Since the original spring had also broke, I replaced it with a new one from PartSelect, securing it between its bracket and the new retaining hole. Returned the machine to its upright position, reconnected water input lines, then its electrical. The machine works fine once again.

Unplugged washer, took out screws that held on the dial panel, lifted dial panel, disconnected the ground wire, released the clip, lifted the lid which released the switch. Installed new switch closed the lid which holds it in place set the clip connected ground wire reattached dial panel secured it with the screws, plugged the washer back in and I was on my way the conquer that pile of laundry that had built up.

Replaced the Outer tub. Of course, unplug first. Then open the lid, pop out the fabric softener dispenser, then take a socket and remove the bolt. to take out the agitator. Then once the agitator is out, take the lock nut off of the drive block with a punch and hammer. The spanner wrench tool would be perfect, but a punch and hammer gets the job done and in the real world where you can't buy special tools for every job, it's a good compromise. Once you get the lock nut off, take the Inner basket out and take the drive block off and inspect. The drive block is often a cause for a no spin situation as I found out... Look at a picture of a new drive block and if yours doesn't look like a new one, then it's worn and you need a need a new one. Once the drive block is removed wiggle the tub while pulling up and it should slide off. Then, make sure you put a new seal in the new outer tub and reverse the procedure. Don't even bother trying to re-use the old seal, it's not worth it and will probably leak after trying to pry it out of the old tub. I'd also recommend buying a new tube for the bleach dispenser because it's really hard to re-use the old one, but that's why I needed the pliers...It worked, but was quite difficult to remove from the old tub and install in the new one. That's a basic overview of how to do the repair. It wasn't all that hard, and it fixed the washer....after I replaced that worn drive block too :) It's like new again.

First, I moved the washer with water in it from the wall. Then, I removed two screws with a phillip head screwdriver from the back cover to the controls. Then I used a little bitty wrench to remove two small bolts that also held the back cover of the controls to the rest of the washer. The control panel was all attached, so it had to lay forward on the washer to remove the broken lid switch and then to install the new lid switch. There was one screw that I removed with a phillip head screwdriver. I removed the broken part and placed the new part into the hole. Then I had to move the control panel with limited space to lift the lid of the washer; the part would not fit property without lifting the lid. Once it fit into place, I closed the lid and replaced the screws and bolts. It worked beautifully. Thank you for your online help and the remarks from other people who had previously fix this lid switch.

I replaced lid switch. Take off two screws off the back of insterment panel. Unscrew switch and unplug. Then reverse. Easy!!

When I pulled the machine out, I noticed one of the suspension springs on the floor. I followed the video supplied by PartSelect.com and suggestions by other folks. I started with the spring that was missing, which was a mistake since I did not know that there are custom spring clips which hold the spring to the drum. Once I found the missing part the installation was very easy. I used the suggestion by another post, of wedging a block of wood between the back of the machine and drum, to relax the rear suspension spring, which eliminated having to remove the back of the machine or tipping the machine on the back to get at the screw. I will always look to PartSelect.com for any future appliance repairs. You are the greatest

Unscrew the screws from the back of the control panel and lift the panel back. The lid switch is on the top left side of the washer. I unscrewed the ground wire, lift the lid switch out and replaced it. Then I reversed the whole process to put it all back. All being three srews and the lid switch. There was no need to remove anything else. It could not have been any easier.

Very old washing machine began to make a horrible noise and agitator would attempt to agitate during spin cycle. Eventually determined that the problem was in the transmission. The way the transmission works is that when the motor runs in one direction a metal fork pushes on a cam mechanism and lifts a spring loaded gear on the agitator shaft from the gears that make it move, putting it in neutral so that it can spin freely with the basket in the spin cycle. When the motor runs the other way the same fork pulls on the cam and drops the gear down so that it engages with the agitator mechanism. The problem was that the plastic cam pieces on the base of the shaft had worn down to the point where they where not fully lifting the gear clear and it was partially engaging with the drive mechanism. Repair was relatively straight forward except the YouTube video that I was using showed the parts on upside down. All the other transmission parts are labeled with TOP on one side but oddly the cam pieces are not marked. For reference the U shaped protrusion on the cam parts goes on the top of the assembly, not the bottom. All in all it took me about 12 hours to do this fix, but at least 10 of that was simply trying to figure out how the mechanism worked and tracking down the problem. Be sure to refill the transmission case and use some RTV sealant to seal the cover back on when you are done, just like you would for an oil pan on an engine.

First off, the replacement lid switch worked and repaired the washer. However, the replacement procedure was very difficult. I attempted to follow the directions off of the website, and then a video from YouTube. I was intstructed to remove two screws from the back of the control panel which in turn would flip up so I could get to the old lid switch and replace it. However, there were no screws on the back side of the control panel so I removed the back panel of the washer to get to the lid switch. That was a very time consuming and laborious procedure and because the back panel was installed under the molding of the control panel I had to bend the heck out of the back panel to remove it. The good news is that the replacement of the lid switch corrected the problem. The bad news was that it was the wrong procedure on getting to the part that needed replacement. I wish that I could have found the proper procedure form my particular model.