During this repair job, I replaced the outer door cover and door hinge of this front loading washer. The outer door cover had cracked and shattered above the top hinge pin, leaving only the lower hinge pin to keep the door mounted onto the washer. The outer door cover contains the door hinge housing. Initially, I could not remove the hinge from the front of the washer, because the attaching flat-head screws were REALLY torqued onto the washer. My hand held screwdriver was unable to loosen these screws, so I bought a Black & Decker cordless 12V impact driver from Home Depot for $59. This power tool worked great, and I removed the hinge assembly and door from the washer. When you're using the impact driver, make sure you've got the correct sized bit for the Phillips head. You can buy a bit set at Home Depot. If you don't use the correct size, you'll just strip the head, and then you'll also have to buy a damaged screw extractor. Once the hinge was removed, I discovered that the lower hinge arm had been bent, due to the door hanging off just the lower arm. When I attempted to straighten out the hinge arm, it broke off. After a few choice words, I ordered a new hinge assembly from PartSelect. Once I received the new hinge, I reassembled the door, and attached the hinge to the washer. When seating the plastic hinge bushings into the outer door hinge housing, make sure the slotted tabs of both hinge bushings are fitted snugly into the hinge housing. You won’t be able to reassemble the inner and outer door covers if the bushings are not seated properly, I finally got everything back together, and now my washer works great. Using perfect hindsight, I would also recommend that my fellow handymen replace the proprietary flat-head screws which hold the hinge onto the washer. My first attempts to remove the hinge screws damaged them pretty badly. You should also consider replacing all the screws which hold the inner and outer door panels together.
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