MAH55FLBWW Maytag Washer - Instructions

We took off the fornt and back of the machine and pulled out the outer tub...then pulled the rear and the front bearings...and the sleeve between...and the support arm...We had only thought we would replace the bearings, but there is a seal in the hub of the support arm that often goes wrong and causes the bearing problem...That appeared to be the case in this fix...so we are glad we chose to replace the arm too. Then we reassembled in reverse order and voila! The machine is as quiet as can be!

Not much to add to others' descriptions of the repair except for two things- one, the procedure for removing the front shroud on a stackable unit is somewhat different than what is described in the seal kit directions. The door switch assembly gets in the way; though the whole repair can be done by one person, it would be better (and safer) to have a second person helping at least during this part. The whole shroud is unwieldy, with two drain hoses attached, along with two dispenser hoses, the door switch/light, and the side & bottom mounting brackets, and it has to be eased out one step at a time. During the last part of this you will have to lift up the front of the dryer at the same time.

Second, our particular washer has a 90xxxx serial number. The bearings are Chinese-sourced, not the good NSK bearings. Though the listed bearing numbers are the same... the rear bearing is held in by a retainer that is permanently fixed into the outer tub. There is no easy way to drive the bearing forward, either, as the retainer covers nearly all the bearing outer shell. The chances are very high that the outer tub would be damaged beyond repair if the retainer or bearing was removed. Fortunately in this washer, the back bearing was still in reasonable shape and had some grease left; I was able to pop out the grease seal and re-pack it with wheel bearing grease. The front bearing & seal are replaced as others have described. The front bearing takes a majority of the load, so others may have similar wear.

This washer was only 3 1/2 years old; we bought six Maytag appliances at the same time, and four of the six have had major repair problems (two were cheaper to replace than repair). That, and the $678 replacement cost of the outer tub, explains why the Maytag repairman is so lonely...

i removed the door,placed it on the kitchen tabel and removed 8 screws that hold the innerpart to the outer part and exchanged parts . there was a spring and a vent piece that snap on and off too. then i reinstalled the door and ran a load to check for leaks and there were none it was very easy but the best part of the repair was that i ordered the part on saturday nite and recieved it on monday , part select .com i thank you for your excellent service.......

Roll washer out of drain pan on section of 3" PVC pipe. Unplug washer & disconnect hoses. Remove rear access panel with nutdriver. Disconnect wiring harness from pump. Disconnect hoses from pump using screwdriver and pliers. Twist pump counter-clockwise to separate from bottom of washer housing. Transfer electronic component from old to new pump. Install new pump in reverse order as above.

*** MY REPAIR STORY ***

*** Rule #1: READ THE OTHER STORIES FIRST! ***

The best tip was supplied by the guy that used a piece of good twine/string to help him reconnect the inner seal cable and spring assembly; the whole business of using a buddy to do so is a lot of hooey. Save yourself the aggravation of using your wife, kid or other mechanically-declined individual, and use the string trick. It is still a royal pain, but it is far superior with only one person, using the unbeatable mechanical advantage that the string gives you. I used a piece of good waxed poly twine; I tied it to a convenient hole near the front right side corner of the machine, and then threaded it throught the spring and pulled it with some good pliers in order to stretch the spring enough to re-engage the other loop of the inner seal cable, using needle nose pliers. Of course, it took about four shots to get it right, but I was particularly anal about getting the cable ends in their originally-installed orientation. In retrospect, it ought not make too much of a difference, as long as you keep the spring near the top of the drum and respect the placement of the cable: make sure it is fully in its recess in the seal, all the way 'round. Additionally, pay close attention to the drain hose attachment and outer seal installation; you don't want any more leaks. I have strong fingers so it was a snap, and there are both molded recesses, arrows and "tits" along the seal edges that correspond to the outline of the machine's mating surfaces. Please take the time to push in all the lugs all the way all around in all positions; your floor's dryness is depending on you. As far as the inner seal cable/spring situation goes, be aware that any slight failure to get it right will likely cause a "domino effect" that will necessitate that you to reinstall the seal along its entire periphery, on both inner and outer sides... hold onto that cable, and watch as you tension the spring... it will cause the inner seal to walk off the drum if you aren't paying attention, and you will not be able to recover the perfect position you had at first. In honesty, that is the only "difficult" part of the job. Ensure you've had ample food & drink before you undertake seal replacement ( and not alcoholic drink, either... ) !

As with all jobs of this type, the end was far better than the beginning... the machine doesn't spew water out onto the floor anymore, and helped reinforce my claim to the "most useful" Family Member status! lol My wife was nice to me for almost a week afterwards... your mileage may vary.

PartSelect.com, thank you so much for not only the right part at the right price delivered fast, but also the forum where others could report their repair experiences in order to give a good heads up to those contemplating this repair job. Super site, super business, would definitely use again. A+

Regards,

Glenn Buononato

I followed the instructions listed by others. I removed the screws that held the door on, and the screws on opposite side of door opening. Then I pulled the face piece towards me to remove it. I removed the bolts on either side that was holding the top on. Here is the part where I had to use my brain. The top would not lift, so I had to remove the cover piece for where the detergent goes. Once I got the top off I just unplugged the wires and plugged them into the new part, unscrewed the old part and installed the new one. I then put my washing machine back together and did some laundry. :)

First I sent the local repair man away. I recieved much better advice from this forum. Partselect saved me literally hundreds of dollars. The local repair man was headed in the totally wrong direction.

After identifying the problem with the online partselect repair forum I ordered the part. It was in stock and delivered the next day.(local dealer needed 2 weeks to get the same part) The repair was fairly easy. The pressure switch sits on top of the water manifold for the pump. Removing the old pressure switch required disconnecting the connector and then pulling it free from the snap clip on the backside of the switch. After taking out the old switch I took off the pipe boot that the pressure swich inlet tube seats into. This pipe connects directly to the drain hose that runs into the manifold. I would recommend this to make sure this pipe is not clogged. The pipe needed to be cleaned as a plug of old detergent was totally blocking the pipe.( In fact this was probably the cause of the problem as no water could make it to the actual pressure switch. I had already ordered the new swith so I installed it anyway.) After cleaning out the pipe I put the boot and retaining clip back over the top of the pipe. This was the most difficult part of the repair. It took some time as the clip is very difficult to replace. From there it was just snaping the new switch into place, plugging in the connector and it was done. After putting the front washer cover back in place it was ready to go.

First, I removed the drum. Removed the spinner support. Removed old seals. Reinstalled new spinner support. Reinstalled pulley and belt. Reinstalled drum. Reinstalled machine covers.

Starting out I found the code that the washer was showing,ND, Meaning no drain so I read up on and people where saying that the pump had a blockage in it, so I took the back of the washer to gain acess to the pump, I took the drain hose off to look in side to see if there was a problem there was nothing in the pump itself so I started to remove the pump I undid the wiring harness to find the problem, the red wire to the pump had burned in the harness order the part from part select and 30 minutes later my wife was doing laundry again..........Thanks partselect for the fast shipping and quality parts very easy repair.

Thanks to all the others who gave detailed information I was able to replace the front & rear bearings and front seal. I must say it was a time comsuming job but at least I am alot clearer on the quality of clothes washing machines. I do believe I could give a manufacturer / designer some design points after working on this Maytag Neptune. I was able to knock out the bearing shaft that held the stainless perforated tumbler inside the plastic tub/drum by using a #3 LB hammer I reinstalled the old screw in the shaft which held the plastic pully on because this would keep the end of the shaft from being damaged. After several blows it started moving I was afraid I might damage the plastic drum but fortunately no damage was done to it. After removing the stainless steel perforated tumbler here is where it really got interesting. The Hub that held the old seal was shot! pretty much deteorated from corosion it seems. Here is where I could significantly help a manufactured/designer out The bearing/seal hub should have been made out of stainless instead of Pot metal/ aluminum or whatever they made it from. After much cleaning with a small wire brush and vacuming all the debree out of the Tub I didn't have much hub left to install the new seal. Also the three armed Spinner was very coroaded it attaches to the back of the stainless tumbler I removed it from the stainless tumbler and wire brushed it the back side was full of crud, it looked like left over washing powder or soap and Corosion debree it was a job just cleaning it up. I pressed on and on though replacing both bearings front and rear. Thanks to another person who explained the easy way to remove the bearings and race I was able to do so without removing the Drum/Tub as others stated they had to do. The Dremmel and a few Cutter blades did the trick I cut a wide V notch in the bearings and the bearings fell out I then cut through the bearing race being careful not to cut too deeply although if you did slightly cut beyond the race it really wouldn't matter because the front seal will keep it from leaking anyway. Anyway when I cut through the race it made a ping sound and the race pulled away and fell right out of the HuB. The front & rear bearings a definately serviceable and it doesn't have to be a beat/bang ordeal. after cleaning up the hub I tapped the new bearings in place and discarded the metal spacer that went inside the middle of hub. I then brainstormed on how I could install the new Lip Seal upgrade and then it dawned on me that since the inner Hub that holds the seal was so far gone and only enough left to barely hold the new seal in I remembered the ole saying Don't Discard just use JB Stick or JB Quick I used JB Stick to fill in around the new seal because it is supposed to bond to metal and it did just that I pressed the putty in quickly before it hardened bringing it out even with the plastic drum where the origional hub should have been and made the repair to the deteriorated Hub so that the Seal would stay in place it Worked! This Maytag Neptune was given to me by my mother in-law she did not want to wait on the repair after I tried to previously repair the problem with it I just did not delv deeply enough into the problem with this washingmachine at first. I previously removed both Pumps thinking they were not pumping all the water out because the Towels especially were staying soaked. Both the pumps were nasty with alot of debree inside of them now I know that because of the deteriorated Seal Hub on the inside had done the dirty work. The Pumps can be easily taken apart only a few screws and the plastic impeller can be gently pried off also that is where I found alot of particles from the deteoriated Seal Hub I then reinstalled the pumps and they worked fine pumped out the water. Then that is when I noticed it wasn't cycling properly also Ha Ha I thought to myself what else could possibly be wrong with this washing machine? Thanks to Parts Select site I wa

The door was not shutting easily and the plastic receptacle in the door latch assembly was difficult to move. I removed the front cover by removing the door and the hinge covers on the other side of the door hinges, pulled off the front cover, and unscrewed the vertical bolts that hold the top in the front corners. Also removed the soap dispenser (4) screws so the top would lift to allow access to the door latch assembly bolts. These two bolts were removed, the wire plugs undone and the latch assembly replaced. Installation in reverse order. The troubleshooting guide explained why the cycle would still not complete after the latch replacement: There was a little water in the washer and I had to run the spin cycle to drain it. Then it worked normally.

The inner door panel was damaged by something getting caught in between it and the tub wearing a hole in the plastic.
Remove door hinges.
Remove screws on sides(2 on each hinge)and 4 on otherside and 2 on bottom.
Pull inner door panel (plastic) out.
Remove doorlatch by flipping up center tab and squeezing sides together.
Remove metal tabs by tilting up the backside and tilting down the front (screw hole side) and pulling through the back.

Reverse for reassembly - relatively easy.

I found your site where other people worked on their washers . I removed the front & rear panels. at the front I found that removing the rubber tub seal was easy, then I removed the 3 agitaters that cover the nuts that hold the tub to the support drive shaft ,I saved the plastic shims nuts & washers then removed the tub,I removed the drive wheel, I put the bolt & washers back in the shaft end & knocked it out with a 1lb hammer.I removed the motor and all the hoses also the front & rear WeightsI left the switches connected to the wires, for everything I removed including screws I taped them all to the parts that they camefrom .Then I knocked out the rear bearing with a 8" long 1/2'dia.piece of steel rod taking care to drive evenly around the circomference of the bearing. the front bearing was in 2 pieces with the bearings in a pile inside the hub because of the spacer between the bearings there was not a lot of bearing to hit but eventually it came out I saved the spacer & the rear bearing clip & cleaned them up for reuse.The face of the crap metal insert was badly corroded ,I cleaned it and all surfaces inside the hub with a wire brush in my drillmotor I found bearings at an industrial store and found NO problem matching the old bearings I ordered the lipseal kit from Part select It came with 2 seals & dubious instrutions I found the revised seal did not fit my support shaft but the other one did ,it comes in 2 parts that are stuck together with grease pry them apart with e small screw driver. I then tapped the new bearings in rear first then the spacer. then the front bearing I tapped it in enough to get it started then I inserted a cardboard toilet roll center folded enough to go in through the spacer & the rear bearing this lined up the parts so the shaft will go throughafter the bearings & new seal were in I used a marine silicon to put over the corroded face & made shure that it snugged up to the seal ,sealing it good I let it set for 24 hrs Then I putthe shaft back onto the tub put the agataters back on, then put the outer shell with the new bearings back in place connected the hoses, the weights, the switches, the wire clips,the motor,hooked up the springs ,inserted the tub, put the drive wheel back on the shaft then the belt , then put all the front panels back and IT ALL WORKED. total cost $36.00 for bearings $53.00 for the seal kit so about $90.00 total & two weeks at about a couple of hours a day .shure beats $650.00 + $300.00 at a repair facility . GOOD LUCK .IAN

Unpluged washer. Removed screws from front and removed door. Removed one more screw on each side and was able to remove front panel, and also lift the top. The boot seal was held in place with a wire and a spring. I unhooked the spring and removed the wire and then removed the old boot seal. I then proceeded to reverse the steps to put it all back together. It took me almost 4 hours. I also used the picture on your web sight to see how things were put together. It really helped a lot.

If you are using the newer style seal be sure the taper part of the seal is toward the front of the machine. Installing it backward will ruin the seal and burn up the motor and or controller. The seal installation tool will fit on the side oppsite the taper. It will require a helper to hold the drum support while torquing the nut on the pulley. Better instruction would help too.