MDC5100AWW Maytag Dishwasher - Instructions

Suspecting the problem was a sticky gasket on the old detergent cup lid, I replaced the lid.
First remove the old lid by pushing one of the hinge pins (the one without a spring) out of the cylinder hole in the dishwasher door. Important: before completely removing the lid, note how the spring is installed on the other pin. Then, simply install the new lid and spring and push the non-spring pin back into the cylinder hole in the DW door.
My dishwasher now works fine! :-)

I was able to remove the old handle and place it on the new basket - using only a screw driver.

I removed the plastic retainer that held the lower spray arm in place. After removing the lower spray arm I was able to remove the 6 hex screws that held the cover over the filter screen and the discharge housing assembly. I was then able to remove the bolts that held the upper part of the discharge housing assembly, and replaced it with the new part that I received. The rest of the job was simply putting it back together.

Note: While repairing the broken part, I noticed a small leak under the machine around the float assembly. This was simple to fix. Remove the small lock ring on the bottom of the float. Pull the float out and clean the grease and soap scum out of it. Put it back in and attach the lock ring. No more leak and the water gets turned off when the float activates the switch. Something that everyone should check periodically.

Read the experiences here, very helpful. Bottom slides out first - really easy. The new part comes with rollers, you don't need to remove the old ones. Now the only problem, getting the sprayer off the bottom basket. Look carefullty, you must use a screwdriver to release one side of the sprayer, then it works off easily. Make sure you note the orientation of the base of the sprayer. Reverse steps above and you are done. New tray slides in. Our new tray was a bit wider than the old one so we needed to use a bit of pressure to "shrink" the back just a wee bit.

The upper is easy also. Since the rails are uneven, make sure you put the high rollers on the high side no matter what your wife told about how it is supposed to go in. The end caps snap inward and slide out of the rails. Easy once you know. The uneven rails are obvious once you notice. Total time was 45 minuts, 30 of which was figuring out how to get the sprayer off without damage.

Would be nice to know the factory recommendation for removing the sprayer.

The upper washer arm can be removed by just snapping it out of place. Just take a screw driver and put in underneath the spray arm and pry it out of its socket. It will just snap out its place. Sometimes this retainer will break so make sure you have this retainer before trying to remove the upper spary arm. I removed the spray arm and back flushed it out with a garden hose to get the debri out of the washer arm. The holes are all clean now. Washes much better now. To put in back on just put the washer arm back where it goes and then just snap the clip back in its hole. Pretty easy fix.

After I ruled out a hose blockage I looked in the washer.

Took the washer assembly apart, pretty straight forward, used the parts diagrams on this site for help. Found the drain impellor was jammed with glass and had lost a lot of its fins.

Found exactly what I needed here. Had it back together in less than an hour, and it seems to be working like new.

The replacement of the spring linkage was simple - the pulling out and pushing in of the under-the-counter dishwasher was the difficult and time-consuming part. The repair of the part took less than a minute.

The actual repair -
1. Hook the linkage to the dishwasher door
2. Hook the spring to the dishwasher base
3. Hook the spring to the linkage.

Getting the dishwasher out to be able to make the repair involved:
1. Unscrewing the base panel (6 screws had to be removed)
2. Unscrewing the dishwasher from the counter (two screws)
3. Turning off the water supply
4. Disconnecting the inline water supply from the dishwasher.

Once the part was replaced, I had to return the dishwasher to its original position, which meant performing the four steps (in reverse) used to pull out the dishwasher.

Replaced upper and lower racks. The new lower rack has a design flaw: it has 3 wheels on each side, but should have 4 wheels on each side. When you pull out the bottom rack, the last set of wheels drop down into the open space where the door hinges to the cabinet, causing the dishes to bounce and shake around. Then when you push rack in, you have to lift it back up onto the tracks made for the wheels to roll on. You can't pull the bottom rack out far enough to access the back of the rack very well.

Removed old gasket and foam strip. Cleaned area. Installed door gasket. Trimmed foam strip to fit and installed.

Leak has stopped!

First I disconnected the dishwasher electric, water supply and discharge hoses. I then pulled the dishwasher out. After opening the door, I removed the retainer clip holding the upper wash arm, then the nut holding the top shower hose in place. Close the door and lean the dishwasher on its side to get at the underside where the other end of the hose is. Loosen the hose clamp and remove the top shower hose. Reassemble everything in reverse order. In hindsight, I didn't need to buy the new hose clamp or the tub top washer (I reused the originals). Good luck!

I removed the seven screws from the back panel of the door (special tool) and seperated the back panel from the front. My wife held the back up and I removed the two wax motors (detergent cup and rinse aid), which were clipped in place. I had turned off power to the dishwasher, so I simply unplugged each wax motor from the wiring harness, plugged the wax motors in and clipped them in place, making sure that the wiring harness was put back in the same place. Then I put the back panel back on the door, turned the power on and tested the repair. The dishwasher worked perfectly. Thanks to PartSelect for helping me solve the problem. The parts arrived in two days!

Most all of the workable parts on a dishwasher are accessed thru the bottom. Luckily ours is portable. Took the dishwasher to the garage, flipped it on its back on my motorcycle/ATV jack. that makes it so much easier because you can raise it up 24". Used the schematic from Part Select and found the water valve. Removed two screws, two wires and two clamps and viola, water valve comes out. Installed the new one, and reassembled, I thought. I left off the hose that connects to the wash drum. Started it up and had water all over the floor immediately. Took to the garage, flipped it back over and realized what I had done. Felt like a moron. Reconnected hose like it was supposed to be and it runs great.

We simply removed the old gasket which was corroded, cleaned up the hard water buildup, and popped the new gasket into place. The problem was fixed! No more leak!

I took out both wax motors - tried switching the motors on the rinse dispenser and soap dispenser but they were both dead - new motors from partselect arrived fast - simple installation if you have the torx screwdriver for the door inner panel.

After removing parts, cleaned both upper and lower spray arms, blew out lead to the upper arm, and started to install the new parts.

Unfortunately, the Pump Housing Filter was still cold (freezing weather during shipment and left at the front door) and when I started to bend it into shape it broke in two places. So I tolk the old filter and some Lime away and slowly cleaned it with soft brush to open 95% of the holes.
Once ready it was installed along with the other new parts and the dishwasher works very well.

Simple homeowner repair.