You know your washer is A Lemon when there is a song and video about what goes wrong with it.
From this site:
"This song is dedicated to all of the Maytag Neptune Front Loaders and explains a common failure on these machines and offers a solution. The failure is the door latch wax motor, part # 12002535, which will fail on all Neptunes that shipped with them. Once you have this failure your Neptune will not enter the high speed spin and your clothes will be soaking wet after wash cycle completes. For more Maytag Neptune information see http://www.neptunehelp.com."
From what Smokey and I can figure, the wax motor is the thing that locks the door on the washer when it goes into its high-speed spin cycle. If it does not function properly to lock the door, the washer will not spin. We think that the wax melts, allowing the door to lock; when the spin cycle is done, the wax cools, rehardens, and unlocks the door. Whoever designed this li'l hummer had clearly never heard of the KISS principle. ("Keep It Simple, Stupid!")
I would like to say here that every one of those photos of the inner workings of the washer look veeerrrry familiar to me. Whenever Smokey had to remove and/or replace a part, I had to hold the door or the control panel or something. He could look at those photos right now and name every single wire, switch, and microswitch.
The washer was free to us (had belonged to my mother-in-law, who washed no more than one or two loads a week in it for four years), so disregard that $900 price tag. To date we have spent perhaps $50 on repair kits/parts and about that at the laundromat. Still a lot cheaper than a new washer :)
For the record, no, the washer is not fully functional yet in spite of any number of attempts to make it so. We still have high hopes, though -- there are lots of helpful instructions and remedies out there on the internet, plus one guy even emailed Smokey a long list of trouble-shooting steps. Eventually we will get the right combination and part and the phase of the moon will be right and the incantations will finally take effect and Voila! My washer will work again!
Until then you can find me at the laundromat...
