My WFD2473 was making an awful noise when draining, so I suspected the water pump. I removed the water pump, which was just a case of removing the power lead, one screw and twisting the pump from the fluff filter housing. I put some spade terminals on a mains cable, attached the terminals to the pump and switched on. It was the pump that was making the awful noise. After finding out that the pumps are about £50+ to buy, I decided to strip the old pump down. I started by uncliping the top cover, which separated the motor windings from the commutator and rotor - all seemed well with the windings, so I put this piece to one side. I then carefully prised the rotor and communtator from its housing. Inside the housing was a load of gunk and grit, the grit was what I suspect was causing the friction which lead to the noise. I throughly cleaned and then dried the commutator, rotor and its housing and smeared a little oil on the commutator before refitting in its housing. I then refitted all this to the main body of the motor, which housed the widings and re-tested the motor with my test lead. The motor now runs fine with very little noise. I then refitted the motor to the machine and all is well. I feel happy that I have saved £50 even if the repair only lasts six months or so. Whether I have to repeat this process periodically remains to be seen? I have also taken the water feed box apart that supplied the water to the soap and conditioner trays, as the water had stopped dropping in to the conditioner tray. The amount of black gunk inside this box had to be seen to be believed, so I thoroughly cleaned this and refitted. This now works much better and as the main motor and bearings seem fine, I hope that the machine will run as good as new now for some time to come.
Mark Sutton
July 2009
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