if the bearing(s) have gone on your machine it is proberbly beacause the seal is leaking. On my machine i had to replace the spider - the part the drum bolts to and seal and bearings. after shopping round i got these for £82. The machine has to be totally stripped -this took me 2 hours. I started from the back and removed the coils and worked inwards. on reflection im not sure if the steel back plate has to be removed as the bearings are removed from the other side. The drum has to be removed - 3 springs and two dampers + pluming. to get the drum out the water soleniods have to be moved out of the way. the drum then has to be split - lots more bolts. Now the bearing shaft (spider) can be drifted out. The seal had put grooves in the shaft so i did not risk re-using and ordered a replacement. The spider (bearing shaft) took some getting off as the 3 stainless screws corrode into the alumimium spider - lots of heat required.
the job is not to difficult however if you had to cost the labour it would not be worth it. I only reaired it because xmas had cleaned me out - ha ha
dave
January 2008