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Replacing the drum bearings on a Hotpoint WMA57P washing machine
This is not intended as a full guide to replacing your drum bearings but is rather additional information that might be useful to you if you are considering doing this work on your washing machine. It is tempting to try and do this job yourself because the cost of replacement bearings on eBay is only about £13. There are videos on YouTube showing you how to replace the bearings. They make it look easy, it is not. The bearings were never meant to be replaced and the work is very difficult. I managed to replace my bearings and I am happy with the results and other people have also replaced theirs. How many have failed I do not know but I suspect it may be lots. You need to take into consideration the following information before undertaking this task.
You need to be strong and in good health, if not you might actually damage your health.
You need lots of spare time to carry out the work. It took me a couple of days to complete.
Hammering out the bearings is very noisy. You will need to wear ear protection. It took me about three hours to get the bearings out and another two to hammer in the new ones.
When removing the internal bearing I used a bearing puller as well as a hammer. It was that tight.
Your neighbours and family are likely to be very annoyed at the noise you will make. You need to take into account if you have small children or frail neighbours and schedule the work when it is going to cause less nuisance. Ideally do it when they are out.
You will need a large hammer that you can use repeatedly without missing the drift that you use to remove the bearings. You do not want to hit your hands. I used a bricky's hammer and that was ideal although I wonder if a bigger one would be better. A claw hammer that you might use for nails would be no good.
You need hand and eye protection.
The drifts that you use must be up to the job. When hammering the internal bearing back in use a proper drift that will take the amount of hammering. A soft steel bar will not do the job.
When inserting the new bearings do not hit the inner ring or the seal between the rings.
I've pictured some of the tools I used below.
The angle grinder was used to remove deformation of the old spider shaft from where I hammered it out. The video I saw on YouTube suggests using a piece of wood to prevent damage to the end of the shaft but my shaft was badly rusted in and wood just breaks. So I had to hammer directly on the shaft. I reused my shaft but I have now bought a new one and will replace it because three of the arm screws had completely rusted away on the old one. Leaving only three of the six left.
The hammer screwdriver was used to remove some of the case screws where the heads of the screws were badly rusted. I replaced those screws with new ones.
The wire brushes were used to clean up the old shaft and did a good job. I would have been able to keep the old spider if the screws had been ok. I think you are likely always going to have to replace the spider.
The first time I took the machine to pieces I tried a method I saw in a video on YouTube to remove the two plastic pins under the drum. This uses a thirteen mm. ring spanner to press in the pin clip. It did not work well. The second time I took the machine to pieces I used a fifteen mm. copper pipe connector which I hit with a hammer to flatten it slightly so it was a smug fit on the plastic pin. I then knocked out the plastic pins with an old bolt. That worked much better and the plastic pins came out fairly easily.
The rubber mallet was used while removing the old spider from the drum. After drilling out the screw heads it was a matter of levering the spider and hitting the drum with the rubber mallet. I used extra metal plates behind the spider arm to try and prevent damage to the back of the drum. The back rim of the drum is slightly bent but it doesn't seem to cause a problem.
Do not loose the plastic pieces that the drum support springs go through.
There was an empty position on the motor plug on my machine, check and make a note before removing the plug.
My machine had a 35mm shaft, later ones may have a 30mm shaft. I see in one of my photographs that the back of the drum has a Ø35 number on it which may specify the shaft diameter. On the latest machines you can not replace the bearings because the drum housing is a welded one piece unit that can not be split.
Make a note of the belt position on the motor pulley before removing it. The belt is a stretch belt and you need two hands on the large pulley to guide it off and on. Fit the motor before replacing the drum because when fitted there is not enough room to get two hands down the back of the drum. If you need to fit the belt with the drum in place lift one of the support springs and hook it in a hole towards the front and that will give you more room behind the drum.
The hoses from the bottom of the drum are likely to be full of sediment and will need cleaning.
After you re-assemble the washing machine you may find that small flakes of sediment come out of the waste for several washes. These may block your waste pipe making the machine stop with three lights on. Be prepared to clear your waste pipe several times after doing the repair.
The information here is just to help would be DIY fixers. I take no responsibility for anything you do. Any risk associated with DIY fixing this unit is yours.
I originally thought that three of the spider screw heads had rusted away but when I replaced the spider a few days later I realised that only three were ever fitted.
This is the new spider attached to the drum. It now has six screws instead of the original three. The shaft has black grease on it which makes it look old but it is shiny new under the grease. Notice the slight bending of the drum edge which I did when removing the old spider. It doesn't appear to effect the drums performance which still rotates true. I fitted all six screws and tightened lightly and then removed each one in turn applying thread lock fluid and then refitting and tightening properly.
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