The famous door latch wax motor is the number one issue you need to deal with now if you have the Maytag 2000 Stacker, MAH3000, MAH4000 or the MAH5500A series Neptunes. The MAH5500B is exempt from the wax motor issue because it uses a real solenoid to lock the door instead of the wax motor.
Below is a picture of the replacement 12002535 wax motor. Note the black actuator pin. This is the version you want installed. If you have the actuator pin that matches the body color then you need to replace it asap!
Below is the new wax motor installed in a MAH4000 door latch assembly.
For photos on how to take your machine apart see http://www.neptunewaxmotor.com/. Click on "Neptune Washer Disassembly Pics" link along the left side.
Note: I presently don't have photos for the 2000 Stacker disassembly... if someone would take some I will post them on my website with their credit to help Stacker owners as well.
What happens is that over time the wax motor draws more and more current and this causes the machine control board to get overloaded. The electronic component that controls the wax motor is called a triac, part number 'Q6', and as it overheats it will eventually short out internally. When this happens the center lead of the triac will receive 120 VAC which in turn burns the 'R11' resistor. The R11 resistor burnt on the machine control board is the tell tale sign that the wax motor has failed.
I developed the STAGE 1 kit with wax motor for folks to try and repair the machine control board. You have to replace the original wax motor or the Q6/R11 failure will happen again.
There's more... some control boards sustain more damage than others. For example, on some boards after the Q6 and R11 is replaced the timer will not work or it rotates super fast. For these cases I developed the exclusive STAGE 2 kit. On a very few boards, the water valves will not work anymore. These control boards have to be replaced, unfortunately. I have not developed a repair kit to fix these boards as it is believed that the microprocessor, part number U1, gets damaged.
If you replace your wax motor before the failure then you will prevent the Q6 / R11 burnout. Most Neptune owners don't know about this issue until it is too late that is mainly why I started this blog. To try and reach the Neptune owners that don't know about the wax motor issue.
If your wax motor has failed then more than likely your machine will not spin anymore because the door locked light will not come on and the machine control board never receives the spin enable switch signal to start spinning due to the wax motor not actuating.
I've had a few cases where the R11 did not burn but just the Q6 opened up instead of shorting out. This is the best case failure because you don't run the risk of the 120 VAC back feeding that can damage the timer and/or valve circuitry. You simply replace Q6 and the wax motor and your all set.
If you have any questions about the wax motor issue, please ask me! If you know anyone who owns one of the above mentioned Neptunes please aim them to this blog so they can prevent the wax motor failure plus learn about other Neptune quirks, too.
In my next post, I will address some control board / Neptune wiring modifications some folks are making and why they are not necessary.
Until next time...
9 comments:
Very frustrating to realize that the once great Maytag quality is now down to where a single repair equals approximately 1/4 of the original purchase cost. I am having a wax motor and control board installed at a cost of $500.00. What I am wondering is if this issue will represent itself in another few years
Hi Tom,
Tom, lock the door and send the Maytag repair guy away and do it yourself... See www.neptunewaxmotor.com for a new wax motor and machine control board Q6 and R11 repair kit.
If you have the repair guy replace the 12002535 wax motor and control board look over his/her sholder and make sure your replacement wax motor has a black actuator pin. If so, you will be good to go for a long time.
Make sure to ask me first when your Neptune sounds like a jetliner taking off while in the high speed spin cycle. Those my friend are your bearings calling out to you for some good ole TLC and I will save you lots of money if you decide to keep her running.
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I have read your comments on the wax motor and R11 & Q6. I have examined my control board closely and don't find any indication that either R11 or Q6 are damaged yet my washer displays the exact symptoms you discribe, "no door lock light on and no spin." Is the a easy test for those of us that don't understand how to use a multimeter? I have ordered your stage one kit but I am concerned that it will not fix my problem. I have already replaced the motor thinking it was the problem before doing more investigating. Your help will most appreciated. Thank you.
I think I had the damage to my timer with my wax motor failure. I replaced the R11, Q6 and wax motor, but my timer just doesn't advance. Will a new timer fix this, or do I need to replace my board? Thanks!
Hi Jeff,
Our door lock wax motor and the board were replaced in 2006 so we do not have the defective model there. Our washer is only tumbling, not spinning and the door lock light does come on. We checked the resistance on the door lock wax motor and it is only at 1450ohms. Does this mean we need to replace this part? We were going to switch the two switches (door lock light and door lock) with each other like you mention in your video, but we do not have the right size tool head to remove them. Anyway, should we just jump ahead and order the wax motor? It has a new pump in it as well. Thanks for your help.
Hello Jeff,
Blogger is as irritating as tracking down the issue with my washer! It lost my comment when I signed in so now I will retype it and hope I do not forget anything.
Our Maytag Neptune MAH4000AWW is not spinning. It only tumbles and the door lock light comes on. It has a brand new pump, even though I did not think that was the problem. We tried stretching the spring, but that did not work. We tested the resistance of the door lock wax motor and it is only at 1453ohms. We cannot swap the switches around until we can get into to town to buy the correct drivers to remove the screws. With the motor only reading 1453ohms, do you think we should just go ahead and replace it?
I almost forgot, we had the board and wax motor replaced in April of 2007 due to the R11 burnout issue so our wax motor is the black tipped one. Somehow we missed being told of the settlement repair so we had to pay for that because they stopped the program in 2006. Figures. Anyway, we checked the board and R11/Q6 look just fine.
That is all I can think of. Thanks for your help.
Hi,
If the door locked light is illuminating... that indicates that the wax motor is being energizing properly by the machine control board. The question is... is it pushing the door locking mechanism all the way to the right to fully depress the right micro switch button?
You can have your washer top propped up with door open and you manually push the door closed switch and start washer on a spin cycle and watch the wax motor fully extend in about 45 seconds to see if it fully depresses the right micro switch.
Make sure the wax motor does not scoot to the left at all or it will not have enough reach to activate the right micro switch.
If the right micro switch is fully depressed and the washer will not start the ramp up process (just slowly rotates back and forth) after 1.5 minutes then I would check continuity of the right micro switch to make sure it closed. If you get the switch closure I would then check to make sure you get the switch closure at the machine control board connector. See your wiring diagram...
If you get the switch closure at the connector and it still won't ramp up then there is an internal issue with the machine control board and it will need replaced. See http://www.washerbearings.com/parts and enter your model number to get a breakdown of new replacement parts.
Let me know if you get the ramp up to 90 rpms, stop, rotate back and forth some then attempt to ramp up again thus repeating this pattern and never getting to the full speed spin.
Jeff Hartman
"The Neptune Man"
Hello Jeff!
Thank you for your quick answer. We did the manual test. First time we did not push the center catch piece where the metal bar on the door goes in and the door lock light did not come on and it did not ramp up for the spin. After we realized that the plastic gear in the locking assembly were not lined up and thus the right micro switch was not being engaged.
Next I held down that switch and my husband pushed the door closed switch. This time it worked and the spin cycle worked, forgot it was on max extract so it was quite a breeze! Next, we put the door and front back on as we had taken them off earlier when trying to figure out the problem.
After putting the door back on, the door lock light came on, but no spin again. Now we knew that it did work when we pressed the buttons manually, so my husband adjusted the door and voila! The spin cycle worked as it should! Tomorrow we will run a load of laundry to fully test it out, but I think we got it thanks to your help. If you had not of told us about the manual test, we would not have figured this out.
I think the door got out of adjustment slightly when my husband cleaned out the drain tube under the rubber gasket, and it worked at first and then slid more out of adjustment after several loads were run. Sadly, we spent $120 on a new pump that we did not need, the other one was only 2 1/2 years old. Oh well, live and learn.
Again, thank you so much for your help.
Linda and Alan
Ran a load of towels this morning set on max extract. Worked like a charm! Thank you for your help.
Linda
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