That sinking feeling when a washing machine drum seized up mid-cycle

I was at a job in Arlington last Tuesday, had a top-loader that locked up solid halfway through a load. Turned out the previous guy had cross-threaded the drum pulley bolt and it backed out into the housing. Had to pull the whole machine apart in a cramped laundry room, took me 3 hours to clear the mess. Anyone else run into shoddy DIY repairs that turn a 20 minute job into half a day?

2 comments

2 Comments

robin77711h ago

Boy howdy, doesn't that just beat all? Nothing better than finding out the last guy's "repair" was basically a hate crime against a perfectly good washing machine. Ngl, I bet when you finally got that bolt out, you felt like a bomb disposal tech defusing a ticking time bomb made of frustration and stripped threads. Honestly, at this point I'm convinced half the people fixing appliances just use prayer and zip ties and hope it holds together long enough for the next guy to deal with it. Tbh, you should start charging extra for "previous repairman trauma counseling.

gray_gibson11h ago

Honestly, that sounds about right for any job that starts with "the last guy worked on it." Ngl, those cross-threaded bolts are the gift that keeps on giving, just not the kind you want. You probably spent more time cussing out the previous repair than actually fixing the machine. Tbh, I'm surprised the pulley bolt didn't just strip the whole housing and leave you with a paperweight. At least you got to learn the fine art of extracting a bolt from a metal grave, right?