How to replace the belt on a washing machine: it is torn, flies, scrolls

The belt is an impor­tant part of the wash­ing machine, thanks to which the drum rotates. With the help of a belt, the drum pul­ley is con­nect­ed to the engine. This design is used in all wash­ing machines, and in case the belt stretch­es, flies or breaks, your machine will need imme­di­ate repair.

Problem Diagnosis

How to under­stand that the prob­lem is in the belt? If the drum of the wash­ing machine does not spin, but at the same time it rotates too eas­i­ly by hand, or if it spins weak­ly, mak­ing a scrap­ing sound at the same time, there is most like­ly some­thing wrong with the belt. The rea­son may be dif­fer­ent, but check­ing the belt is the sim­plest pro­ce­dure that you can per­form on your own with­out con­tact­ing the mas­ters. When the belt fell off the first time, you can try to put it back on. Depend­ing on the rea­son why this hap­pened, the machine may or may not con­tin­ue to oper­ate nor­mal­ly. But if the belt flies again or even breaks, a replace­ment is def­i­nite­ly need­ed.

Possible causes of malfunction

• Belt wear. The most com­mon rea­son why he can fly. If the belt is stretched, then dur­ing oper­a­tion it flies off the drum or sim­ply slips, mak­ing whistling sounds. Some­times the belt breaks at the point of wear.
• Vio­la­tion in the fas­ten­ing of the pul­ley. The pul­ley can spin, and because of this, the belt flies. Check the strength of the fas­ten­ing and tight­en if nec­es­sary.
• Loose motor mount. The engine can become loose over time, because of this, the belt ten­sion decreas­es. Check how well the engine is fixed.
• Defor­ma­tion of a pul­ley or shaft. When the belt flies off, it can dam­age the pul­ley or the shaft itself. In this case, replac­ing the belt will not do, you will have to change all dam­aged parts. It hap­pens that the pul­ley or shaft is ini­tial­ly irreg­u­lar in shape due to fac­to­ry defects. If such a mal­func­tion is detect­ed dur­ing the first oper­a­tion, it is bet­ter to imme­di­ate­ly return the machine under war­ran­ty and demand a replace­ment.
• Cross dam­age. The spi­der that con­nects the shaft to the tank can loosen or break com­plete­ly, cre­at­ing an imbal­ance and caus­ing the belt to break. Tight­en the bolts or com­plete­ly replace the cross.
• Incor­rect belt or pul­ley instal­la­tion. If you have already tried to repair these parts, you may have made a mis­take dur­ing assem­bly. Seek help from the mas­ter.
• The pul­ley or belt does not fit your machine. If you repaired it your­self, you might have bought the wrong part.
• Bear­ings worn out. Because of this, the rota­tion of the drum becomes uneven, which can cause the belt to fly off. This mal­func­tion may be indi­cat­ed by the knock­ing of the machine in the spin mode.

How to change the belt on a washing machine

To change the belt of the wash­ing machine your­self, you must per­form the fol­low­ing steps:

1. Turn off the water and unplug the wash­ing machine.
2. Unscrew the fix­ing screws on the back of the machine and remove it.
3. Remove the old belt: to do this, you need to pull it on your­self while rotat­ing the pul­ley by hand.
4. Put a new belt on the motor shaft.
5. Gen­tly pull the belt over the pul­ley, also rotat­ing it by hand.
6. Check that the belt is straight and cor­rect if nec­es­sary.
7. Replace back cov­er.
8. Run a test wash to make sure the machine is work­ing prop­er­ly.

Pay atten­tion to whether the belt has dam­aged the wires, sen­sors and oth­er ele­ments locat­ed near­by. It is desir­able to diag­nose and elim­i­nate these mal­func­tions along with the replace­ment of the belt.

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