Lg F1443Kd Drum Leaning Back

[greenpete]

Hi, this is my first post, I hope it's ok to dive right in and ask for help!?

I have an LG F1443KD washing machine with what seems to be bad suspension, the drum sits back and at the front, with the door open I can get my hand between the drum and seal.

It's not leaking, just won't spin, it just goes out of balance and switches off. I stripped it in the hope I would find a broken spring but all looks well, so am a little perplexed! I wonder if the back spring could be weak?

Any ideas would be greatfully recieved :-)

Peter

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

I wouldn't expect suspension to cause out of balance faults. They usually detect out of balance loads by the strain on the motor rather than the movement of the tub (which they crudely used to do in the old days). The tub should be held centrally in the casing. I've never known a faulty spring. Does it spin with no washing in?

[greenpete]

Does it spin with no washing in?

Hi,

Thanks for your reply! :-)

t tries to spin, but before it can get up any speed it is vibrating so badly that it stops. Even empty at very low R.P.M. it has an imbalance, so maybe the drum?

I get the impression from videos that the machine has some sort of balancing mechanism, maybe that is failing?

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

With nothing in the drum there should be virtually no vibration at all. Something strange is going on. See if it's the motor making the vibration by running the machine on spin with the belt off. Also try unplugging the machine, taking the belt off and spinning the drum by hand to see if it's the drum causing the vibration. If you can't detect anything, with the machine still unplugged try bouncing the tub around from the top to see if anything makes a noise it shouldn't.

[greenpete]

See if it's the motor making the vibration by running the machine on spin with the belt off.

That isn't an option, it doesn't have a belt... it's direct drive! I guess you're not familliar with this model?

I have decided to bite the bullet and pay to have it fixed. I'll report back incase it's of any interest to anyone else.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

I'd forgot about the LG direct drive. In that case it could do with an engineer. Please do report back, it would be interesting and useful to others for sure.

[greenpete]

This machine was fixed today by an engineer that was recommended by LGs support service.

He came down two weeks ago, looked, took a photo (of the inside of the drum!) and left saying the bearings were the fault and would come back in a fortnight to fix it! Two weeks... I could have gone to the moon and back in that time!

Now it's fixed and he says it was the balance sensor, so who knows, maybe not even him!?

I guess it does at least work... for now anyway...

[drgnb]

I have a F1443kd with exactly the same fault. Drum rotates freely and has no play on bearing but the drum is leaning backwards and the direct drive motor actually touches the back of the case when rotating. The machine still 'works' but you can hear the drum bang the back of the case.

I have opened the washing machine and the drum and motor is supported on a frame from the bottom of the case by 3 spring loaded struts (two at the front part no AGM72924801 and one at the back part no AGM72924802. In addition there are two diagonal dampers part no 383EER3001U mounted from the floor of the machine up onto this frame holding the drum.

On inspection the back spring was very compressed, and I assumed that the spring had failed causing the drum to fall back. I have replaced it but this has made no difference. I am unsure if the dampers help hold the drum forward and up (so I may try changing these next) but would welcome any help / advice before I waste too much time and / or money.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

The outer drum should be held in place with the suspension dampers, the springs at the top hold it centrally so if one breaks or comes off the drum will lean in the opposite direction. If the top springs are OK but the drum leans heavily in one direction the suspension is the suspect. In the old days the metal tub brackets used to bend and cause tubs to twist but it shouldn't happen now.

[drgnb]

Andy,

The design of the lgf1443kd is not like that. The outer drum is totally fixed and the inner drum is suspended inside it. The direct drive motor is mounted on an 'A' frame which goes vertically down and then has a 90 degree bend forward under the fixed outer drum. This frame is mounted off the floor of the washing machine case with 3 spring loaded dampers (all vertical) and two angled dampers. There is a gasket at the back of the outer drum that provides the seal to the motor / inner drum assembly and allows movement

I do wonder if the metal A frame has bent backwards causing the problem so I will open up the machine again tonight and look.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

It's been a few years since I looked inside a Direct Drive machine and they were pretty standard apart from the direct drive attached to the back of the drum. Photo's?

[greenpete]

I have a F1443kd with exactly the same fault. Drum rotates freely and has no play on bearing but the drum is leaning backwards and the direct drive motor actually touches the back of the case when rotating. The machine still 'works' but you can hear the drum bang the back of the case.

I have opened the washing machine and the drum and motor is supported on a frame from the bottom of the case by 3 spring loaded struts (two at the front part no AGM72924801 and one at the back part no AGM72924802. In addition there are two diagonal dampers part no 383EER3001U mounted from the floor of the machine up onto this frame holding the drum.

On inspection the back spring was very compressed, and I assumed that the spring had failed causing the drum to fall back. I have replaced it but this has made no difference. I am unsure if the dampers help hold the drum forward and up (so I may try changing these next) but would welcome any help / advice before I waste too much time and / or money.

Apperently the drum is supposed to lean back, though I am not convinced! I would say though that the motor should deffinately not touch any part of the casing.

I don't know that the dampers hold the drum forward so much as the springs hold the drum in position, but the diagonal dampers do seem to center in them selves and thus keep the drum in 'a' position.

[edhorwood]

I have a hotpoint machine, and it has 2 suspension struts, one either side central to the drum. The top has 2 large springs, holding it centrally back to front of the case. I noticed that the spin wouldn't start and the drum was banging. I opened the door and noticed the drum leaning to my right. I pushed on the top of the drum, and only the right side was dropping and springing back up. This suggests that the working strut is the way the drum tends to lean towards, because that spring is still giving. I purchased two new struts off the internet, not hotpoint ones, but cheaper. MISTAKE. They lasted about 3 weeks. So I purchased the more expensive genuine parts a year ago and it's still working fine. It actually bounces much less when spinning now.

[drgnb]

Problem solved - it was nothing to do with the suspension!

I replaced the 3 spring / damper units and the 2 other dampers on the suspension, and it made no difference. The drum still leans back, and it continued to sound as if is hitting the outer drum whenever it moves.

HOWEVER. last week the drum stopped spinning all together. The motor sounded if it was trying to run but the drum did not move. I removed the rotor from the direct drive motor (2 minute job once back of case off) and found the rotor engages on the drum spindle with PLASTIC teeth which had stripped. Thus the rotor was rotating, but the drum was not.

Ordered a new rotor (£28 from Partmaster) and I note the new one has metal rather than plastic teeth - so hopefully it will not fail in the same way.

Having installed the new rotor the banging noise has gone, so I now assume the banging was from the drum slipping on the rotor as it was gradually wearing out and had nothing to do with the suspension!

The correct treatment was easy once the diagnosis was obvious...

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Don't forget you can buy spares from links on my site 4washerhelp (there's a banner link to it on every page after the first post). The spares are the same price as Partsmaster and many others but using my links help keep my site going

[nads1978]

Hello, I am having a similar issue to some of the above. I purchased my F1443KD on eBay as a factory return with 'cosmetic damage'... or so I thought.

The machine threw up a fault code (forgot what one) that indicated a leak, the float switch in the base had activated.

I stripped the machine down to its component parts, and found the culprit, a sock - not mine. It had got stuck between the inner/outer drum and got wrapped around the drive shaft (see pic). Causing a small occasional leak, which built up over time.

I have reassembled the machine but am now faced with a problem, the drum looks to be leaning back, the rear spring looks more compressed than the other 2 (ignore the colour, I painted it due to corrosion from the leak), there is an obvious gap at the top between the drum and door seal (see pics). Also if I gently push the drum it easily hits the back casing.

It ran perfectly before I overhauled the damaged parts, I'm almost certain it is back together correctly (I fix jet engines for a living), I changed the bearings, the pictured nylon disk, and the rubber bearing seal. I have not run it yet, because the gap can't be right... can it? If I lift the drum from the rear, it does line up perfectly, as if the rear spring is too compressed. Having read other people above with the same symptoms, and had it fixed, no mention was made about the gap; normal/fixed? The white replacement disk/seal is slightly different, with additional fixing points, but think it is the same dimensions where it matters.

I have loads more pictures if it will help.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

That gap between the inner drum and outer drum is way too big. You will always lose items of laundry down there. I haven't worked on one of these so not familiar with it. Is it possible one of the springs has got swapped round? I would expect it's possible at least one of the springs has a different tension.

[nads1978]

Hi Andy, it is the same spring, as it had surface corrosion (from the leaky drum) and I treated/painted it... Plus the other 2 stayed attached to the legs.

It almost seems, if I space the rear spring up from the base, the drum would be in the correct position - as the gap issue is only at the top; but I don't think that is good practice... Also something I discounted is: I doubt the drum would rise up to the seal when spinning, there is nothing that would give it 'lift', although that would be nice as it would be in alignment!

I will have to strip it down again to see if the nylon/plastic white disk part is dimensionally the same as the old one.

[edhorwood]

with nothing in the drum, you would expect a suspension strut to be near the top of its travel, or all the way up. Its no good it being very compressed with no weight in the drum, or it doesn't serve any purpose. How much movement does it have before it bottoms out when you push down on the drum? Pushing down towards the back that is.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Those springs look pretty strong. Looks like they aren't the main suspension as I can see dampers too.

[edhorwood]

If I take the dampers out of my machine, I can't compress them easily at all, they are stronger than a bullworker. Remember those things? lol

[nads1978]

with nothing in the drum, you would expect a suspension strut to be near the top of its travel, or all the way up. Its no good it being very compressed with no weight in the drum, or it doesn't serve any purpose. How much movement does it have before it bottoms out when you push down on the drum? Pushing down towards the back that is.

The rear suspension is holding the rear of the drum about dead-center of travel, it would take ~5kg I guess, to start to compress noticibly.

If I take the dampers out of my machine, I can't compress them easily at all, they are stronger than a bullworker. Remember those things? lol

The (2) dampers I can easilly push in/out, I think you may mean the (3) spring units? If so, they are very hard to compress, I took one apart, to clean/paint it, it was vey hard to get back together.

I'm going to look at another (similar model - 2nd hand) machine today, if the gap around the front of the drum is different to mine I'll buy it and investigate. Although he reports to me the gap is bigger at the top of his, but I doubt it will be as big as mine (hopfully).

[nads1978]

Well, I went to look at the one for sale (spares/repair), and was initially disappointed, as it was the same symptoms as mine - large gap at top between drum and seal.

He said the fault was a controls issue; it had a new PCB, new rotor, and new stator. All to no avail, so with their insurance a new machine was provided; the new one is basically an 'up-to-date' variant of mine... With exactly the same gap too!

I guess it must have been there all along & I didn’t notice it until I rebuilt it... I'll plug/plumb it back in and test it, not with the best linin I should add!

[valimar]

Hello, this is my first post and I hoop someone will come with some useful clues before I'll strip down my washer.

I have a LG F1443KD, out of garanty, that most of the time refuses to spin showing that I have to rearrange load. Doesn't matter if the machine turns empty or with heavy or small load. On the other hand by the tube clean cycle it spins at 1400 rev. trouble-free.

When I push back the drum with my hand it touches easily the back of the machine.

Any help would be appreciated.Thanks in advance.

[nads1978]

Mine is the same, so was the one I looked at, I don't think this is an issue.

When I push back the drum with my hand it touches easily the back of the machine.