Old Maytag washer banging when spinning

[demar]

I have an old Maytag washer that is making a load banging sound when it is spinning. It only bangs after the spin is up to full speed. The banging is coming from the top of the tub - it sounds like the inner tub is hitting the outer tub. The tub is bouncing around a lot when it spins. The machine is level and is on a vinyl covered concrete slab floor. It stays put in the same place on the floor.

The tub is centered and the springs appear to be fine. I replaced the damper pads and this had no effect. The old pads appeared to be in pretty good shape.

In September, I replaced the tub bearing because it was leaking lumps of grease onto the clothes.  The machine was working fine until recently when I moved it to do some work on the floor trim behind the machine.  It has been knocking since then.

I am looking for ideas as to what the problem is.

Thanks

Model A612

[JWWebster]

They need to be perfectly level to act right.

[theoldstoveguy]

Are you sure the tub cover isn't hitting the top of the washer? When you moved it did you reach inside the lid and move the washer?

[Repair-man]

The answer is simple, when you moved the machine, you did not stabilize the heavy tub first, causing the spin basket to come loose at the tub nut and shift off of the cork surface of the boot stem.

All you need to do is to first set all four legs  square on the floor, then lock them down. Next, remove the agitator only. Loosen the spanner nut on the spin basket  for 1 turn only. Spin the basket around in a clockwise  circle since the nut is loose, allowing the weighted basket to balance itself again, then re-tighten the nut with your spanner. (By the way you MUST use a Maytag spanner on this nut, not some other improvised tool, or it will not tighten properly).


Take note of how the top of the basket rides in relation to the tub cover as the basket spins around during the next  test...just leave the agitator out and run a spin  cycle to peep at the tub top thru the semi-open lid. If it still has a high-spot,  loosen the nut again and do like the tire people do by rotating the tub slightly one way or the other till you find that sweet spot. So much easier to fine tune it this way than to tear it apart any further..

[demar]

Thanks, Repair-man,

That did the trick!

I did go ahead and remove the tub cover.  One thing I noticed was that the outer tub is not perfectly round - it is wider from the front left to right rear.  Is that anything to worry about? Is there a way to correct it?  I pushed the wider sides in and that made a small difference.

Thanks