GE washer motor overheats and smokes during high speed spin

[jack6128]

Hi... new here

Pulled the front panel and watched as the motor began to smoke when spin cycle switched from slow spin to fast spin. Loosened motor mounting nuts, removed belt and put machine into spin cycle again. Motor began to smoke when spin cycle switched from slow spin to fast spin with no load on motor.

No problem with any other cycles

Two questions:

1. What could cause this condition besides a bad high speed winding in the motor?

2. What resistance should I be reading across the which pins on the wiring harness plug on the motor? This motor has 6 pins, numbered 1,2,3,5,6,7. There is a space designated as "4", but no pin in the space. I get the following with a digital meter:

Internal switch in normal position
1-2 - no resistance -- same pin, electrically
1-3 -- open
1-5 -- erratic - started fluctuating around 22 ohms. when internal switch position was changed, and then allowed to come back to resting state, resistance was open
1-6 -- 1.7 ohms
1-7 - open
(2 same as 1)
3-5 -- open
3-6 -- open
3-7 -- 4.6 ohms
5-6 -- erratic - started over 90 ohms, drifted lower. when internal switch position was changed, and then allowed to come back to resting state, resistance was open
5-7 -- open
6-7 -- open

Internal switch position changed with screwdriver
1-2 - no resistance -- same pin, electrically
1-3 -- open
1-5 -- 3.6 ohms
1-6 -- 1.7 ohms
1-7 -- open
(2 same as 1)
3-5 -- open
3-6 -- open
3-7 -- open
5-6 -- 5.0 ohms
5-7 -- open
6-7 -- open

The erratic readings involving pin #5 seem very suspicious. At first, before I began writing down the readings, I noticed this drifting lower of the resistance and was reminded of how capacitors respond to meter readings of resistance, but that was in the opposite direction: resistance drifted higher. At any rate, while taking careful notes and changing the switch position, resistance between 1-5 and 5-6 with switch in resting position is now open and I cannot get the same readings that I first noticed as recorded above. Perhaps temperature is playing a role here. I just heated the motor up with a hair dryer and no change. Then I bounced it on the floor a few time from a height of 2 or 3 inches and it started reading about 90 ohms between pins 1 and 5 again and drifting lower, then back to open.. Bounced it around a few more times and now reading 1.8 ohms... weird.

This is really pointing strongly to a bad motor

Model WBSE3120b1WW

[jumptrout51]

This is really pointing strongly to a bad motor

[JWWebster]

I agree with Jumpy. Ain't nothing special about this motor. Sh!tty design Sh!tty product to begin with.