Our washing machine had gotten stuck in the agitation cycle several times....it wouldn't cycle out of either wash or rinse, and was clogged with suds. Turns out we were using the wrong detergent, one recommended only for front-loading high efficiency washers. I removed knobs and front panel, then the two screws holding the timer mechanism in. Although it looked nearly new, clearly it didn't work. The replacement part arrived in two days, and was easy to install.- 5 screws holding the panel, and 2 on the timer. tested the washer today, and it worked perfectly.
The agitator broke free while the washer was spinning and it shredded the plastic. All I had to do was remove a little top cap off the agitator by prying it up with a screwdriver, then replacing the cap on the new agitator. Viola! Done. Very easy!
The removal and installation were self-explanatory once the part was in hand. Because the unit is in a laundry closet off the bathroom, space was limited and we had to be creative. Hence, my son's Handy Manny tool set, Turner to be exact, was perfect for holding the ground wire bolt in place from behind the dryer lid so that we could loosen the nut on the inside of the dryer lid. Of course, when I went to put the nut back on the bolt after putting the new ground wire in place, I dropped the nut in the dryer. That's when our son's Harvey the train (a Thomas the Tank engine character) came in handy. My long arms and its magnet were just the thing to get the nut out of the abyss at the bottom of the washer cabinet.