FWTR425RHS0 Frigidaire Washer - Instructions

removed 2 screws and removed top access cover. removed 2 screws and removed front access cover. removed 4 retaining pins (one with nammer and punch because it was stuck) connected lower ends of new shocks with plastic pins, extended each shock to slip fit and connected upper ends to wash tub mounts. Reinstalled panels. I wish I could say that it all went well from there but......when the shocks broke, apparently the hit the motor took was enough to cause an electronic failure of the speed cycle control chip. Now Im waiting for that part.

Turned out drum brackets were corroded, so drum and shell-rear/brg and gasket needed replacing

1. Disconnect power and water lines
2. Remove rear and top panels
3. Remove control knobs, Assembly, soap dispenser, and Assembly cons frame/trim
4. Remove all screws from control panel mounting bracket (panel-cont mtg wing bend), disconnect easy wires to get to so you can flip it on it's edge when the time comes - no need to remove completely
5. Disconnect hoses running to shell-rear/brg
6. Remove the motor (motor-Sole) and belt
7. Place foam pad and/or jack with pad on it underneath shell (it's gonna be very heavy when you remove it - two men or a jack required)
8. Lift and remove the two spring/sleeves that support the shell.
9. Remove two level-shocks below shell or at a minimum remove one of the pins on each
10. Remove Spring boot from bellow
11. Lower and remove entire shell
12. Remove the weight, upper back from the rear shell and the counterweights from the front shell (can leave front weights if you want to, but probably easier to work with without them on. Note: be careful, these all crack/chip very easily)
13. Remove the screws that hold the rear shell to the front shell
14. Remove the pulley screw and pulley (may take a little wiggling or tapping with rubber mallet to loosen)
15. Separate the rear shell from front shell.
16. Remove the drum from the rear shell (may also require some wiggkling/tapping with rubber mallet)

Note: I did this from memory, so probably missed some steps - just use your parts manual to ensure you know what you're looking at and it will help you through the process.

Good luck. I figure I saved about $700 to $1200 since the estimated repair costs were so high, I would have simply had to buy a new washer.

After turning off water, disconnecting power, and sucking water out of the tub and drain hose with a shop vac, I removed the front kick panel (took out two sheet metal screws). Then I removed two mounting screws from the pump assembly, and disconnected two hose clamps (inlet and outlet hoses) with a pair of pliers. Very simple, very easy. The pain in the fanny came when I tried to reattach the hoses. The hose clamps apparently require either a special tool or a technique I'm not familiar with. I finally tossed them and purchased two standard screw and band hose clamps which made the final connections a breeze. The surprise came when I found that the motor had seized because of a pair of tweezers that had somehow worked into the motor impeller. Free of tweezers and coins, the new motor works great! To quote another one of your contributors: wife happy!

Remove power
Remove water connections
Pull out washer to have sufficient room to access the back and the top.
Removed the top panel (4 screws at top- back)
Removed the back panel (a lot of screws)
Removed small metal retainer strip on top edge over broken spring
Removed broken spring, hung top of new one.
Pulled up tub to as I stretched out the spring to mount spring to tub
From the back, unplug and remove 2 crews holding the electronic motor control unit from lower left

For both shocks:
This was the most "difficult" part - locate the 2 plastic retainer pins holding the shock, locate the tooth (or tab) holding the pin in place and push the tab in (I had to use some leverage - its stiff plastic covered in grease - a spare screwdriver handle helps to push the tab down).

After pins are removed, shock just pulls out (weight of the tub handled by the suspension springs).

Replace with new shocks (1 pack has a pair), replace pins.

Reinstall motor control unit.

Reassemble frame. reattach water supply lines.

I had to plug in the washer, activate a cycle, then unplug/plug in the washer again.

It helps to have a screwdriver attachment for a variable speed drill to handle all of the screws.

All told - about 45 minutes, most of this spent on removing the pins.

The instructions were good, but putting the spring on was quite difficult. The 3 spacers that came with the boot didn't want to stay in place. Finally I got 2 c clamps, putting a clamp over the spring and rubber spacer, and that did the trick. without the c clamps it would have been extremely difficult to get that spring on. Now it's fixed and no more leaks.

I bought this as much for the instructions as for the part...as I wasn't sure how to get a spring back around the bellows. The instructions were good, however I found that the spring went on best when I had two sets of hands - one set holding the spring in place (with a metal tool to make sure it didn't slip - as the rubber spacer didn't do the job) , and the other hand guiding the spring around the rest of the bellow. Also, when putting the metal clamp back around the water inlet area, I didn't have 3/8" soft copper tube on hand, so I used a couple of other tools to get the metal pieces to wrap around eachother. Also, leaning the washer back on the wall helped make room for my hands to get into the machine and do the work.

disconnected the power and water supply.

removed the back panel.

unscrewed the contol board that blocked access to the bottom of the shock absorber.

pulled the original pins out with pliers while pressing in the piece that prevents it from working its way out.

removed the shock absorber.

placed the new shock absorber in the bottom mount, put soap on the pin for lubrication and pushed it through the hole. Put the top of the shock absorber in its place and placed the other pin in.

replaced the control board and replaced the rear panel.

Take off the back, one of the shock absorbers was broken, it was very obvious. Looked up part at partselect.com, very easy, ordered part, it came in 2 days, the repair took another 15 minutes. There were directions inside the repair part to tell you a trick to get the old one off. It worked like a charm. Why spend $200-300 or more on a repair on a $500 washer when you can do the entire job for about $30 and get it back working in 2 days!! No brainer.

My repair went well except I removed the rubber seal between the tube shell and front door, BIG MISTAKE! Next time I will leave the front half of the tube shell in tack in the washer and just remove the rear half of the shell. If it wasn't for having to reinstall the rubber seal between the tube shell and the front door, the whole project could have been down in under two hours.

Food for thought next time! :-)

disconnected fm water supply and electrical ckt
move washer fm beneath dryer (stacking config.)
removed back, found 2 broken shocks (round type) and 1 broken spring (left looking from back). checked online for parts and found your site. ordered and waited a few days.

back on task, removed controls (lower left corner) to reach pins, removed front lower panel, removed pins and broken remains of both shocks. removed broken spring. left remaining spring to keep tub suspended.

back on task when parts arrived. installed shocks --note that it was not clear that there are 2 shocks in each package (so i order 2 pkgs and now have 2 extra shocks --for next time it breaks away ;-)

crafted a 'hanger' with 10ga wire and 2x4 to permit tub to be supported and/or suspended without unduly stressing new components. attached both shocks being careful to follow instructions about alternating direction and orientation in relation to plastic bushing on the shock mounting points. removed remaining spring and used short length of 10ga wire to pull spring into position and lock.

re-assembled back and front cover... re-attached control circuit. moved closer to water and electrical supply and tested through 2 cycles --no problems found.

put back into position and leveled and locked.

works fine now.

Removed the entire front cover of the washing machine and dicoonected the springs that support the tub. Left the tub down and disconnected the struts and unhooked all the wiring and pulled complete tub out of machine. Removed all the bolts around the tub shell and split the tub shell. Remover the motor from the sheel to make it lighter to work on, removed the pulley on the drum shaft and pulled the drum out of the shell. Found that the cast alluminum spider was weakened by corrosion and this caused the spider to break. The spider itself should be able to be purchased seperately because the stainless steel drum was okay and could have been reused. The biggets problem I had was getting the tub back in the washing machine and getting it suspended by the springs again. I used a 6 x6 block and a 2 x 6 board to lift the tub up in the air to get the tub springs hooked back up. This took 2 people to accomplished. After the tub was suspended on the springs the rest was easy.

I first removed the top and rear panels to expose the shell, then removed belt and motor. I used a 2 jaw pulley puller to remove rear pulley, there are 5 spokes in the pulley so the puller did not fit well but I managed to hook on the pulley and hit the puller with a hammer and it came off. A better way would have been using a 5 jaw puller and installing the bolt a few threads in the drum shaft to protect the threads. I removed the rear concrete counter weight then removed the lower shock absorber pins at the shell and placed shocks to the side, this left the shell hanging on the springs. I decided to split the shell in the machine to avoid removing the front half of the shell, so I removed 20 bolts holding the shell halves together [difficult] and propped the front half of the shell up on wood blocks to release weight on springs. I then removed springs because they hook into both halves of the shell. This freed the rear half of the shell with the drum. I took the rear shell/drum assembly and placed the shell on 2 saw horses with the drum shaft vertical and the drum hanging freely with cardboard on the floor beneath to catch the drum, then installed an old bolt in the drum shaft to protect the shaft and threads and hit the old bolt with a hammer driving the drum shaft from bearings. Do not hit the shaft directly with a hammer, it will dammage the shaft and the pulley will not go back on. I cleaned corrosion from shaft and seal area with very fine sand paper and lubricated same with oil. The drum shaft slid easily into the new bearings on the new shell and I reassembled the machine in reverse order. Thank you to the others who wrote about this repair. The information was very helpfull.
Jim Swanson

Pulled off front panel and found broken shocks. Ordered from Parts Select and replaced within 15 minutes. It was a little tricky replacing as they came out due to poor access from the rear. Make sure to regrease palstic pins and she is running like new.

Removed the the two screws holding access panel on the bottom front. Shocks use two plastic retaining pins on each shock. Used a screwdriver to push down on the locking tab on the plastic retaining pin ant pushed out. One of the pins is behind the water pump and a bit harder to access. I used a socket with an extension to push it out. installed new shocks with old pins and was back in business. Shocks go in a certain way so be sure to look at the instructions that come with the replacement shocks. Note: the replacment shocks that came don't look anything like the originals. Originals looked more like an automotive shock. Also as both shocks were broken, I ordered two, not knowing that they come two to a package. When you order that is not clear. So now I have an extra set, which might not be bad to have on hand. Kit also comes with an extra pin in case you break one.

First I turned off the breaker to the washer.

Then I removed the drain pump motor, saw that it was broken, and ordered a new one with expedited shipping. It was delivered about 36 hours later.

I should have used my wet/dry vac to suck out all of the water remaining in the drain lines. Because I didn't, nasty water dripped all over my laundry room. Lesson learned!

The part arrived at 2:20. I had to pick up my kids at school at 3pm. I wasn't sure I'd have time, but I tried anyway. I first removed the screws holding the entire pump assembly to the floor of the washer. Then I attempted to remove the clamps holding the three hoses onto the pump / motor assembly. I tried with regular pliers for about 10 minutes and finally realized I needed locking pliers. Mine are missing, but I have a stone mason doing a project at my house. I borrowed his and immediately had the clamps loosened. I slid them back onto the hoses, inserted the pump motor into each hose one by one, and reattached the clamps.

I ran a little water into the washer, checked to see that it didn't leak upon draining, then started a load and left to get my kids from school.

This was a very easy repair. The part was $75 plus about $20 for the expedited delivery. The Sears service call would have been $65 just to walk in the door PLUS whatever they would have charged me for the labor and the part. I am guessing I saved over $200.

The worst part was the gross water remaining in the drain lines. This would have been easily avoided if I'd just taken the time to get the shop vac. Learn from me and don't skip this step!!