Washer Drive Belt WP8540101

Our whirlpool washer drum wasn't turning and there was a thunking noise from the machine when the drum should have been rotating.

I opened the top and back of the washer using a ratchet wrench. There were 4 screws holding on the top (at the top rear of the machine) and about 12 or more holding on the back panel. Removing these I could see the belt had become frayed, had come off of the drum, and was bunched around the motor drive wheel. The old belt was still usable, but clearly not going to last much longer so I purchased a new belt. The new belt was tighter than the old belt (which is good) and so took a fair amount of effort to get back onto the drum. I had to hold in place while turning the drum, something hard to do because of the braces on the back of the washer get in your way. But, I eventually got the belt propery seated. I then replaced the back and top panels. All appears to be working as it should.

I pulled the washer away from the wall to comfortably access the back panel. I then removed about a dozen 1/4 drive screws. I had to remove all the screws in the panel and the screws and cross brace directly behind the drum in order to install the new belt. Note: it will seem like the belt is too small when in reality it is perfect. There is no type of adjustments or tensioners that I found so you need to place the belt on the motor pulley correctly and then walk the belt on the drum pulley. Make sure the belt is lined up with the marks on the drum pulley that the original belt had left. You may need to attempt to walk the belt on 2 or 3 times before it finally goes on. If you have any mechanical knowledge you will find this to be a gravy job.

Turned off water unplugged washer removed screws a lot of them.
Removed lower back brace. removed belt. 1 bolt holding motor on removed. disconnected ground wires and motor plug.
wiggled motor out wiggled new one in put belt on and the many screws on the back on turned water back on, plug in and it work like a washer .

I basically just followed the directions in the Parts Select video. The only thing that was a little difficult was getting the new belt to feed onto the drum pulley, but after a couple of tries I was able to get it on. I'm glad the video mentioned this might be a little difficult or I might have thought I was doing something wrong.

I never did the repair because Partselect.com shipped the wrong part. Then they charged me a 2nd time to resend the correct part plus the fees for shipping the correct part overnight which I did not get it until 2 days later. Now I shipped both parts back & have to wait for a refund.
I will never order from them again!