Hi,
The motor on our washing machine suddenly began to spin erratically, by this i mean it kept speeding up and slowing down shortly after this electrical arking/sparks began to appear from under the machine. After i had taken the motor out i inspected the brushes which looked to be quite badly worn, so i replaced these with new ones. Initially the motor seemed okay for a few minutes, and then it started arking again and began to get quite hot, however, the motor speed remained resonably constant. Would it be normal for the new brushes to cause arking until they have bedded in, or is there likely to be something more seriously wrong with the motor?

Thank You

Michael Rose, June 2004

did you clean the comutator before fitting the new brushes, try taking off brushes and with a brillo pad, clean the bronze colored segments where the brushes sit, when you re fit the brushes, make sure they are on properly, other wise the motor will click like hell when you fit them back.

also before you fit the brushes, place your finger on the bronze segments and turn the shaft very slowly, if it feels like one of the segments is out of place, change the motor.

richard, June 2004