Have just replaced mine and it’s a swine of a job. First you need to undo remove all the bolts from the drum back-plate. Next remove and dismantle the inner drum and use a grinder to remove the rivets that hold the inner drum to the spider. The spider is the three legged support that the inner drum is bolted to. My spider was corroded and one of the legs snapped off so had to buy a spider and bearing kit £50. if your machine is 20 years old then yours may be duff too. Drive out the old spider shaft and bearings by drifting out with a big hammer. Use blocks of wood to support the back-plate while hammering. Once removed, clean everything up and refit new bearings etc. Refitting is much easier simply because new parts are not all rusty and covered in crud. Use stainless steel bolts to reattach the drum back onto the spider. My spider kit came with new bolts etc. Then put the inner drum back in the machine, using a new seal £8. I also fitted a new door seal while I was at it £10. I suppose you really need to decide if your machine is worth the effort. The total cost was £68 and took me a weekend. Im sure a pro could have done it more quickly, but it saved me the cost of a new machine and I quite enjoyed doing it. Think that’s about it, hope this helps.
chris, December 2007
