The machine must have been badly out of balance and now the wide rubber seal in front of the drum is distorted / buckled around the lower half. It still seems to work (we tried a small load) but can the rubber be easily removed at the rear, and refitted to remove the distortion? There are no tears apparent.

Hi Paul.
What you're describing is probably the inner drum rubbing on the door seal.
It could be because the rear bearing assembly has collapsed or because the drum is distorted.
Turn the drum slowly by hand and see if the gap between the rim of the drum and the rubber seal stays the same. This will tell you if the drum is 'round' or bent out of shape.
Alternatively, if the drum flops up and down inside the outer drum it would be because of bearing collapse
Either of these situations would require a service visit and parts.
Get a quote...
Good luck.
Nomess

Be sure both lower and upper halves are correctly connect together

Wow, check around the bellows, gray rubber seal in front between the stainless basket, remove any item. Didn't find anything now unplug unit remove top and lower machine covers. Run the flashlight along the outer tub while looking inside the stainless basket, locate any items that may jam rotation of the inner basket and remove.

There are three reasons for a spinning washing machine drum to knock:

1. It is out of balance owing to an unevenly balanced clothing load, with possibly a belt buckle, button, or other hard object knocking from within the drum.
2. A drum suspension support has worked itself loose and needs re-tightening
3. A worn or partially split drive belt or possible crack in the pulley wheel

A solution to number 1. is simply to distribute the wash load evenly.

Solution no. 2. will require removal of the rear carcass cover to access the drum suspension connections. Sheet metal screws are the usual fasteners for this cover. First unplug the electrical supply. Get someone to roughly force the drum to move laterally side to side and up-down, from the front of the machine, while you look and listen from the rear, for signs of looseness at suspension joints. A perished rubber bushing may have partially disintegrated so look for signs of black rubber dust or debris. Another rare possibility may be excessive play in the bearings which support the drum. Excessive play in the bearings---if severe---may be felt again through very gentle lateral drum movement, but first proving no play exists in the suspension joints beforehand, otherwise confusion will result.


Solution No. 3. requires inspection of both drive belt and drum pulley wheel for any signs of wear or cracking. First have someone rotate the drum by hand from the front of the machine while you check out the belt and pulley---mind your fingers! If you still haven't located the source of the noise, try running the machine empty of water through its spin cycle while you observe from the rear. Keep your hands well clear of moving parts while doing so.

With the washer empty, tilt it front a few inches and drop it back down. This will re-level the legs. If it still jumps around, replace the drum snubber, inside the front of the machine. It's a rubber pad that keeps the drum from moving around too much. Snubbers dry out with age.

are you talking about the rubber gasket that is on the vibration damper (balancer) or the front timimg chain cover seal that goes around harmonic balancer? if its the balancer, the the two piece unit is not balanced and the rubber dampner gasket is worn and as the balancer goes around at 700-4,000 revs per minute it wobbles ever so slightly and pushes out rubber seal or pad.

YOU WILL NEED TO REMOVE DOOR SEALING RUBBER WHICH SEALS THE TWO HALFS OF THE DRUM THIS WILL ALOW YOU TO REMOVE SAID OBJECT

Do you mean the door seal has come loose.

Disconnect the machine from the power. Open top hatch by removing two screws in the back and sliding top lid back and up to remove.

Check down from the top of the machine and feel around the door seal. Make sure there are no holes or tears in the seal. Try and refit seal. there is a metal ring around the drum and also around the front panel where the door seal joins. Make sure the are tight and fit in properly.

Let me know if I didnt understand the problem.

Good luck.
Ash

The steps are: 1. Open the machine door.
2. Turn the main power off and unplug the machine from the wall.
3. Completely remove the powder dispenser drawer (it will come out so far (and stop), then there is a small button at the rear of the dispenser which you need to depress to remove it fully, you'll see this button once you've withdrawn the drawer to its stop position.
5. Undo and remove the 3 x hexagonal head bolts surrounding the door seal (they are at approximately the 2, 6 and 10 o'clock positions). Note these bolts actually secure the front panel to the machine chassis, they do not retain the door seal. Don't worry the front will not drop off.
6. Now look at the aperture of the powder dispenser drawer (you have of course removed the actual drawer earlier). Locate the lower left hand corner of the aperture, and you'll see a recessed philips head screw in a hole. Undo and remove that screw.
7. You DO NOT need to tilt, or lift up the washing machine to do the next bit. Locate the underside of the front panel right at the bottom. You'll notice that it sticks out about half an inch or so and is proud of what I would call the kick plate which extends right down to the floor. You need to look on the underside of the front panel, about an inch or so in from the left hand edge. There you will see a spring loaded clip which when closed is located within a slot on the underside of the front panel. Using a flat bladed screwdriver, you need to carefully lever the spring clip open whilst gently pulling the whole front panel (from the left side) ajar. It will just suddenly pop out once you've done it.
8. Open the pump access door lower left hand side of the front panel) and unclip the drain tube from its plastic retaining clip.
9. Now carefully swing open the whole front panel, it opens like a door (hinged on the right hand side). It might be a little stiff as there are a whost of leads attached to it, but it is designed to open fully (with the leads attached) to about 90 degrees.
10. Next, unseat the rubber door seal from around the door opening area (on the chassis, not the front panel, obvioulsy), so that the seal the flops away from the chassis and lies just inside the machine.
11. You will notice that there is a thin steel band holding the door seal in place around the drum. On the right hand side (at about the 3 o'clock position), you'ss see a tensioning screw for the band. With a flat bladed screwdriver undo this completely and remove the screw (it is accessible from above with a long screwdriver). Be aware that there is 1 x washer and 1 x 'nut' type fitting that will fall out when you remove the screw. Locate these and retain them for later.
12. Now extend the steel band to its maximum opening (by moving the 2 x lugs apart where the now removed screw was).
13. You can now remove the steel band. Then pull it out through the hole/door aperture in the chassis.
14. Locate the small rubber tag at about the 12 o'clock position where the seal is attached to the drum and tug it. The seal will then come away from the drum. Remove the old seal completely.
15. Using your new seal, place this correctly around the drum (there is a lip on the seal and this has to go over the lip on the drum. Remember, the seal goes on the OUTSIDE of the drum. Ensure the 'tag' is at the 12 o'clock position.
16. Reassembly is then the reverse of removal.
17. Make sure that you do up the retaining steel band sufficiently and that you correctly locate the sela on the chassis front panel (there is a groove in the seal which will locate the seal in the aperture).
18. Finally, once you're done, put the machine through a few rinse cycles (where the water level is high) and look for leaks. If you have a leak, it is likely that your door seal has a rip/tear, or that it has not been correctly located around the drum - in which case you'll need to investigate.

Yes it can be put back on without taking the drum apart. The larger end goes on the drum side. Fit larger end around drum lip make sure it seals all the way around, install spring around seal. Smaller end goes around door opening. Install seal around outter lip and install spring around seal.