Dishwasher trouble

[dlminehart]

OK, now to install the ^&*@* thing!

So, I get replacement chopper, and figure it'll be a snap to install. An hour later, I'm here for help. Here's what the sucker looks like:



Note the 4 angled nylon teeth at the left end, that engage with the corresponding teeth on the pump motor shaft inside the sump. Note the tall screen (seen edge on) in the middle against which the blades on the right end will scrape, chopping stuff into fine enough pieces to go through the screen. This screen, when inserted into 1/16" slots in the bottom of the sump and in the sump cover, serves as the means of holding the chopper to the pump's shaft.

Here's my problem. Even though the hole around the chopper shaft is loose enough that the shaft can tip up and down a little, there doesn't seem to be quite enough (for me, at least) to engage the shaft's teeth in the pump shaft's corresponding teeth and simultaneously slide the screen forward and up over the 1/16" lip of the slot that holds the chopper to the pump. If I lift the screen high enough to go past that lip, the chopper shaft disengages and winds up inserted just above the pump shaft.

I've tried putting the screen in place first and then pulling the chopper shaft out (against its spring) and upward (to angle it down toward the pump shaft). It doesn't come out QUITE far enough to slip down over the pump shaft. I've tried putting the shaft in place first and pulling the screen assembly upward and forward, but it won't come up QUITE enough to slip over the slot lip.

Anyone know the trick? After an hour (with sore back from leaning past the washer door) I'm ready to start breaking dishes rather than washing them!

[bigsteel15]

Does the cover that goes on over this not have a protrusion of some kind that will push down on the shaft, forcing the drive cogs together when the screen sits where it's supposed to?
When you took it apart did this part "pop" out or did you have to force it out?
Does this screen somehow keep the whole thing in place?

There should be a specific order for all these parts to go back in place.
Like I stated before, it's been awhile and this particular item you're showing is a new one on me.

[dlminehart]

I didn't notice a protrusion on the cover. However, I don't see how it would work, as the chopper shaft spring will push the chopper cogs forward as the chopper moves downward, lodging them above the pump shaft cogs, seated deeply enough that (even pulling on the shaft against the spring, as I have) they won't slip back out and over the pump cogs.

When I took this apart, I found that the chopper shaft had been snapped by the metal earring jamming the rotating blades. So it all just lay there in a heap.

Clearly, the screen holds everything in place by lodging in grooves in the sump and in the sump cover. The spring, in turn, pushes from screen to chopper shaft gogs, pressing them into the complementary receptacles in the pump shaft. Just too tight, by about 0.02", to reseat this new part!

[dlminehart]

OK, all finished! As it happens, I was trying to seat the chopper/screen a little too close to the sump, since there was a continuous notch there that the screen (without chopper) would fit nicely into. However, it turned out that the discontinuous notch farther from the sump was the correct one. And it worked like a charm. Ten days later, I'm still awaiting an unneeded part from Sears, which will be promptly returned.