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I have a Kenmore 40318900 front loader that started giving the LE error(motor stall). I bought it as a display model 5 years ago. Tub spins freely by hand, I started troubleshooting according to the tech manual I found inside(quite convenient) and it said the stator was bad due to resistance being way out of spec. I took the stator out and to be 100% sure measured windings directly, and lo and behold they were all fine, around 8 ohms each. Then I figured it was in the harness and sure enough one of the wires had 1.2k ohms between the stator pin and the pwb connector. I started following the wire harness and found a melted and burnt section.

While going through the machine I also noticed one of the three shock absorber is missing the mount pin. Looked all over the laundry room and turned the machine on it's side and it is nowhere to be found, no broken pieces. My thought is it must've never been installed. The washer has always been pretty noisy and vibrates around on the tile floor. My hypothesis is that the excess vibration may have frayed the strands in the wire and caused it to overheat due to the current flowing through a lot less copper. The fix should be a simple wire replacement, but I wanted opinions before I power it up and risk a fire. Any thoughts?

Edit: I ended up cutting about 4 inches out of the blue and yellow wires and splicing/heat shrinking some new wire with butt connectors. I also found out a 1/2" bolt fits where the shock mount pin was missing and put one and a nylon lock nut in. Ran one load of laundry and all seems well, but will monitor it for a bit for heat.

UPDATE: It's been a month and the washing machine has been fine. Seems it was simply the wire chafing. Thanks all

Harness before unwrapping

Harness after unwrapping

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  • This is what is called CHAFING. Your assumption the constant vibration and movement of the washer rubbed off the insulation (chafing) is probably very valid - however you can minimize that in the future by securing the wiring to a stabilized surface and limit the movement or rubbing of the wires against any other surfaces. Use additional wire ties and tie downs - that will save you in the long run.
    – Ken
    Jan 22, 2018 at 9:40

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From the limited I see, I tend to agree. For some reason it looks like you have had an extremely high resistance point in the wire. (It could have been due to abrasion) I would sign off on a good quality patch job. Cut the wire back far enough to get to good clean non-damaged non-overheated conductor. Make sure you fix the yellow at the same time. If you machine is doing a lot of walking, make sure you fix that too. Something is wrong.

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Wire flexing over time breaks the strands , this is not uncommon in equipment that moves. I would consider replacing the section that was flexing unless there was a single loop but even then do not shorten the over all length because a shorter area for flexing will cause higher stress on the wires. If anything a longer splice will reduce stress as it allows more area for flex.

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  • I can't accept both answers but believe this one is still valid. Thanks!
    – John Thompson
    Jan 21, 2018 at 1:52

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