Out of balance Washing Machine repair / upgrade

More Performa Washing Machine repair fun. After my last washing machine finally gave out due to a rusted inner tub I decided to just buy the cheapest, cheapest washing machine I could find which of course was another quality Performa. The old saying "You get what you pay for" is certainly true with the Performa models. This DIY is more of an "upgrade" project than it is a repair. This washing machine would start to spin out of balance with anything more than a couple of T-shirts and a pair of socks which made it impossible to wash clothes for a family of five.

Looking underneath the machine I could see there were (3) flimsy springs that controlled the spinning of the tub. After a trip to the Home Depot and picking up some springs in the fence / gate isle I went to work replacing them. The springs I found were quite a bit more heavy duty and needed to have the ends twisted to match the original ones.

Here is one of the original springs looking at it from underneath



Here is the original spring on the left and the new replacement on the right


This is the new spring with the end twisted to match the original. I did this with a pair of Vise Grips and a vise.


I used a headlight spring removal/installation tool to change the springs




After replacing the 3 springs with new stronger ones the washing machine works great, it barely ever goes out of balance now!