You have fought bravely and honorably in this mortal combat with your washer, Grasshopper. And now, the Samurai is here to help you deliver le coup de grace.

The protective screen on your inlet valve is clogged with sediment and probably looks something like this. The recommended practice in this case is to replace the whole valve. Sometimes, you can clean the screen using a Dremel tool with a wire brush attachment or a toothbrush. But, whatever you do, avoid the Cute Plumber’s Trick where you simply remove the screen altogether and then return the valve to normal service. It’s called a protective screen for a reason: to protect the valve from sediment and pipe scale and prevent it from getting stuck open. Let this haiku from the Samurai Scrolls of Appliantology be your victorious katana in this, your Hour of Appliance Repair Misogi:

Cold water dribbles
lifeless into the washer.
Replace inlet valve.
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As long as you’re poking around back there with the water hoses off the valve, now’s a good time to get rid of those cheesy black rubber hoses which can (and do!) fail without warning, like this one, and install steel-braided hoses–it’s the cheapest flood insurance you can buy!

Oh, I know, you’re saying, "Enlighten me further in the ways of washer flood prevention, oh Ancient Ameliorator of Aging Appliances." Ahh, Grasshopper, the Samurai heard your petition for wisdom before you even knew enough to ask. Come, read the Sacred Samurai Scriptures on preventing washer floods.

Although it’s labelled Kenmore, Frigidaire manufactures this machine. I’ve been seeing this problem on several service calls lately. Two common troublemakers can cause this problem, one minor and the other a muthah. Fortunately, the minor one is also the more common one. To check both, you’ll need to remove the back panel of the washer.

First thing to check is the drive pulley. Work that sucker back and forth and make sure it’s on the shaft good n’ tight. If there’s any play at all, it’ll make a gawd-awful racket when the washer goes into spin. If you do find that it’s loose, then most likely the flat of the shaft has worn the flat on the aluminum pulley. Don’t screw around with trying to shim the pulley because that’s just a bandaid and you’ll just be living on borrowed time. Go ahead and git you a new pulley.

The other problem is more severe and you better to pray to the appliance gods that you don’t have it. This unhappy situation is caused by a leaking tub seal that rusted the tub bearing. You’ll know right away if this is your problem by the tell-tale rust streaks on the back of the tub. The genius engineers at Frigidaire made the tub bearing an integral part of the tub so to change the bearing, you have to replace the whole frikkin’ tub. It’s about a three hour job that requires almost $400 in parts. I nominate that Frigidaire engineer for the Dumbass of the Year award. Can I hear an amen?