The old washing machine

Been a few weeks since the tropical adventure. Now back to reality. The Washing machine broke down (24 years old), main drive motor dead, giving off smoke. Spent all morning Saturday cleaning relay contacts, which were badly burned. Reassembled, and wow! It worked! Started washing a load of clothes, everything seemed fine.... until bang, it stopped again, more smoke etc etc. I guess that was it's last hurrah. The book tells me that when the relay fails, it causes the motor windings to overheat, shorting them out. So although I fixed the relay, the damage was already done. Fixing stuff...... oh well, I went down to the Good Guys & bought a new one, so far, so good. Sometimes you just have to junk it.