GE washer issue: paging the great French General

I have an old (~17 years) GE top load washing machine at the camp. The issue is it agitates fine but will not spin during the spin cycle.

Tried the motor reset via unplug wait 1 minute plug in and open/close the lid 6 times

With the front off the motor moves a little but stops when it goes to spin

Belt looks fine and is on the pulleys

Lid closed switch works

water level vent tube is clear and it stops water where it should when filling

the basket is very difficult if not impossible to turn by hand in either direction

I highly doubt clothes etc are caught on the outside of the basket since the majority of the time we just do linens or towels and put them right back when they are dry so we would notice something missing. We rarely do clothes at the camp.


I am assuming at this point it is the transmission, is there anything else to check before I buy a cheap washer to replace it, I assume the transmission would be too expensive to buy, especially adding the time it would take me to replace it. I know I paid under $500 for it so I figure 17 years was a good run even though it doesn't get used constantly.