Glad to see that you made the shift. Well....it was just to make a point. All machinery when it gets dirty and lacks lubrication works less efficiently...you just end up buying a new washing machine because the old one is not worth fixing and you can't find the parts, nor is it as groovy as the one with the red stripes and stainless steel casters that you saw down at the local department store which sadly will be terribly passe in a matter of moments. Now if you were my dad you would take the old one completely apart, go down to the machine shop and have a part made or look in your collection of bearings for one that would do the job with minor modification. Then you would clean the whole thing up and oil and reassemble it and make it go another 20 years for $2.90. That sadly enough is why he has a little money and I don't...oh well.