Product review (5 stars): Direct drive transmission repair. Whirlpool and others
Received the Whirlpool Neutral Drain Kit #388253 on Saturday afternoon, installed on Sunday morning, washing clothes an hour later!  Complete kit that has all the necessary parts to get your wash machine going again. To make the item even better, it was available on PRIME! Make sure you have a drain pan or 5 gallon bucket, brake parts cleaner (from the auto parts store) and some shop towels for the gear oil when you open up the transmission. You can use gear oil from your local auto parts store for the replacement of the gear lube that you discard from the transmission Nearly any gear oil will work just fine. Whirlpool recommends straight 90wt. gear oil, but nearly any gear oil will work. I used synthetic 75w/90 with some lucas oil treatment. The wash machine has never been so quiet! If you have a little bit of mechanical ability and a desire to repair instead of replace your wash machine, this is definitely worth doing. A little messy, but you can wash your hands AND clothes when finished. Definitely more economical than buying a complete transmission. With that in mind though, If you have limited mechanical ability or time, you can replace the complete transmission in about 30min. Just a bit more expensive. I hope this helps for those contemplating on tackling this job. Good Luck!