Dadoes et. al., I have an ~2000 Whirlpool direct drive motor Top load clothes washer made for COSTCO so I don't know if model SAWS800HQ0 helps (probably not needed). I am fairly handy with lots of tools etc. Almost a year ago, I found that the washer wouldn't agitate on gentle or hand washable settings while working fine on regular settings. It seemed clear something must be wrong about the low speed motor or control switch. I found a site indicating that the orange wire was involved (I now see others are too) and found slight corrosion at the motor orange wire connection. After some cleaning and repluging connectors at control switch and motor, everything worked on the gentle etc washes until just now (a year later).

I have now looked at several sites showing test points to check motor resistance and I can certainly do that but would hate to perhaps replace a motor if it were really something else. It seemed to me that there ought to be a way to test the low speed motor directly by connecting 120V across something. Is this not true? Should any bad resistance readings clearly indicate failure? Does the initial success a year ago suggest an on the way out low speed motor section?

Perhaps I should have already checked those resistances, but if they are good, is there some other obvious failure point other than just assuming the switch is bad. Can it be tested (orange wire check somehow)?