Wow, five dollars!! What a find! It is a treasure for the garden to be sure. My grandma used to do her wash on such a wringer machine. I recently had to have my kitchen stove vintage 1974 hauled away when it died and they delivered a new one. I really toyed with the idea of installing it in the garden. It was a beautiful red colour (persimmon or paprika, something like that) and I loved it. Now I'm wishing I had.

Again, a video clip would help a lot with diagnosing from afar. Maybe you have a friend who could do it? "loud heavy metal banging sound" Next thing I'd suggest is check for a broken/worn basket drive block. Remove the agitator. Look at top of the neck of the basket. There's a large locknut that anchors the basket to the drive block. You can see only the top of the block, the rest of it is beneath inside the basket neck. The top of it has two notches that mate to ears on the spin drive tube. The block can wear such that it no longer fits tightly, slips on the ears. The ears on the drive tube can also wear down or chip, further contributing to the slippage. Pictures can now be included directly in posts here. Maybe you can provide a picture?

I hate to tell you this, but washing is no guarantee that fabrics won't bleed later. I have no idea why, but even fabric from the same bolt might act differently. Just yesterday, I had a small scrap of RJR panel print to make a label for a quilt. Spritzed it a bit first with cold water to press first, and very soon, the reds ran. All the fabrics were rinsed in cold water before I used them, and nothing ran. So, I got another idential scrap, and rinsed it in cold water first, to check. No running. Huh? So I got another and spritzed it. No running. It was all from the same bolt. Hmmmm. I guess I will just use one that didn't run. Go figure. I'm left to wonder what will happen if the quilt itself ever gets washed. It would not be the first time I've had this happen. BlueBars

cheryl E, I had two poor performing Fridgidaire Affinity front loaders for 12 years (not at the same time-2nd was a replacement for the first). They did not clean well. They also were prone to having an unappealing odor. I kept the door open when not being used. The only time the door was closed was when the washer was in use. The first washer did not have a 'clean washer' cycle. So I put a cup of bleach on my hot cycle with no laundry in it every two weeks to suffice. Still was not fresh and my towels became contaminated and smelled moldy. 2nd washer did have a 'clean washer' cycle that was hidden from the control panel. You had to press this button, while pressing that button and hold it in place for 30ish seconds then the clean washer cycle would activate. I did that every two weeks with a cup of bleach, then I upped my game and immediately did another clean washer cycle after the bleach one, but with a cup of vinegar. Still, not better. I kept at it though. I think there were two things that caused the issues. The first was that I was using liquid detergent exclusively and the second is that (IMO) they were simply not very good washing machines. I was using hot washes for my whites and lights and also using bleach in my whites loads and still, P.U. and dingy. The whites loads had detectable bleach odor as well which leads me to believe the washers did not rinse well. Moldy and bleach aroma on laundry--not fun. I used warm in my darks loads. I don't use cold wash cycles. Frequent cold washes can lead to funk build up, but I wasn't doing that. These washers, I think did not have dumbed down hot or warm cycles, but I don't know for certain. But I also don't think they had heaters to super heat the water. Super heated washes can help with laundry and washer cleanliness. Anyways, from what I've read on here (I found this group this year), the practices I used don't cause these negative issues in some (or is it many?) front loaders if they are good machines. Meaning the machines do their job well. From what I've read here, my hot washes and my bleach clean washer treatments should have abated the funk. They did not. At some point during my front loader sad and smelly times, I had read that if you use powder detergent and hot washes, along with occasional warm washes and keep up with the clean washer treatments, the problem should dissipate over time. The problem did not go away for me. I kept at it for two years. Using powder detergent was a nuisance for us at the time due to our laundry room configuration (much easier to store and use a tidy bottle than a messy box of powder when you have no place to put it), but I did not give up! I've seen videos of people with the same problem who did the clean washer treatments and all kinds of crud would release from the machine--to the point of it being visible on the video. I never had any visible crud release. I won't ever know if I didn't have crud or if the washer just never released it with the twice a month treatments since I FINALLY gave up and bought a top loading full fill washing machine. Everything is good now. I use powder detergent probably 90% of time now and I also use Borax in most loads. The Borax helps with odors for us--breaks down the body oils and sweat. My towels (the same ones that were funked out for 12 years) are fresh, bright, soft and fluffy now. Hurray! DH's white undershirts that are old and previously stinky and dingy are fantastic now. White, bright, fresh smelling. I did try Borax in my old front loaders a few times and didn't have any improvement, but I think I wasn't using enough. I use 1/2 cup in my current top loader and my daughter uses 1/4 cup in her front loader (with good results). Maybe give that a try? IMO, if you have a dud of a washer, you are more likely to have these negative issues even if you do everything right. Maybe if I was using powder detergent exclusively from the beginning, I wouldn't have had these frustrating issues since the funk would not have built up in the washer or the laundry in the first place. I'll never know for certain though. I've moved on. I hope something in here helps. Sorry to read things aren't going so great in your laundry room. I've been there and it's frustrating.