Probably better responses available on laundry forum, but here's mine:

Yes there is...and the click-clacking you describe is typical of impending total failure. It is contained in the drain-pump assembly. The entirety is replaced as a unit...impeller not fixable separately.

Disconnect a couple of hoses and the power-wire and it comes right out. Easy DIY....about $75.00.

This post was edited by Gwarstong on Sat, Mar 29, 14 at 14:25

Yeah!!!! Success! Thank you, Gwarstong! It *was* the motor and it was easy to remove. Only it turns out you're to remove the entire water trap assembly the motor is attached to as well, it comes as a piece. The guy at the part store was looking at it and frowning and I'm think "oh-oh".... Then ten minutes later there's an "Ah!!!" -- you've taken the piece apart, it comes all as one..." and he even had the part! The instructions _s#$%_ but all seems to be back together and working like its former dream. I guess it's been slow for a while but as the rpm are so high ordinarily I just hadn't noticed. It's like it used to be and I never even realized it wasn't!

The only trouble was those stupid metal external wire-clamps. They're hard to squeeze! Is there a special tool for that? I ended up using a vice grip and that worked, but not easily. Yikes.

Again, Thank You Gwarstong! For future searching-help let me note this is a Kenmore HE4T. It's old.

I owned the 1995 version....but they're all pretty much alike. Agree about the wire-clamps. There is, actually, a special tool for it....that normal people don't own.

Glad you're back up and running!

And thanks for coming back to report. Most people don't bother.

There's a Samsung pump motor that fits as a direct substitute without replacing the entire trap/housing/motor assembly, and it's considerably less cost.

dadoes: :( didn't realize that. Though in all honesty, that trap was groddy with I think *blush* screws that had been caught in there forever and rusted and fused to the insides. Ew ick. I probably needed to replace it all. It's been through two sets of diapered kids and many, many years since then (they're 13 and 16 now so you do the math) -- it could stand some new innards. I didn't know about that trap until it started throwing error codes and shutting down; it was not fun -- this is chronicled elsewhere in GW somewhere. That caused me to learn about the machine so it was years and years when I didn't clean that trap out. whooo-wee. nasty.

Nevertheless, if I had been able to change out just the pump it would (a) have been easier and (b) cheaper, presumably. The whole housing, with tax, came to something like $120

There was an elderly gentleman in service repair uniform ("Oleg") in the store who asked who was doing my repair and what was I doing in there buying such a part. Hmmmm. I said "me". He said "no". I looked at the salesman, who I'd been speaking with on the phone earlier so he knew I was, um, me. I said "me?" He positively ejaculated "No!!! No I don't believe you are doing this. Most men [I swear he said this] wouldn't even know how to do this, but a female"??

He also inserted a snort and hands-on-stomach-doubled-over guffaw. It was impressive.

It's not actually particularly difficult to do this.... And I'm sure in his line of work he doesn't, necessarily, see many doing this themselves. There's plenty that's easy to do I don't do, it's just that as has been explained to me many times here, washing machines are pretty simply devices. I fixed the error codes by soldering the mother board and that was harder to do, not because of the soldering, but because of the *plastic*. Getting all those stupid clips to let go without flying away is not easy!!

Anyway -- Gwarstong -- thanks, tons, for responding immediately. Had you not, I would not have had the courage to just haul the seemingly-perfect-looking motor over to the store and shell out $100+ with no evidence. I appreciate it. And dadoes - thanks for the information about the part. It's probably just as well I didn't know about it, but I will know now to suggest the salesman search for a replacement when it's tough to find. That was an "asko" and the full assembly that he sold me was too. He probably just didn't even know about the Samsung, but perhaps he would have if he hadn't found the other. I'll know to ask next time.

Thanks!