Cool! :) Thanks for reporting. It's interesting how they made those old machines do things some of the newer ones don't. 

Pat:

It's interesting how they made those old machines do things some of the newer ones don't

I agree with that. My 3 year old machine just puts all the lint right back on the clothes when the water drains, and not having a dryer to suck the lint off of the clothes as they dry, I end up with speckled clothing. It's supposed to have a self cleaning filter. Now that's a joke if there ever was one! Edey.

 Mine doesn't have a lint filter either so I know what you mean. Automatic washers are awful at leaving lint on clothes. Wringer washers don't do that so much. I'm not sure why, maybe because they don't spin dry and force the clothes against each other. 

Hello, I just bought the same same washer at an auction and actually have a question for you. Does it take time after you pull the filter/drain lever before it starts actually draining?  I let mine go for a minute or so and nothing happened.... is it supposed to take time or is mine just broken?

 I'm not the original poster, but every machine I've ever seen has started draining within one to two seconds of turning on the pump. If yours doesn't drain that way, is there a hose that comes from the side/bottom of it? You should be able to drain it by gravity if you take the hose off its hook. 

 Yes the pump should come on right away.  As soon as you pull that lever it fires right up.

 Im washing a load as we speak now.

 Hi!

Old Timer here (just 64 but I remember "the old days"). Back then, we were conservative with water, and "fresh water" was used for whites first, then reserved for other washes. Water from rinsing Whites could be used to Wash Colored Clothes. When the whites were washed, the water was DRAINED off into another TUB to be used later for a dirtier wash, such as RUGS or WORK CLOTHES.

1) Fresh Water was "drawn into" the Ringer-Washer, with this mechanism; THEN, 2) The clothes were "wrung out" and the Used Water was "drained out" to one of the double-tubs for another wash's subsequent "first-of-two rinses" use, which would be for the dirtier clothes, NOT the 'whites']; 3) More Fresh Water was put into the Ringer-Washer 'for the first or for the final rinse use'/cycle; THEN 4)The clothes were "wrung out" again and hung to dry.

Your mechanism is used for BOTH Drain-Out and Filter-In of water. The Filter is used when you are recycling your Old Rinse water for the first-wash of Dirtier Clothes, which are washed TWO times, and Rinsed at least once. So there is SOMETHING in your mechanism that is engaged or disengaged. The "HOOK" would hang over the tub while you are draining-out used water into the tub. NOW, when you are "truly draining" the water, it goes out onto the lawn for watering (just kidding--we don't do that any more!) or to the waste treatment place.

When in my early 20's and renting a room in a rental house, I used an older washer than yours. We didn't filter the water then, and the set-up I used in the rental house, I hadn't thought to use the Water Tub. You guessed it -- very young at the time.

Hope this helps.

 By the way, "Yes" is the answer to your question, but it's an odd way to wash clothes though, from my previous post, you see I had NOT used a machine like the one you have. Very nice washer!

Ah, the memories of a wringer washer... my parents used one for a while when I was growing up. :) I remember getting my hand caught in the wringer once when I was feeding clothes through it. I think my *other* hand was the more injured one -- I punched the release mechanism to pop open the wringers and banged up that hand more than the one that went through the wringer!

 Iwould lovw to get one cindy operatted off one of those in canada when she was younger and the workshe did she got out more loads then a regular washer and had blisters up to her albows when she got home from the 2 week vacation she had and she would like to get one of those again she had one when she lived in her 5th wheel and hung clothes out on the line.