GE WD8X181 Shaft Seal

It's enough of a pain to get a dishwasher out and upside down, that I only wanted to do it once. Getting the retaining washer off to pull this out is the only hard part, but there are Youtube videos on this repair. I did put a little silicon plumbers grease on the rubber washer, it slid on easily. Then used a snap ring instead of that friction saucer thingy to retain it. No more leak.

If you remove the lower front panel of a 15 year old leaking dishwasher and see it leaking from the drain shaft that opens and closes the drain, this is the fix!! It will be obvious! Water will trickle out of where the shaft meets the drain because of the bad seal. Buy this and replace it. Extremely easy. There’s YouTube videos to show you step by step how to do this. I’m very mechanically inclined but even the 10-thumbs-guy can do this. Take pics before, you might need them. Shutoff the breaker or disconnect the unit and the rest is safe to do. I didn’t even have to pull my dishwasher out. Lie down on the floor and get a worm’s eye the view. Disconnect the solenoid plug, remove the spring, remove the C-clamp with a very small screwdriver, unscrew the 2 mounting screws holding the solenoid assembly in place, remove the push nut that’s in front of the rubber seal with needle nose pliers or cut it off with wire cutters. It will probably be rusted out and falling apart. Remove the old black rubber seal (about 1/4 the size of a dime) by inserting a dental pick or something else that will fit in there. Then moisten your new seal and slide it in the correct way. Make sure it is all the way in flush. Instructions will show you which way it goes in(flat side or grooved side). Then install a new push nut which may be hard to find online but I got mine at Lowe’s in the specialty hardware bins, I believe it’s a 3/16” push nut with a black plastic cover on it. Cut the plastic off with wire cutters. You won’t need that. Then slide the new push nut in ther the correct way so that it holds the new rubber seal in place. You will hear a click when it reaches the correct spot on the shaft. Then reassemble the rest and test it out. There you go, you just replaced a $15 seal and saved a couple hundred dollars. Pound your chest!

I got burned ordering a cheaper version of this same part number from a random other Amazon seller. The wrong part wouldn’t fit, so I couldn’t finish my repair. Ordered the genuine part and, of course, it fit. Price seems high for such a small ring of rubber — but ultimately worth it for the proper fit and stopping my dishwasher from leaking.

Found a cheaper one online but it didn’t actually fit, off by a millimeter or so. This is the genuine part and looks and fits exactly like the one that I was replacing on my dishwasher. Once in it stopped the leak and really worked.

FWIW, I had leaking at this very specific spot, all signs pointed to this fixing the problem.Was a lot of bother to replace this seal (there's also a "push-on nut" that likely needs to be replaced as part of this). When finished, leak was slightly reduced but still a problem. I ended up purchasing the complete motor & pump assembly (GE WD26X10013, which I got for a little over a hundred), which took only slightly more effort to replace, and solved all leaks. Wish I hadn't bothered with this dinky part in the first place.

The seal stopped the leak, and was an easy install after watching a video of the procedure. I gave 4 stars, only because the price seems high for such a small piece of rubber (about the size of a Cheerio) and it came in a VERY large box for its size.

Since I didn't want to remove the dishwasher, I managed to get it installed with a lot of contorting and cursing. Overall it was way faster, cheaper and less aggravating than replacing my mom's 20 year old dishwasher (or the entire motor/pump assembly). As others have pointed out, this tiny rubber part costs a ridiculous amount , but I consider it money well spent.

Did the job with easy install with no delivery issues