Today I ran three loads of laundry, the first two being completed without a hitch. The third one, however, was a vastly different story.

During the machine agitation/wash cycle, suddenly there was a racket inside the machine that can only be described as someone had stuffed a wild mustang (horse) into that metal box and he was thrashing and kicking the living crud out of it in an effort to be free!

With much apprehension and clutching my chest in a mild heart attack, I lifted the washer lid and observed that the machine had still been agitating, but upon the lid being lifted, all activity (and horrendous noise) ceased. Thank God. Put the lid back down and agitation resumed, but so did the captive mustang noises.

Set the dial from "wash" to "spin" and the tub emptied and spun normally. Set the dial to "rinse" and the machine filled normally, but when it came time to agitate, it was clear the machine was still possessed by that darn mustang, so we skipped back over to the drain/extended spin feature and decided time was better spent in diagnostics than actually doing laundry.

I have not yet torn open the machine and I am seeking some guidance as to whether this could be a belt (are there different belts for agitation vs spin?) or something more sinister. Can this problem actually be fixed or must I need an exorcist or buy a new machine? I could video the problem, but am hesitant to start that beast up again for fear of doing/worsening any damage. Visually all appears fine . . . audibly, however, there is clearly an issue!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, suggestions, ideas or criticisms for allowing wild ponies to frolic indoors. ;-)