Thanks guys, it was actually easier to complete than it looks. It probably took me about an hour to take it all apart right down to removing the transmission. There are tons of YouTube videos to guide you, so once I got going it was quite easy. And then with the kit on Amazon costing $30 all in, I figured it was worth it at that price. Putting it back together took about 40mins, hardest part was lining up the outer shell back onto the rest of the machine, messed up the first time, so I had to redo that part.
Put it to a real test earlier this morning with a full load of laundry (we've been doing smaller loads with less water because it wouldn't spin properly) and it worked like new!! Now we can do fewer larger loads like we were able to in the past.
So for the roughly 2hrs it took me & the $30, it was well worth it. I really am not a fan of the new appliances that seem to be an issue for everyone these days. This thing is old school with mechanical dials still, so simple to repair and it looks like parts availability is still quite robust... maybe I'll get another 23yrs out of it