Kitchen Large Electric Appliances - Dishwasher stops with "wash" light flashing

We have a GE Dishwasher Model GSD4230X73WW that was here when we bought the house in 1999 from previous owners. I'm guessing the house was built in around 1982 and it may be original equipment.

We usually run it on Short Cycle and it now quits consistently (at least a dozen times now)after about 20 min sometime after/during the wash cycle (detergent is all gone and dishes appear clean but wet). When it quits it is always beeping and the "wash" light is blinking.

It does seem to go throught several fill/empty cycles (wash or rinse, I can't tell) before it stops.

Resetting and restarting and it just does the same thing again.

If you open it after it starts beeping and look, all the water is drained (except the sump entry which is covered), lots of steam comes out, and the dishes seem clean (but wet). All indications are that it is draining.

I checked the float and it didn't seem to be clogged or stuck but I cleaned it anyway and restarted the diswasher and same result. I also took the bottom plate off and checked the float switch and it works fine.

Any idea what it might be complaining about or how to identify more about where/when in it's cycle it is complaining? I am a software developer but I am certainly missing the days of mechanical cams where you could visually see what was going on .

P.S. II found exploded diagrams for the dishwasher at http://www.partselect.com/AdvancedModelSearch.aspx?ModelNum=GSD4230X73WW&mfgModelNum=&fkMfgID=2

theaggie,

Did you ever find a solution? I know it's been quite a long time, but I have the exact same model doing the exact same thing.

Thanks for the help,

Ross