Maytag Bravos Model MVWX700XL2 Tries to Spin, but Whines

Hi, I have a Maytag Bravos MVWX700XL2. It's about five years old. For about a year now, it would occaisinally make a weird noise while washing that seemed to come from the agitator working like a ratcheting noise. It didn't do it all of the time, just mostly when I would wash smaller loads. Today I noticed while doing the weekly laundry, that the agitator wasn't fully agitating. It was turning back and forth, but very slowly and not "mixing" the clothes like it usually does. I went though two loads like that, and on the third load, when it was time for the washer to rinse and spin, it started to make a whining/whirling noise and it would not spin out the clothes (but it did drain). I removed the wet clothes and tried to have it just rinse and spin, or drain and spin while empty and the strange noise continued w/o any success. I have a video of it making that noise that I can post/send if someone can tell me how. I paid over $500 for the washer, and I really don't want to have to replace it this soon, nor do I want a $300 repair bill. My husband is very handy and could fix it if we knew how to properly diagnose the problem so we get the correct part. We put it in diagnostic mode and got F7 E1. He took it apart and said the belt and pulley look fine.