Friday, November 20, 2015
New life for an old vaccum cleaner
Last week when Annie went to use the vacuum cleaner it started making funny noises and smelling a bit odd , like something was getting way too hot inside . So it was time for some exploratory surgery .
Dug into it and found the top bearing on the motor was toast . Seals were gone and it had a nice blue color indicating it had severely over heated . Not surprising as we have owned it for about fifteen years and we bought it used .
After removing the bearing from the rotor shaft and dissecting it I found these assorted cooked bits .
I pulled the lower bearing as that one was quite stiff and hard to turn indicating it was near failure as well . A quick run to the local hardware store provided me with two new bearings . The 608-S bearing with a 22 mm outside diameter and a 8mm bore is one of the most common out there, found on just about every roller skate and skate board ever made . The new ones are marked Z instead of S and have a stainless side seal instead of the Viton rubber of the old ones . All I can find on the web is that the Z indicates a 35 thousand rpm and a higher temperature rating which should be good enough for our need .
Careful reassembly using a small socket to tap the inner race of the bearings on to the rotor shaft without damaging it , gets it back in place where it belongs .
Reinstall in the machine , reinstall the stator and . . . .
. . . reinstall the other plastic bits
And voila , back in working order , and much better than spending three hundred dollars on a new ghost busters look-alike machine . Like Red Green said ; if you are not handsome, you might as well make yourself handy .
You give me an idea... Hidden under some rubble in my garage there shoul be sleeping an old Electrolux VC -really old, my father bought it back around 1945. We have 2 other VCs but I remember the Electrolux was very good and it offered the possibility of attaching the hose at the exhaust vent and use it for low pressure spraying, painting. Shall try to fix it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun plan. I bet it is built a whole lot better than ours.
DeleteWay to go!
ReplyDeleteSome call me a cheap PR - - - but I get a thrill when I can save a couple hundred dollars. And it is hard to find a simple machine without a hole bunch of wiz-bang do-dads on it anymore.
DeleteI would submit these pictures and your story to the Vacuum manufacture as they would be so delighted that there little noisy wonder is being resurrected!!!
ReplyDeleteYea then they would be sure to put a 300$ bearing made of unobtanium in their future models so they can not be repaired. LOL
DeleteLOL, you're the man Mike. I like your approach to fix it if you can. Not only does it save you money but, gives you a little bit more knowledge. Good on you.
ReplyDeleteJohn, the main motivator is we really did not care for the features on the new ones nor their price. They look like those devices on Ghost Busters and simply have too many bells and Whistles. But saving money is always a good think if you are a cheap prick like me.
DeleteOur kids took our vacuem cleaner when they were down here last. They needed one more than we did. I bought a Red Devil this weekend. Our floors are all wood except one Turkish Carpet I bought in 1983. Alas, when the Red Devil croaks somewhere down the road, I won't be able to fix it. I'll just have to get another.
ReplyDeleteYes, ease of repair is another reason I like holding on to the old one. The new ones are basically meant to be thrown away when they break or wear out. This thing is still put together with screws and nuts instead of rivets and plastic spot welds. So it actually makes repairing it possible.
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