1949 Cadillac Handheld (Need belt)

[madman]

1949 Cadillac Handheld
Model 60
Serial 2644
200 Watts

Picked up this baby Caddy on ebay a little while ago. It looked a little shabby in the ad photos, but it actually turned out to be in really good shape! The bag is nearly immaculate (although it did come with a dust bunny the size and shape of an actual bunny). There's not a smidgen of rust anywhere on this. When I took it down to give it a looking-over, everything was clean and in good order, and the bearings were still very oily, so whoever owned this actually oiled it. The armature says on it "CMC 1949" so presumably that's the manufacture year (CMC = Clements Manufacturing Company). The only things wrong with it are the rubber strain relief for the cord is broken, the model plate has lost 100% of its print (only the stamped numbers remain), the brush bristles aren't great...

And... it needs a belt.

The belt is stretched, and I'm wondering if anyone knows what belt I should order for it? I have some pictures, it's about 3 1/4 inches when flattened. Of course, I realize vacuum belts are sold by part number and not by size. For a comparison, I took out the belt from an old handheld Kenmore I have, that belt still has the writing on it, it says "STYLE 1" with the little Royal crown next to it. That belt is about one size too small for this Cadillac. That belt is about 2 7/8 inch. There's a photo with the smaller Style 1 belt nested inside the Cadillac belt.

Ideas?

 

[bikerray]

Don't forget that an old belt is stretched and not the same dimensions as the original belt. So the 2 7/8 belt might just be the right size for the vacuum.

If you have a Dirt Devil hand vac you will notice that it comes with a belt tool to stretch the belt and get it over the motor pulley. A new belt will be tight.

Style 1 is a Royal belt (Royal, Dirt Devil)

Hope this helps

 

[huskyvacs]

Biker Ray is right. I repair VCR's and on the website where I buy new belts at, they tell you that when you are measuring belts to deduct 5%-10% from the stretched belt's measurements to get the new belt size. I am not sure if this applies to vacuum belts too, as they are a totally different type of rubber, but maybe.

 

[madman]

Sadly, the Royal Style 1 belt that's in the pictures is FAR too tight on the Cadillac. And that belt is easily 15+ years old - still quite supple though. Naturally, I tried it on, and it's so tight that the motor just spins and the belt stays still. Presumably, the brush roll is under so much pressure that it's unable to turn.

 

[huskyvacs]

Yeah these little old motors don't have much torque for that, or the belt is pulling the brushroll inward and it's just locking the brushroll into the housing of the vacuum.

I am wondering, what if you took a length of string (or maybe rubber bands) and tied it together tight around the belt path to simulate a belt, and then taking the measurement of that - it might get you a workable diameter to start searching?

I did find this listing on Amazon that says it is for Cadillac vacuums, but you know, it's Amazon so it might be incorrect, but only $5. Does not say if its for hand vacs or uprights. https://www.amazon.com/Vacuum-Cleaner-Cadillac-Westinghouse-1044260001/dp/B00VVYZ2UW

There's also a small lot of 3 packs each of Royal belts from 1986 on eBay for the same price, but again it doesn't specify Cadillac upright or handheld. https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-PACKAGES...m35f03adf72:g:igUAAOSwHnFV2jfF&frcectupt=true

 

[madman]

Alright, I pulled the trigger on that amazon link. (I had some amazon gift card balance left ) We'll see what happens.

 

[huskyvacs]

Good luck, hope it works!

Theoretically speaking, Cadillac was a small company at the time and I do not think they would have bothered to make all their parts proprietary to specific models as that would have cost them too much. I would think that they would make them both take the same belts at least for ease of service or maintenance on the buyer. The 1986 era packs of belts also just simply say "for Cadillac" and nothing else, so if it mattered I am sure that they would have specified "for upright models only" on the packaging.

 

[texaskirbyguy]

That is a very cool looking vacuum - one I would even like to have!
Love the color - I have an Emerson fan from the 50's in that finish.
Hope the belts fit.

Husky - Please PM me about where you get your VCR belts. I still restore and repair old stuff and would like to know your sources. MCM was good but the shipping is always high.

 

[huskyvacs]

PM sent to your email.

 

[bikerray]

Have you tried a Royal Style 2 belt they're just a little larger?

 

[madman]

...No? That's why I was asking. I don't just have a pile of belts laying around to try on. I just had the one from another vac. *Sigh* well let's see how these belts I ordered fit first, and we'll take it from there.

 

[lesinutah]

Hey

Looking at vacuum pics it looks like Electrolux made the vacuums. Knowing that the old broom vac belt should fit. I do have a catalog from 1963 I'll look up belt and see if any vacuums have same belt.
Nice vaccuum I almost won one on eBay a while back. My Douglas hand vacuum had a royal type 2 belt bogged down as it was too tight. I put type 2 belt runs perfect.
I bought a 1925 premier hand vacuum. It runs but fan and internals had rust and dried up bearings. It's rusted up fan and bearing plate. I got 90 percent done just sand by hand and steel wool. It's coming out nice.
Try type 2 belt .
Les

 

[madman]

Ok I got the 'Cadillac' belts in the mail, and I picked up some type 2 belts from a hardware store. Well I can tell you this much, the Cadillac belts are no such thing. They are not hand vac belts, as they're about 1/2" wide, and they're far too big for my hand vac. Secondly, they're too small to fit my Cadillac upright, so I have no idea what possessed them to associate these belts with Cadillac. As far as I know, Cadillac never made any uprights beyond mine, all the later ones are basically the same but with different aesthetics. Unless they had a power nozzle available with their canister vac, but I'm not aware of it.

The type 2 belt fits, kind of. It seems too wide, but it's not interfering with anything. It also seems too loose! I'm not sure the amount of tension required. The brush roll height is adjustable, and one side was off kilter, so I corrected that. The belt still *looks* loose to my eyes, however, it does seem to drive the brush and not slip or anything. We'll see how long that lasts, though. I bet it'll stretch slightly and loosen up.

 

[huskyvacs]

Wow, that sucks. I guess that goes to show, never trust old parts lists. That's strange though as Cadillac only made 3 vacuums, I can't see how even in the past they got that mixed up.

I think you're on the right track though, just keep testing out different hand vac belts. As long as it doesn't get bogged down when vacuuming and stop the roller it should be OK. Just remember it's almost 100 years old so you have to think in terms of 1940's tech, it might just spin that slowly to begin with.