1979 Electrolux 502 "High Suction"
- Thread starter jmurray01
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turbo500
Well-known member
Benny, my comment was not directly to do with the dates of the cleaner and more to do with the price. Jamie implied that the 500 and 502 were significantly cheaper than the 550 and 560, but there was a good 10 year gap between the launch of the 502 and the 550. Once inflation is taken into consideration, they were more than likely about the same
vintagerepairer
Well-known member
Turbo500 I guess it is the way one reads a message; what I read and interpreted from the original statement must have been different from what you did. This of course is always the bother with the written word.
Jamie, the squeaking is most likely the belt rubbing against a plastic surface. The likelihood is that the roller became faulty and as a result the belt has run to one side. Does the hood show signs of having been melted on the sides?
Jamie, the squeaking is most likely the belt rubbing against a plastic surface. The likelihood is that the roller became faulty and as a result the belt has run to one side. Does the hood show signs of having been melted on the sides?
Nope, it doesn't...
I wasn't actually meaning the squeaking noise though, I meant the really loud sound like finger nails being scraped over a black board that is happening intermittently.
I am desperate to get it resolved as I love the 502 and want it in tip top mechanical condition, something I fear it is not in at the moment.
I wasn't actually meaning the squeaking noise though, I meant the really loud sound like finger nails being scraped over a black board that is happening intermittently.
I am desperate to get it resolved as I love the 502 and want it in tip top mechanical condition, something I fear it is not in at the moment.
vintagerepairer
Well-known member
Jamie if you can make a video of it, I might be able to hear and tell. Could be air escaping from one of many places.
Oh trust me, it is not air! It's like metal against metal or something.
I will make a video of it tomorrow and upload it to YouTube then put the link in this thread.
Thank you for your help so far, it is appreciated.
I will make a video of it tomorrow and upload it to YouTube then put the link in this thread.
Thank you for your help so far, it is appreciated.
Southernhoarder
Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2012
- Messages
- 7
Hi Jamie,
I have just been reading about your 502 and here is a couple of suggestions i have for you.
In my experience currently being a vacuum cleaner engineer if you were to get funny intermittent metallic noises you firstly need to investigate this noise in stages.
Run the machine without the brushroll or belt attached or baseplate and see if it makes this noise you speak of,if it does you know it is the motor,if it doesn't it could be that the motor isn't under load with the belt and brushroll pulling on the spindle or you have a faulty brushroll.
As a guess and without seeing or hearing this machines i would probably say the motor bearings are worn /dry ,now depending on whether it is too worn you can on some of the 500 motors grease the upper bearing by taking the rubber bearing cover off to reveal the ball race inside and you would need some multipurpose high melting point grease.
Being as the machine is a year younger than me it is very old lol
Another thing is you shouldn't oil,grease the brushroll bearings,these are self oiling and by oiling them you risk contaminating them or prematurely burning them out.
Look at the bearing holes and make sure they are round and not elongated too also make sure that if it has new brush strips which would only be copy ones now that the staples holding the brushes on to the plasic slide piece isn't protruding as i always have to cut the staples down to prevent them rubbing/scoring in to the bearings housings.
Also being very careful but by taking the base plate and very gently holding the bearings with your fingers (I can't stress enough be so so carefull not to catch your hand on brushroll or bearings because it bloody hurts) but make sure the belt is running in a straight line,it shouldn't be running over and rubbing in to the motor cover,if you have someone with you to turn it on and off quickly if need be that would be ideal.
The nice thing about these machines are they are easy to work on and fantastic machines so you will be able to sort things out easily with the right guidance.
Me personally i would have put a 5amp fuse in as you are right on the threshold with a 3 amp,it may be fine with the 3 amp but you only need a surge and it will blow the fuse.
I hope that has been of some help to you,let me know how you get on and if you can't suss it make a video and i can listen to it
cheers
Ric
I have just been reading about your 502 and here is a couple of suggestions i have for you.
In my experience currently being a vacuum cleaner engineer if you were to get funny intermittent metallic noises you firstly need to investigate this noise in stages.
Run the machine without the brushroll or belt attached or baseplate and see if it makes this noise you speak of,if it does you know it is the motor,if it doesn't it could be that the motor isn't under load with the belt and brushroll pulling on the spindle or you have a faulty brushroll.
As a guess and without seeing or hearing this machines i would probably say the motor bearings are worn /dry ,now depending on whether it is too worn you can on some of the 500 motors grease the upper bearing by taking the rubber bearing cover off to reveal the ball race inside and you would need some multipurpose high melting point grease.
Being as the machine is a year younger than me it is very old lol
Another thing is you shouldn't oil,grease the brushroll bearings,these are self oiling and by oiling them you risk contaminating them or prematurely burning them out.
Look at the bearing holes and make sure they are round and not elongated too also make sure that if it has new brush strips which would only be copy ones now that the staples holding the brushes on to the plasic slide piece isn't protruding as i always have to cut the staples down to prevent them rubbing/scoring in to the bearings housings.
Also being very careful but by taking the base plate and very gently holding the bearings with your fingers (I can't stress enough be so so carefull not to catch your hand on brushroll or bearings because it bloody hurts) but make sure the belt is running in a straight line,it shouldn't be running over and rubbing in to the motor cover,if you have someone with you to turn it on and off quickly if need be that would be ideal.
The nice thing about these machines are they are easy to work on and fantastic machines so you will be able to sort things out easily with the right guidance.
Me personally i would have put a 5amp fuse in as you are right on the threshold with a 3 amp,it may be fine with the 3 amp but you only need a surge and it will blow the fuse.
I hope that has been of some help to you,let me know how you get on and if you can't suss it make a video and i can listen to it
cheers
Ric
Thank you for that Ric, but wait a second... You shouldn't oil brush roll bearings!?
That goes against everything I've been told so far... I always oil my bearings with every belt change and have had no issues.
When I bought the 502 it said on the eBay listing that it made the noise and in the same sentence that it didn't have a belt, so that would signify to me it makes the noise with the belt off too.
From what you said it is easy to lubricate the motor bearing, but I thought it was nigh on impossible ? Or maybe the 425W motor and 500W motors are different.
Lastly about the fuses, I've had a 3AMP fuse in my 502S for a year now and it hasn't blown yet.
My Hoover Junior which came today has a 5AMP fuse in it though despite being only 300 watts, so I'm not sure if that should be lower or not...
That goes against everything I've been told so far... I always oil my bearings with every belt change and have had no issues.
When I bought the 502 it said on the eBay listing that it made the noise and in the same sentence that it didn't have a belt, so that would signify to me it makes the noise with the belt off too.
From what you said it is easy to lubricate the motor bearing, but I thought it was nigh on impossible ? Or maybe the 425W motor and 500W motors are different.
Lastly about the fuses, I've had a 3AMP fuse in my 502S for a year now and it hasn't blown yet.
My Hoover Junior which came today has a 5AMP fuse in it though despite being only 300 watts, so I'm not sure if that should be lower or not...
vintagerepairer
Well-known member
If a 3amp fuse blows on start up, you know it was too low. And as has been said, you could find it suddenly blows due to a surge. But as you don't know the history of the appliance, where it was stored (for instance has it been damp) , and so on and so forth, I always went as low on the fuse as possible. But that was personal choice. I do know that I don't remember anyone coming back to me to say the cleaner I sold them or repaired for them had stopped working.
Well quite frankly we don't get many surges here in Scotland, in fact the last one was over a year ago, so if the fuse blew because of the occasional power surge but was fine under normal conditions, I'd still use the lowest possible.
On the brush roll bearing subject, can you correlate what Ric said about not oiling them Benny ?
On the brush roll bearing subject, can you correlate what Ric said about not oiling them Benny ?
vintagerepairer
Well-known member
I don't know what to say about the lubrication as I have always used a drop of 3-in-1 with no known problems. Each to their own. Incidentally, the surge talked about here is not a power surge from a spike in the mains, it is a surge of power drawn when an appliance starts up.
vintagerepairer
Well-known member
AS you wish Jamie. They shouldn't need much attention if you don't use the heavily.
OK, the Electrolux 502 is now removed from my list of Vacuum Cleaners for a reason I shall explain...
A couple of days ago (which leads me onto apologising for my absence) I decided to have another look at the 502.
So I did and what did I discover ? The noise WAS the belt rubbing against some plastic! I'd never have thought that could make such a noise.
I then realised that could be down to one of two things. The brush roll belt guide or the motor pulley.
To check the brush roll I took the original one out and put the one from my 502S in. Guess what ? No change.
Upon closer inspection, the motor pulley is very worn and is most certainly what caused the belt to drift into the plastic.
So, the 502 would need a new motor. But, I'm not too disappointed as there are plenty parts on the 502 which I will be able to use at some point on my 502S, plus the beater brush roll which I have already swapped over (my 502S had a Twin Turbo brush roll prior to this).
For £2.99, it wasn't bad even for parts.
A couple of days ago (which leads me onto apologising for my absence) I decided to have another look at the 502.
So I did and what did I discover ? The noise WAS the belt rubbing against some plastic! I'd never have thought that could make such a noise.
I then realised that could be down to one of two things. The brush roll belt guide or the motor pulley.
To check the brush roll I took the original one out and put the one from my 502S in. Guess what ? No change.
Upon closer inspection, the motor pulley is very worn and is most certainly what caused the belt to drift into the plastic.
So, the 502 would need a new motor. But, I'm not too disappointed as there are plenty parts on the 502 which I will be able to use at some point on my 502S, plus the beater brush roll which I have already swapped over (my 502S had a Twin Turbo brush roll prior to this).
For £2.99, it wasn't bad even for parts.
Jamie, I had the same problem as you with my mums Twinturbo a few years back. Intermittently it would screech then settle down again. After running it without the brush roll, i found it was a motor bearing issue.
When it comes to motor bearings on 500's, i've always had really good results with a few drops of 3in1 on both the bottom and top ones. the motors are really easy to take apart and a few drops of 3in1 usually loosens up the old grease slightly and completely rejuvenates them. I did it to my mums Twinturbo and it worked fantastically, really quietened the motor down. It still sounds quiet several years later. It also works well if they've not been used for a while and the bearings have started to sound dry.
I've got a video coming up on my youtube channel shortly of a 525 that belongs to Ric. When he gave it to me, it was almost seized and it sounded terrible (he can vouch for that because he was here when we plugged it in for the first time lol) I took the motor out, gave it a bit of a clean, put a few drops of 3in1 in it and hey presto! sounds like new now. When the video's posted (hopefully tonight) have a listen and see for yourself.
Ryan
When it comes to motor bearings on 500's, i've always had really good results with a few drops of 3in1 on both the bottom and top ones. the motors are really easy to take apart and a few drops of 3in1 usually loosens up the old grease slightly and completely rejuvenates them. I did it to my mums Twinturbo and it worked fantastically, really quietened the motor down. It still sounds quiet several years later. It also works well if they've not been used for a while and the bearings have started to sound dry.
I've got a video coming up on my youtube channel shortly of a 525 that belongs to Ric. When he gave it to me, it was almost seized and it sounded terrible (he can vouch for that because he was here when we plugged it in for the first time lol) I took the motor out, gave it a bit of a clean, put a few drops of 3in1 in it and hey presto! sounds like new now. When the video's posted (hopefully tonight) have a listen and see for yourself.
Ryan
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