a bargain at 99p on ebay

[madabouthoovers]

Yes, Vintagerepairer is right, that's the first thing I noticed, the belt is on the wrong way round so the brush will spin the wrong way when the vac is turned on.
I have also noticed here that the quality of belts on the aftermarket for these models (I have 4 of them) is terrible and I am sick of buying new Qualtex belts some of which snap a matter of a minute or so of installing them. There is nothing wrong with the spindles and brushrolls, and if I manage to obtain old stock belts from Hoover of old, then they seem to last longer, but these are difficult to obtain now. Its the same with the Junior models - aftermarket belts are just total rubbish and break within a couple of uses.

 

[vacbear58]

belt

As I remember it the belt will not spin at all, it will just come off the pully

 

[hoover119dude]

I BET THE CLEANER WILL LOOK GREAT ONCE FINISHED! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE FINISHED RESULT!

 

[vintagerepairer]

Vacbear

This is a confusing one. On a Junior, the belt will fly off if it is twisted the wrong way. This is because the direction of the twist in the belt in relation to the clockwise action of the pully -when correctly fitted- is what one might call the 'correct' way round. Fitting the twist the other way means the belt rolls off when the pully turns.

On the Senior, the correct twist in the belt as specified by Hoover is actually going against the direction of the the pully, meaning the belt should roll off the second the motor is powered up. To overcome this, the cap on the pully is larger and forces the belt to stay on. Fitting the belt as though it were a Junior does not go against the direction of the pully, therefore the roller simply turns the other way. I've lost count of the number of cleaners I've seen like this. I also dread to think of the number I may have inadvertently fitted the wrong way myself!

 

[z30soulbrother]

senior/convertible

ive had both a senior and a convertible.....the senior was 2 speed and i found the hose suction pretty ok when you fitted a brand new dust bag but if you were doing a dirty job like cleaning out the van the pores of the bag soon clogged and the hose suction dropped as it was not an air tight connection...i always wondered why they didnt rectify this by extending the metalwork on the base over toward the pully a bit more to block the gap more once the converter was in place...they went so far with that bit of a lip.....
as for the convertible yes a very good cleaner way ahead of its time brilliant hose suction nice set of tools like the senior ..easy conversion, but as the read up says very unusually heavy and cumbersome i think that was what was its downfall ...would have been great for hotel work with vast halls and areas

 

[sebo_fan]

A few Seniors have been kept in hotels for the very good reason of it being an excellent carpet upright and for the fact that it is built so well. For the owners, its a bit cheaper to get them than the full size commercial versions.

 

[z30soulbrother]

senior

yes i worked in a pub part time in the mid 80s and the gaffer bought 2 seniors with orange hoods black metalwork and cords and grey shake out bags id never come across them before...in the body of a standard 652!

 

[vacbear58]

652

Si

They actually sound like the commercial version of the 652, I saw them advertised as late as 1992 or so, there was one on ebay a while back. This actually outlasted the commercial version of the power plus I believe. In some ways better than the 912 which beko1987 has posted a thread about in that they were not nearly so heavy and bulky to push around, so ideal for hotel rooms and the like

Al

 

[jmurray01]

You know I've never thought about what would happen if the belt was fitted the wrong way, but it does seem it would spin the other way around since it couldn't slip off due to the design of the spindle.

 

[gsheen]

Jmurry

The belt slips off if its fitted on the wrong way.

 

[vintagerepairer]

gsheen

It won't on a Senior, for all the reasons I mentioned before.

 

[gsheen]

Mine did, I am assembling a 652c at the moment and accidentally put the belt on the wrong way this evening, when I switched it on it just slipped off

 

[vintagerepairer]

Well that is not common place, because as I explained before, the 'correct' way of twisting the belt on a Senior is the exact 'incorrect' way of twisting it on a Junior. Both cleaners have a clockwise spinning pulley, but the roller on the Junior is designed to turn the opposite way to a Senior, hence the need for the twist to be on the opposite side.

On a Senior, the correct twisting of the belt actually goes against the grain, so to speak, of a clockwise spinning pulley and this is why the cap on the pulley is so large when compared to a Junior; it serves to keep the belt in place. Installing the twist on the wrong side of a Senior belt is to have it running like a Junior, and is essentially going with the grain, leaving it even less likely to roll off than if it was twisted as per the Hoover diagram.

 

[gsheen]

Weird any how not the first time its happened to me.

I will go and play around with it tomorrow.

I love these models but have hardly worked on them till now. I always thought the pulley was shaped like that due to the fact that gravity would cause the belt to slip off.

 

[borusa]

if you haven't already seen nice vid of the back and orange commercial seniors

 

[vintagerepairer]

No it's not gravity that causes the belt to slip off a Senior, it's because of the direction the pulley turns that the belt has to be kept in place.

 

[z30soulbrother]

guys cheers for that ! the vac in that link is the one i used 2 of at the pub mid 80s im sure we had a hose and tools as well but in white probably 1 off an old senior

 

[anthony]

i wondered

if someone would notice the belt was on wrong especially when you can see the diagram just under the belt as for the bad suction on the senior some years ago i made a special converter [just for somthing to do]i used a spare senior sole plate with a converter from a later hoover turbo bolted onto it then sealed with bathroom sealant it worked a treat the suction was very impressive a spring loaded clothes peg was perfect for holding in the speed switch why Hoover didnt go for somthing like this instead of the totaly useless converter in the back arangement .Now i know someone is going to say the idea was to fit the tools without stopping the machine yes thats all well and good but why when theres hardly any suction because its escaping somewhere else .I still have that homemade converter somwhere i will dig it out and put a photo on if anyone is interested also if anyone is curious as to how well a senior can really suck heres what to do take out the brushroll and belt put the soleplate back push in the speed switch and turn it on then cover the openings with your hands its quite an eye opener

 

[vintagerepairer]

One reason I expect Hoover carried on with their existing convertor was because the poor performance did not impact sale, indeed I suspect a good deal of these cleaners were purchased only to clean carpets. Many is the Senior I saw which displayed no signs of tools being attached as a regular event.

If one considers that the Electrolux 152 and Hotpoint L&E had long been using a pan convertor, it begs the question as to why Hoover never adopted the same idea for it's Junior, never mind the Senior, until such time that Hoover did. I have seen a good deal of unused Senior tools, where as in contrast the Junior tools have seen much use. I would speculate further that a home which was large enough to require a Senior clean may well have been of a sufficient size to justify the purchase of a cylinder model too. A small home fit for a Junior quite possibly did not need more than the standard Junior tool kit.

 

[z30soulbrother]

older senior

the older senior with the side converter system had better suction than the back slide in type