Air-Way Green Goddess Motor & Cord transplant

[aeoliandave]

My most vintage of vacuums, the Green Goddess, has had a dead motor since I found her 25 years ago lanquishing forlorn in a junk store here in town for $5. She ran for about ten minutes until giving up the ghost in a cloud of smoke and sparks and siezing death rattle noises. :-(

I found a similar model Air-Way 'beater' vac for parts a few months back on my travels so it's time the Goddess returned renewed to the Land Of Reborn Vacuums.

To do the Goddess Gertrude justice will take a bit of finicky work.

The donor motor's cord, in excellent unfrayed condition, runs to the inline bakelite switch and to the also excellent 24 foot clothwrapped cord terminating in a steel-cased wall plug (original?) pictured.

But, the Goddess' motor cord runs a short length up the handle terminating in a molded rubber triangular plug that plugs into the Goddess' handle rotary ring switch. 24" of this cord is in fine shape and the last 10" to the motor has been spliced and repaired several times. The 24 foot power cord for the Goddess is a total loss - frayed patched & crumbling with a modern plug.

So, the donor motor cord must be surgically spliced to the Goddess molded plug cord in an unnoticable manner. There is a short covered channel in the fan chamber case where the handle attaches that captures and centers the cord - to run up the handle between the bag retaining rods to the ring switch - and this is where the splice must be located to hide the repair.

Having now determined this, for the rest of the evening I've been refurbishing the donor motor...greasing bearings, cleaning the commutator, extracting dust bunnies and steel wool polishing up the donor motor housing. They are identical motors & fans except for the Air-Way label. I have taken the liberty of exchanging the enamel-on-brass plates, as the Goddess is Canadian made.

The donor motor is now gleaming and running real nice. The horribly corroded and cracked donor fan chamber came with a clean unbroken directional printed dial bubble which has been installed in the Goddess' rust free suction can.

Tomorrow night, the cordectomy.

 

[volvoguy87]

Cords.

If you end up needing a new cord, may I recommend Sundial Wire? They make brand-new (most of it UL approved) cloth-covered wire. I have used it with total satisfaction on some of my own restoration projects.

Before reusing your cord, put it to your ear and bend it (bend it at your ear). If you hear the rubber insulation beneath the cloth outer covering crack as you bend it, don't use the cord for safety reasons.

Good luck,
Dave

The link is to Sundial Wire's website.

http://www.sundialwire.com

 

[charles~richard]

Sundial --- what a GREAT resource to know about! Thx!!

Aeolian, good luck with your project. I too have a Green Goddess that's waiting on Dr. Moreau to arrive and perform a vivesection on it.

 

[aeoliandave]

Oh Boy, Volvo, thanks for sharing this resource!

Here's one for woven grill cloth for radios/phonographs/televisions, etc.

Fortunately, to me, the donor cord in in good shape with no crackling - yet - and since Gertie won't be used all that often except for demos I'll use the cord as is. It would be too much of a pain to have to make up a mold for the rubber motor plug! I could do it, but...

but I will order the sample pack from Sundial for later down the road and other projects around the house.

Dave

http://www.grillecloth.com/

 

[charles~richard]

I found the grillecloth for my theremin speakers at Antique Radio Supply (www.tubesandmore.com).



http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts...levclients/cemirror/ELEVATOR.FXP?item=S-G965F

 

[vacuumkid3]

Sundial is great! I used it on my electric fans and I'll have to get some more for my Air-Way eventually. I have just been so busy with my latest phonograph, a Columbia Grafonola E-2. I need to find some pure gold grille cloth for my Vitanola...anyone seen any? Here's a picture of the Emerson 29646 with the cord.

~~K~~

 

[volvoguy87]

Wow! Nice Emerson!

I love the brass Parker blades. I'll try to take a picture of my 1932 12" GE Quiet Blade later this evening. I used Sundial's green "Bungalow" cord (sadly, they no longer offer the 2 conductor version I used). I have several old fans, and I use them regularly. This past summer, I ran my 1947 12" GE Vortalex on high speed for almost 3 months without trouble (although I do change the oil and wicks in my fans prior to such use, or any use).

Clean and oil the bearings and old fans will outperform new ones decade after decade,
Dave

 

[vacuumkid3]

"Volvo" Dave!

Thank you for the kind comments! I restored this one myself, but I did a poor job on the paint. I will eventually get it redone with some good auto paint.

"Aeolian" Dave:

That is a sweet Air-Way! It will only increase in value since Air-Way went out of business. If you get some Sundial wire, you should be good to go! Can't wait to see some more pictures!

~~K~~

 

[aeoliandave]

Let the rebirth begin...

Been a long time since this darlin' was given a shine and that was with Nevr-Dull wadding. So as the transplant proceeded all aluminum parts were gievn the once/twice over with steel wool & polish.

If you know this model you're familiar with the ring switch in the lovely decorated aluminum housing.

 

[aeoliandave]

Backside of the switch. The two sprung levers capture and release the long rods that hold the outer bag in place. Here the triangular rubber plug that runs down to the motor that has to be preserved.

 

[aeoliandave]

Cordectomy test fit

Enough slack was left to the motor so these handle can be separated from the fan chamber in the future.

 

[aeoliandave]

Cordectomy closeup

The splice is further protected from shorting out, inside a rubber sheath where it takes a 90 degree bend through the handle socket channel.

 

[aeoliandave]

She Lives!!! Gertrude The Green Goddess is baaaaack...

Oh, she's not perfectly original and her gold-on-green paint job bears 80 years's worth of domestic battle scars but she runs smooth and strong registering a respectable, I'm supposing, 14" on the Suck-o-meter.

Regarding the paintjob, it appears the fibre handle sections were painted a bright apple green with a finish coat of gold varnish? Mine is worn away enough that the gold coat now appears as speckled mottling mostly.

The outer bag is in good shapw with no rotting or tears but dreadfully faded to all one color. The stencilling is still just visible. This bag has no airplanes on it. I would like to re-highlight the printing with cloth paint. Charles, is your GG bag in good enough shape you can tell me what color the screen painting should be?

Like Kyle's black Air-Way (same model (?) that the donorvac is, I think) a paper liner dustbag is provided for in the bag clamp. On Kyle's and the Donor vac the clamp is an integral part of the outer bag and the inner bag has a spring ring retainer.

On my Green Goddess the paper bag has a screw up ring that captures the paper bag opening around a flared tube. The double rod outer bag is a separate unit that fits around the inner bag like a slung hammock.

I used a Hoover Upright Type C paper bag with the neck staples removed that fits the length perfectly and fills out the outer bag nicely.

Obviously the Charles questions go out to anyone else with a Green Goddess.

Dave

 

[vintagehoover]

'This bag has no airplanes on it'

I believe the bag on my Airway is the same as on yours, without the planes. I guess this would also have been the same colour yours would have been originally.

I'm not sure when my Fleetwood Special dates from as no one on vacuumland's been able to give me a date for it. Info for US models seems to be limited, let alone a UK 240v model! From what I've been able to find out, it would have been made around 1930.

 

[aeoliandave]

Yup, looks like the same bag, Jack, but mine is certainly not black now and upon inspection of the unfaded inside it never was. It looks to be maybe a pale green/yellow/beige?

 

[vintagehoover]

Black?

Perhaps it's registering too darkly on your monitor - it's dark green with lighter green detailing. And made of knitted silk, apparently! This picture should show it better:

 

[aeoliandave]

Ah, now I see.

Mmm, lovely hue that would look right smart with the Godess. So, unless something else comes up I'd go with trying to recolor it like this.

Again I examinined my bags under magnification counting loop stitches and I'm flummuxed as to whether it's possible the design is woven in. I was assuming it was screen printed but...What do your eyes tell you?

 

[aeoliandave]

I think I'm wrong...your's looks more of a Forest Gr

Closeup of unfaded knitted bag material inside the bag shows multicolor threads in apple green, gold/yellow, silvergrey and beige.
This being a doubleknit construction its likely the outer skin was predominantly green and gold with gold lettering & border.

The inner bag lining that's ripped is a darkler apple green canvas.

This picture has a yellowish hue to it from the task lamp.

 

[vintagehoover]

I'd say woven in.

I'm no expert on weaving - or Airways, for that matter! - but I'd guess that the logo is created by leaving out the darker green threads, so the lighter green under-colour shows through. I'm almost certain it's not screen-printed.

I'll take some close-ups of the bag for you, if they'd be of use - will have to wait a few days until I get a chance to get the Airway down from the attic again!