Cable controls on Hoover power drive/self propelled uprights

[Deleted member 5972]

I'm curious about Hoover's power drive vacuums. I've always wondered how their special wheels work by pushing and pulling very easily. When I took apart my dirt finder self propelled yesterday, I found out it's controlled by a cable from the handle to the motor housing. But man they're a bit difficult to disassemble and reassemble but very well built vacuums.

 

[dysonman1]

I've had to work on hundreds of them over the past 40 years. The handle cable was one thing Kirby wanted to do away with in their self propelled design. For a good reason.

 

[huskyvacs]

Yeah its like a coat hanger thing in a way. They are very easily bent out of shape and get too much slack in the wire from people lifting the vacuum by the power drive handle and not the cleaner handle.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

But, Gabriele,

yes, they are big, powerful vacuums. I have and enjoy several of them. Of course, you're never supposed to pick up these cleaners by the handles. There is a "carry handle" on all of them. Even our beloved Convertibles have the handle bail. One reason handles would weaken and/or snap by the divingboard (bag support)_ was because owners didn't read their manual.
I might even use a power propelled Concept later today.

 

[Deleted member 5972]

I have noticed it has a tube sleeve too. Is that for protecting the cable?

 

[rugsucker]

Hoovers

Both standard and PD Dial-A-Matics had beautiful styling with convenient,comfortable handles.This was lost on most Concepts.
Another reason the handle tube on above Convertibles cracked was similar to first Electrolux Discoverys with fold down cord hooks.The notch cut out of the metal shaft would crack with high mileage.

 

[madman]

The cable tube or sleeve is there to keep the geometry constant even though the cable isn't in a straight line. You adjust the cable by adjusting the clamp position of the tube.

On my Hoover, the clutches were worn out, so I took the gearbox apart and shimmed them out.

 

[Deleted member 5972]

So a couple of weeks ago, I finally got my Hoover self propelled dirt finder all completely cleaned up and replaced the original 7 bladed fan with a NOS 20 bladed fan for better performance. But while I was taking apart the old control cable it was worn out after 24 years of usage and finally snapped off and the sleeve had a few broken pieces due to age. So I luckily I found a NOS Hoover control cable and sleeve for this model . It arrived yesterday and now I'm trying to figure out how to correctly place the cable with the self propelled controller. It supposed to move a lot more and easy too.