Thanks everyone
I have had Filter Queen machines before, and kick myself because I didn't keep one. I have a Kirby G4 that I used as my daily machine because my apartment was all wall to wall carpet. I had surgery for spinal problems a year and a half ago, and was forced to move from the upstairs apartment to a down stairs apartment. The new house has hard wood floors through out except for the bedroom which is carpeted. I bought a cheap Kenmore canister to sweep the hard wood, and use the Kirby to clean the bedroom. I was browsing eBay a few weeks ago, and I found a Princess II with a Buy It Now price of $49.00. This included the canister, hose and PN. The pictures looked good, and the machine looked nice and clean so I took a chance and bought it. At the same time, I bought a 1 year maintenance kit and ordered a set of attachments from another eBay seller that also included the crown. The machine came, and I said to myself, Self, before you plug that bad boy in, you better check the internal filter. Well, I got my trusty screwdriver out and unclamped the motor from the base and guess what I saw? There was dirt between the cone and the cone guard on the motor unit. Not a little, but a good amount. I shook the motor unit and more dirt fell out of the motor. That told me someone had run the machine without a filter in it. I took the cone guard off and sure enough the secondary filter was caked with dirt. I removed and threw away this filter, and cleaned out all the dirt from the motor itself, and installed a new motor filter. I then put the guard back on and emptied and cleaned the dirt bucket and installed a new cellulose cone as well as the carbon impregnated cone and closed it up. I then took the PN apart, and fount the belt to be very stretched out, so I then threw another belt on it and put it back together. I fired it up, and it has enough suction to suck a golf ball through a garden hose. Used the bare floor tool to sweep the hard wood and then the PN to do the bedroom. I should say that I have a cat, and she does shed quite a bit. When I was done, I emptied the dirt bucket and couldn't believe how much it picked up. I was telling my friend's mother about it, and she is a Diesoon fan. She swears up and down about how much she loves them. Well, my friend and her have two large breed indoor dogs, and they too do more than their share of shedding. I'm gonna take my FQ over and show her what she is missing. If it pulls what I think it's gonna pull, I better duck because that Diesoon will get kicked to the curb, and she may not bother to open the door first.
