Gear Problems

[ohiovacuums]

It seems I have gears that expand over time. Seems impossible but this is the
second sweeper that has this problem. I bought a Vital sweeper because the price
was right and I wanted to "save" it. The gears do not move freely and it's much
more than a grease issue. The bushing are fine..not worn at all.
I had to remove 2 of the gears and file them down so they would move freely...I
had to do the same on another sweeper. Any ideas why this happens ?

 

[hoover300]

Was the other sweeper also a Vital? If so, it is may be the type of metal they used, with the gears spinning around so much, so fast they slightly changed shape? However, I also have a Vital, it doesn't have that issue at all. Just a theory.

 

[huskyvacs]

Brass is a very soft metal and in an application like this it will have worn down to where the gears wobble on their axis and bind. Filing it down would exacerbate the issue because you have changed the toothing depth of the gear and increased the tolerance, allowing it to skip or the teeth to fit too snugly into each other and lock in place.

The only way to know is to find someone with a mint condition one (museum) that has barely been used and closest to new and that would check the measurements of the gears with calipers or let the gears be molded and copied from. Then compare those measurements to yours.

Another way that might work is try and reverse engineer the gears based on their fitments now and try and rebuild their original tolerance until you get smooth operation, would take a lot of trial and error though.

Thanks to CNC machines, re-creating and replacing the gears is not at all impossible, however knowing the measurements to begin with is key.

I'd try and find someone somewhere that deals with mechanical stuff like this and see if help can be found there. Maybe a knowledgeable engineering professor or a R/C car builder, transmission mechanic, I have no idea. Someone that knows about gear mechanics. There has gotta be someone out there that can solve this.

 

[lesinutah]

You

Could take it to a machine shop or a transmission place. The flywheel of motors connecting to the transmission I'm sure have issues. If anybody would have sound advice I'd imagine it would be them.

 

[madman]

I'd imagine the poor quality lubricant they had in the day wasn't up to snuff with the high speeds the gears run at (I think it's high speed, anyway). Likely the gears were simply galled, very slightly.