Kirby G4 'Tech Drive'

[watsonw]

....a friend is attempting to put his friends G4 tech drive back into full working order; when the cleaner is drawn back the head lifts itself up from the floor ?

As they both live miles away from anywhere that just might have a form of service station could any of the club members assist by scaning through a technical drawing breakdown sheet and/or guide to repairing this system, that is if such documents actuallly exist ?

Many thanks, Walter, UK.

 

[whirlpolf]

you have mail!

Hi Walter, just have a look in your inbox.
Cheers,
Joe

 

[twocvbloke]

Sounds like it's in need of it's adjuster nuts being adjusted, they're located under the footswitch, turn them clockwise to tighten the clutch, and turn them Anti-clockwise to loosen them (incase they're too tight)...

If that doesn't work, then they'll need a new one, taking apart and repairing a TechDrive transmission is a pain, I've only done it twice, but that's twice too many, they're a pain to dismantle and reassemble... :S

 

[a007kirbyman]

Walter & Tech-Drive...

Hello Walter.

On a hunch, I'm fairly confident in saying that the wires on the power switch have been reversed, coming from the carbon brushes. (Sound's like 'someone' was inside the machine...)


And yes, the motor will run backwards on a Kirby & do exactly what you've described. I seriously doubt there's anything wrong with the transmission.

I hope this helps you Walter.

Cheers & hagd all,

Bill

 

[twocvbloke]

Ah the joy of the Kirby G series multispeedsafetyswitchythingumybob, they do kindly have the terminals marked (R,G,Y,B) and the plugs splodged with the appropriate colour (again, R,G,Y,B), so not hard to get wrong if there's someone who knows what they're doing fixing it up...

 

[watsonw]

Gentlemen,

Many thanks to you, especially Bill and Joe,

Kind regards, Walter.

 

[vintagecanister]

Are there any machines in the UK

or, I should say, marketed solely to the UK, as Kirby is to the US, that offer options such as the Tech Drive?

 

[twocvbloke]

The Kirby G-Series we get here are basically the same product you get over there, the only real differences are electrical, the motor has a condenser unit on the bottom, the cable is obviously made to fit the UK sockets, and they fit an "Export" 8 Watt bulb (the "domestic" I think is 13 or 14 watts, a bit brighter) to the headlight, everything else is pretty much the same...

The predecessors were slightly different, the original 240v Kirbys (Omega, ClassicIII and Tradition) were all Single-speed, then switched to 2-speed with the Heritage. The footswitch socket and cable end was a 3-pin IEC from the word go, no US extension-style cables, and most if not all Kirbys had a rewirable 13 Amp plug (fused for 5 Amps, hopefully!!!), and with the Tradition onwards, the disposable bag setup became standard. Also, the plugs on the motor had a retainer thing, it slips under the scuffplate and it's split in the middle so you can slip it over the cable and then plug, then refit the scuffplate and the cable is secured...

And again, the pre-Gs have a condenser assembly in there, some older models may not have it fitted though, and you can tell cos the armatures are so worn down from the lack of the arc-suppressing condenser... :S