Kirby Sanitronic VII Options

[firebirdman55]

I have an old Kirby Sanitronic VII that I traded a guy for. I traded my G4 For tge Sanitronic VII, a Classic III and a Heritage II. It needs a complete restore. I have had it forever and am too afraid to power it on. It looks as if it were kept in a barn or garage for 20 years. The motor when turned by hand, will barely move. It is very tight. The handle spring is broken, it will not stay upright. The cord is frayed,and it has the F&G conversion corduroy bag. Is it worth it to rebuild? I love this model and I know they're not the most common. No one around here rebuilds them and I'm not sending it to Kirby. I just dont know whether to dump the money I don't really have into it or just keep it for display as is. Is it worth the time, effort, and money?

 

[bnsd60m9200]

sanitronic VII's are actually still very common. finding them 100% is a bit hard, but they usually at least have a genunine replacement bag. with as much trouble as you say that one has, you CAN rebuild it, repacking the bearings is easy, replacing that damned handle fork spring assembly HAS to be done with a special tool you can get on ebay, but it's 40 bucks. not having the original bag an sani emtor (or even a replacement dump bag) is a bit more difficult as find that part without an extra machine is difficult. itll probably cost you right around 100 in parts and tooling to do it right (40 for the spring winder, 15 for the replacment spring kit, $10 for grease for the bearings, $10 for carbons is they are worn, 10-30 for original bag sani emtor / bag hangar, and 15-30$ for an original, un damaged cord)

personally id use that for parts, and wait for a better one. complete mostly original sanitronic VII's pop up on ebay for cheap frequently. ive found them at thrift stores and estate sales, but are rare in those arenas, at least in the dfw market.