KIRBY SOFT GREY BELTS 500 SERIES

[jeschbac]

Hey Kirby specialists, I have a bit of a dilemma with belts for my 516 and 519. When I restored these two machines a couple of years ago, I put in the new style brushrollers, and was advised to use the new knurled belts for them. I installed part # 301291. I've never worked harder making the belt lifter stretch these belts, and I ruined what appeared to be a perfectly good, original belt lifter. The back plastic tabs broke off under the stress. At that point, I had not heard of the Kirby soft grey belts - the online shop never mentioned them. Got a supply of them recently and just installed one this evening. They too are exceedingly stiff and put that red plastic belt lifter under considerable stress, but at least it didn't crack the tabs. Question: is this a matter of aging belts, aging plastic belt lifter, or both? I presume with some use that these grey belts will break in a bit and not be so stiff when turning the belt off, and for now it seems to be operating the brush roll correctly. Advice?

 

[bnsd60m9200]

jess, those old beltlifters are made out of bakelite actually not plastic. hence with age , they naturally get brittle. the belts will strecth much quicker if theyre vintage and havent been exposed to decent moisture levels for many decades. id suggest looking for new old stock belt lifters OR putting mequiars rubber/vinyl/plastic protectant on it to help get moisture back into the pores of that old bakelite.

 

[sonnyndad]

Just use a knurled belt on a G series machine for a while and then your belt will get nice and stretched. That's what I do and it works fine.

 

[stricklybojack]

It's okay..

to pre-streach a belt before installion, sounds like it would have helped.

 

[jeschbac]

Thanks, Will

I will try to recondition the bakelite. Great idea.
I've got some Kirby handles that need tighter spring tension. Can you show me how to do this sometime?

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Jess,

The belts you want for all Kirby models up to the D80 would be given as part #159056.

~Ben

 

[electrolux137]

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I ordered the soft gray belts from this eBay seller (see link). You can contact him and specify (clearly) that you want the old-style soft belts.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/vacuum-supplies-and-much-more