New to me Royal 886

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upright886

Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2016
Messages
21
Location
Wauwatosa Wisconsin
The Find: 6 miles from work picked it up during lunch.

I acquired a lightly used Royal 886.

Needs some elbow grease to shine up the housing from 25 years of storage. Internally the wood brush-bar is still set to 1 without any discernible wear. It came with 2 of 4 original bags as well as two spare belts the original shop packed in. It appears to have been purchased 5/1/1987 so it is among the first 886 models.

The second owner exclusively uses a commercial QRECK to clean homes and never ran this one but moved it to 3 homes.

I wanted a non bypass design vacuum to work in conjunction with plans to switch back to dry cleaning with my new Oreck Orbiter. My Eureka is a non bypass but was getting tired and lacking in style for my 1940 home.

My understanding of this machines history is it was used by an Aunti to vacuum two area rugs in a home that was otherwise hard wood. Slightly used so I have time to find some new brushes.

My initial maintenance:

I cleaned the fibers from the wood beater brush/bearing area tomorrow I will add a drop of oil to the rear bearing. Straight 30 weight just like the included manual recommends.

I installed one of the two new Type A Royal Bags and will order some Eureka F&G bags for back up.

Thoughts:
The machine is surprisingly light and easy to maneuver. The dial height adjustment is just about as simple as it gets to match the job at hand.

I can see why everyone likes these all metal upright designs. My Eureka 7575 ESP was in need of new belts and bags which would have cost me half of what I paid for this gem. I will put my last Z type fresh bag in and send it to Goodwill where it should find another 5-10 years of service.

Question:
My first Post... Can anyone advise if aftermarket brush assemblies have ever been created for this 6A motor. I could always rebuild with generic carbon but it would be nice to have one assembly on hand to facilitate rebuilding the current set.

I think it is a little late to send in the warranty card but I should get another 30 years out of this one.

A set of NOS brushes would be the best if any collectors are hording a case of them.


Regards

Matt

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Matt,

That is weird in picture #2 they did not complete the full serial number on the tag. From the looks of it, the full serial number should be: D87A001960 (where D87=April 1987).

BTW, does your service manual folder contain anything resembling a parts breakdown/list? If so, please send me a private e-mail to either (1) [email protected] or (2) [email protected].

Thank you!

~Ben
 
Nice Find Matt!

Royals are hard to beat! They're powerful, maneuverable, durable, and just a great vac in every way. As for the motor brushes, they should still be readily available at your local vac shop, and also online. The Henry Co. has an online store, called Vac Parts Plus if I'm not mistaken. You may want to give them a try.
Jeff
 
I have one too!

Congratulations Matt!

My first Royal was the 886 model. Very proud of this one and you will be too.

Mine did not come with an owners manual. Would love a copy from somewhere sometime.
You will find they are pretty easy to work with.

We just love Royals!

Bill
[email protected]
 
Great find, anything bigger than the 6 amp. motor on Royals are screamers! Does the brushroll have the plastic brush "stiffners" on each side of each brush strip? I have an early 90-ish 9000, and it does a great job on my plush carpets. You might visit a vac shop for bags, Envirocare makes a nice micro-filtration bag in the F&G configuration. That's the only thing that bugs me about mine...wish it had the later B style bag tube, changing F&G bags are a pain to me.
 
Great group.
I scanned my parts list and sent it to Ben and Bill it appears I cannot attach PDF below.

The brush-roll does have stiffeners and seems to lack any real wear. Living with a F&G configuration bag is preferred to a new bag less system at least by me. Newer bags or vacuums would mean a screamer. The tone and note of the 6A is mellow lacking in real chaos.

I will keep a small canister handy when changing to capture the small amount of crud that may escape. With practice and technique study I am sure dust escape can be minimized.

Matt
 
I think you will enjoy the machine, a lot like mine.Sometimes I just remove the whole bag to make it easy to change the paper one, outside!
 
886 -Elbow grease

15 minutes with some FILTZ polish yielded nice results and revealed areas that will need a touch of Jewelers rouge. I have a 2 kilo brick to locate. I may take the muzzle off to get the back side also allowing good access to the intersection of the motor housing and the muzzle.

For now it looks good. Yes I removed the 5 year warranty sticker so it is no longer valuable to the collectors. I will just use it.

Matt

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Royal find was just in time

I ordered 9 Envirocare Micro Lined Vacuum F&G Eureka bags for the Royal 886 and for $1 more included a SD belt for the eureka 7575B ESP. I was impressed with the Vibra 2 beater bar driven by a new belt. Halfway through the room the magic smoke came out of the motor winding yielding it's place to the new arrival.

I do think the Eureka/Sanitaire commercial 7A vacuums would be a good modern choice for those who cannot find a Royal in good shape.

The Eureka heads to retirement. RIP

Matt

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New to me a Very New Royal 886-2

It is official and I blame Kevin for writing to thank me for posting the 886 manual.

After I received his email I looked at the list and what did I find. Almost NOS 886 to match my first one. This means I officially now have a collection.
It spent it's whole life at a camp used 2 weeks a year only to chased grand kids who would not brush sand before coming in.

The cord is supple, plastic handle is glossy from the tool with little use. No fibers on the roller or dust in the bag.

When my oldest kid leaves the house they get to pick one and be set for life.

I will pull the 6.4a POP sticker and hit it with Filtz and a new belt and put it to work.

Matt

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