Oreck CVR 4000

[briguy]

Hey all!
I got this Oreck last weekend. The motor wasn’t wanting to turn. Took it apart and got it going. Little did I realize I had too much slack in one of the wires and it got caught in the armature. The copper wire from the motor stator busted off. Of course it’s impossible to find a motor for this vintage. I looked into rewinding the stator, but that’s a tedious process. A bit above my level of skill. Before I trash it, anyone have any idea if there would happen to be a motor available anywhere or another motor that might work in it? It could use a brush roll as well. This seems to have been a disposable vac given the time it was made. I don’t have high hopes of getting it going again but thought I’d run it by you guys. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[huskyvacs]

Wow! Definitely not disposable, this was one of Oreck's first vacuums back in the mid-1970's. (Made in West Germany I think, right?) It is a rare vacuum, definitely not something to just blindly toss out. Not easy to come by!

If the motor was not turning, it likely just needed new carbon brushes to make contact or the armature polished, you shouldn't have had to touch the motor windings. I've never heard of a motor being that worn out unless it was used commercially (which these usually were).

Can always just have it as a display piece to look at, or sell it off to someone that knows where to get a motor. My Hoover Z700 is just a display piece right now until I find (or have made) a cleanout-port rubber plug. Just one dumb tiny part crippled the entire vacuum! I have discovered that old vacuums are a lot like working on an old car - sometimes you have to wait a while before you run across the right part.

Any pics of where it's damaged? You can likely just solder on a new piece of wire and then put heat shrink tubing over it if there is enough there to work with.

 

[kloveland]

I have the older version

The black CRV. The motor looks like a powerhead motor with a longer shaft. Mine has bad bearings and I can't see an easy way to take the motor apart. I was just wondering if this version had the same or similar motor. Very tiny plastic fan.

 

[briguy]

Hey Kenny! Mine has a metal fan. The motor looks a bit different than yours. Here’s a photo of it as I was taking it apart. Excuse the nastiness. It’s since been thoroughly cleaned up.

 

[kloveland]

Thanks Brian

I didn't know the differences between the two motors. Thank you for posting a picture. Yes, these are rare! I wish I could find a better motor for mine.

Thanks again,
Kenny

 

[briguy]

You’re welcome Kenny! I like seeing the differences between models. It’s interesting yours has a plastic fan if it’s an older model. I’d think they would have started with metal. However mine had been taken apart before, so maybe it was replaced. Not sure.