Hello Paul. I had very little to do with either Freedom cleaner as few ever came my way for repair. The one which stands out is a Turbopower Freedom which came in for a new rear bag unit as the original had snapped. I used to stock these in black, but I am sure there was a problem with the screws which held the duct in place being in a different position from the normal Turbopower. I see you have one of these cleaners and I wondered if you were able to look and see?
As it was, I am sure I had to order the exact bag unit for my customer as she was still using her cleaner bagless. I cannot tell you what Hoover's answer was to remedy the Turbopower Freedom problem with dust leakage.
Thinking about the bag unit, if I am right about the screw positions, this meant yet another moulding was in existence. As it was, there were two variations of the black bag housing, one for standard cleaners and one for autoflex which had an additional screw hole. Quite why Hoover fitted all the other mouldings needed for the autoflex corwinder to all bag units and yet not include the screw hole to secure the winder cover is something of a mystery. As well as these, there was a bag housing with the on/off switch hole in the place where the flex winder button would have been, and another where the on/off switch hole was in the place where teh bag full lamp would have been. All of these have been shown in your photographs, albeit in the original colours.
Hoover sold refurbishment kits for Turbopower machines, which consisted of bag housing front & back, handle, unprinted motor hood, plus a handful of other parts. The idea was that a broken machine could be brought back to life, or else a whole new machine built using an existing chassis & motor and whatever other parts were not included in the pack. Black became the obvious choice for major spares, because as your photographs show, there were a good deal of colours made!
(27/10/13)
