Recently acquired Amway CMS-1000

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amwaycleartrak

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I've always wanted a CMS-1000 for my collection and I finally have one after all these years. I won this 1988 CMS-1000 off of ebay back on April 30th, the vacuum was shipped out on May 2nd and didn't arrive until just the other day. Luckily the vacuum suffered no damage during shipping but condition wise it is in so-so shape. Parts of the vac are quite dirty, the filter tray area was absolutely disgusting. Now when I took apart everything and got down to the motor I noticed that one of the brush holders was very close to the armature. The other brush holder isn't as close so is it supposed to be like this or should I be worried? I haven't ran the vacuum yet so I don't even know if it works properly or not either though the seller said it 'Works Great!'.

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Thanks Electroluxxxx

@electroluxxxx How far back do I move the brush holder? Do I move it as far like how the other brush holder is or do I move it back a bit further then that? And do I need to move the other brush holder as well? Sorry for the questions, I just want to make sure this motor is working properly before I seal it up completely.
 
It should have a notch in it or on the sides. If not, move it back as far as the other one and make sure it is securely in place otherwise you might have an issue in the long run.

It has been quite some time since I have worked on one of these motors.
 
Problem solved

@electroluxxxx I found out why the brush holder was so close to the armature. It appears that someone had serviced this vacuum and used the wrong brush. The green brushes are a bit too big. Luckily I have a spare ClearTrak motor which was broken and installed the brushes from that motor to the CMS one. Brushes work perfectly and the issue with it being too close is now gone.

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The parts which I ordered from WMJ Refurbishing have arrived. I bought a new brush roll and a foam pad for the filter tray. I also bought a used CMS upper motor housing and foam sleeve for the motor which are still on there way. During the past couple of days I have been busy washing and cleaning parts of the vacuum. A magic eraser sure does help with paint transfer and other tough marks.

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Great job! I have a ClearTrak too. Bought at Goodwill in 2013 and it's missing a lot of the filter parts. I never got parts for it, but now that I have been a collector since 2017 I will get it going again soon hopefully. I see a lot of carpet cleaning companies on YouTube using them still, so they must do the job.
 
Nice CMS 1000! It'll be fun to see the end result of your work. I'm surprised to see that it had the later black brush roll. What is the date on the inside of the filter compartment? Also, does the cyclone have the ring around it?
 
I've been noticing that also.

The Workhorse has slowly started to become popular with carpet cleaners and more and more people are buying them. It's a good thing that WMJ is around manufacturing the Workhorse and it's parts or this restoration wouldn't have been possible. Oh and I forgot to mention this in my last post but I also won this CMS-1000 accessory tote off of ebay. Came with all the tools except for the hose (hose in the photo was mine) and the original info sheet.

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Oh hey broomvac! How has your CMS-1000 been? I'm still slightly jealous that you got yours for $10 and it was in such a nice condition! Not to mention that it was an early version too. Anyways my CMS-1000 was made in 1988 and no it does not have the ring. Now this confirms that 1988 was when Amway changed the design, I have to guess that yours was probably manufactured earlier in the year while mine was manufactured later.

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Hi AmwayClearTrak!

All's well with my CMS 1000! It still digs sand out of the carpet and keeps the foam filter very clean.

Indeed, it seems that changes happened between "880411"--the date stamped on my CMS--and "882731." Incidentally, I'm having difficulty interpreting that date on your machine. The 88 certainly leads me to think 1988, but I don't know what to make of 2731. The 27th week of 1988 was July 04-July 10, and the 31st week was August 01-August 07. Anyone know how to decode this?

Here are some of the changes that might have occurred between your vacuum and mine:

--switch from grey to black brush roll. Mine has the grey one.
--removal of ring around cyclone. Mine has the ring, which was removed from the design later perhaps due to infringement.
--widening of tip of cyclone. Mine seems to have a narrower, perhaps more efficient(?) cyclone tip, which might have been changed later due to infringement.
--flattening of the back of the clear bin. Mine is perfectly cylindrical, but I suspect that the flat section might have been added later on for, yeah, you guessed it.
--tapering of the bottom of the clear bin. Mine does not taper at the bottom. Yep, same theory here.
--switch from 8 amp motor to 7 amp motor. Mine has an 8 amp motor, and I haven't heard of another CMS 1000 with one. No idea why they would change this.
--addition of "Amway" to the nozzle label. Mine does not say "Amway" anywhere on the top sticker.

There may have been other modifications to the design, but I haven't yet identified them. Which of these changes does your vacuum have? It's very interesting to see what all they changed once they got in trouble.

I'm actually starting a YouTube channel in the next month or so and I intend to upload some videos of my CMS 1000. I'll let you know when I do!

I look forward to learning more about these interesting cleaners!
 
Broomvac

Awesome to hear!

I've noticed that there seems to be a bit of confusion going around about the CMS and ClearTrak so I'll try list them first.

-The flat back of the bin and tapering did not happen on the CMS. That design was introduced when the ClearTrak came out in 1991. I believe they did that to make it easier for people to remove the bin from the vacuum. The flat back was to help the bin from hitting the cord hook area.

- For the motor, CMS and ClearTraks never came with a 7 amp. It was always an 8 amp. I don't know where the whole talk about CMS' using 7 amp motors came from.

Now for the CMS-1000. The CMS-1000 seemed to have gone through three changes between 87'-88'.

-Early CMS-1000's were labeled as the 'CMS-1000A'. I've seen multiple CMS' including yours which had the 1000A name printed on the bottom label.

-There are two different versions of the 1000A. The early version (what you own) had the ring around the cyclone, a light grey colored power cord similar to the ClearTrak, a grey brush roll, the filter tray did not include a filter frame (which goes between the foam and sub-micron) and it used a circular reset button.

-I believe the later version was sort of the transition into the final version, or the 'CMS-1000'. The ring was removed, the power cord was changed to a dark grey color and the reset switch was changed to a smaller square one. It still used the same grey brush roll.

-Then we move on to the CMS-1000 (my machine), basically the same as the later 1000A but the grey brush roll was replaced with a black one and a filter frame was added.

So I think I have a rough date estimate for the 3 different changes.
-1987 to Early 88' (Early CMS-1000A version)
-Early 88' to Mid 88' (Later CMS-1000A version)
-Mid 88' to 1990 (Finalized CMS-1000 version)

The six photos down below are of the early/later CMS-1000A vacuums and the final CMS-1000. First two being early and middle two being late and last two being final.

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@amwaycleartrak

Ah, thanks for clearing all that up. The changes I listed above were basically just differences I noticed between my CMS and other Amway vacuums I have seen online. I never noticed that the cords and filter trays changed, too. Indeed, there is no frame between the foam filter and micro filter on my unit. I appreciate the info!
 
Amway

I've had 2 of these, I liked them but for some reason I sold or gave them away.
Great to hear them described as pulling crud from carpet.
 
On Monday the foam sleeve and upper motor housing arrived. Yesterday I cleaned up the motor as best as I could and then put all the parts together. I did test it before closing the motor up and it worked well. No problems with the brushes or anything. Now I just have to work on getting the other parts ready.

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Need some advice & help

@broomvac I plan on repainting the metal frame due to rust, but I noticed that the roller bracket spring looks stretched when compared to the roller bracket spring on the ClearTrak. I actually think it's supposed to be like this due to the CMS not having height adjustment but just to make sure could you check your CMS and see if the spring on yours looks like mine? Also do you have an email that I can contact you with so I won't need make to more posts on here to talk to you?

Now for everyone else who has cleaned vacuums, I need some advice on how to clean the fine dust. The area above the cyclone assembly is covered in it and so is the tube part which leads to the filter tray. Also the part which holds the hose in place has a crack. Would super glue work well to keep the plastic together?

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@amwaycleartrak

So I checked my CMS 1000 and its spring was not stretched like yours. It looks like your Cleartrak's spring.

Super glue could very well fix the crack. The deeper into the crack you can get it, the more effective it should be. You may also have luck with JB-weld if you properly rough up and clean the surfaces to be glued. Perhaps try gluing inside the holder where it would be less obvious?

As for cleaning: I use microfiber towels, car detailing spray, and elbow grease when I refurb new finds. Washing plastic parts with the hose also works. Thankfully, although the fine dust is unsightly, it doesn't hurt the vacuum. :)

Feel free to just keep our conversation here; it doesn't bother me. Maybe we can help people who come across more CMS 1000s in the future. Good luck!

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I had one that was NOS a few years ago

I think they are better than some people think. Decent build quality and decent carpet cleaning performance. Filtration and auction/airflow are meh but pretty much on par for uprights of that time period. Very outdated by modern standards though.
 

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