Royal Power Tank canister - help!

[kestinfox]

Howdy vacuum folks, I'm in a bit of a pickle.
I've got a Royal Power Tank with a bad bearing - the balls inside were falling into the fan - and I was wondering if anyone could point me to any information on how to replace this? I tried taking it into a shop, and they gave me a speech about the age of the vacuum and their supply channels having nothing besides consumables, but I refuse to believe that something like a bearing wouldn't be available somewhere. Anywhere!
I tried running a few searches, but nothing's really come up so far. I figured asking the great and amazing minds at VacuumLand directly might be able to help me find a way out of this conundrum.

 

[blackheart]

Hmm

It's a bit tricky replacing them when you're not experienced with it. Most of the vacuum motors i've worked on use a 608ZZ 8x22x7 mm would be the dimensions for those. You'll need a bearing puller

Do you have an impact driver? If so that'll make the process MUCH easier. If you have one you can loosen the fan nut and then dissasemble the back section.

Now if you don't I found it easiest to start with the back of the motor The goal is to remove the field coil to allow you something to grip to remove the fan nut. now it's been a while since i've seen one of the royal motors so maybe i'm remembering it wrong but if it's like many ametek motors there will be a bracket around the carbon brushes held in by two screws on either side remove those and you should find a black bolt underneath them if you undo those bolts you should be able to lift off the field coil as well as the rear motor support containing the rear bearing as well as most likely some sort of spring and perhaps a washer make sure to keep those in order when re-assembling. Now with that all removed you'll wand to grab something soft like a towel and wrap the wide silver part of the armature with it and then use that to get a grip on the motor. From there used a socket to loosen the nut on the fan. once you have the nut off you should lay the motor fans down on the ground and pull gently while giving it just a little wobble you should be able to pull the armature and the front bearing out. NOW stick a rigid object through the hole in the fans case so you "lock" all the washers spacers and fans into place and they can't slide away. Now if you're going to pull the fan case apart that's kind of another story. But anyways with both bearings exposed I suggest replacing both of them. so you'd use your bearing pulling make sure to avoid putting the center screw on the threads of the armature when pulling them off once you've removed them you'll want to use something like a spacing washer to ensure that you're only putting pressure on the inner ring of the new bearings if you apply pressure to the shields you risk damaging the bearing and may have to remove them. so once you've got your spacer or whatever you use a hammer and tap on the device until the bearing is seated in the right position. from there you re-assemble keep your fan case in place pull out your "lock and carefully insert your armature so you don't knock any washers/spacers out of place from there flip it and reinstall your nut.

Sorry it's a long post and perhaps leaves a few questions to be answered. I just kind of recalled how I generally go about it.

 

[lesinutah]

I'm

Pretty sure it's a 5.7" single stage lamb motor

 

[kestinfox]

Thanks Les!

I really appreciate the breakdown on the process, that helps a lot! I'll have to track down a bearing puller.

Now I just have to source a good bearing. Anyone know of any good brands/sites for bearings?

 

[tylerhawkins84]

Check with Lamb/Ametek

I would see if Lamb/Ametek could give you any direction. They still manufacture motors very similar to what was used in the Royal tanks so maybe they still use the same or compatible bearings.

 

[madman]

Most ball bearings are standard and are easily available from anywhere. Amazon, ebay, random cheapie bearing websites. The trick is finding the dimensions or trade number of the bearing. The trade number will be written somewhere on the bearing (side of inner or outer race, or dust shield), but if the old bearing is destroyed, finding the number may not be possible. If both bearings appear to be the same, use the number on the good one.

Like BlackHeart says, 608 is a common trade number. The ZZ or any characters following it refer to the shielding type - metal or plastic dust covers, or no dust covers, ZZ or 2Z usually means both sides of the bearing are covered (I think Z means metal covers). If you have the trade number, search for just the number WITHOUT the ending characters, as those can be different from brand to brand. Once you find them, THEN pick one that has the same shielding / cover setup. McMaster.com is a good place to window shop for bearings, especially if you don't know the number and you need to search by dimensions. And you can order from them in a pinch, but they will be expensive.

Personally, I don't mind using cheap Chinese 'skate board' bearings. True, I've had a couple fail out of the box, but they're so cheap it doesn't bother me. (Order extra lol) And the ones (90% of them) that work, work fine. But any bearings can be had from reputable makers, if you'd prefer. But expect to pay $10-20 for good ones, compared to a buck or less for cheap crap.

And remember, bearing manufacture is a very specialized industry. No vacuum company makes their own bearings. They are all sourced from bearing manufacturers. In other words, there's never a need to pay more for a bearing with a Royal sticker on it.

 

[blackheart]

shierlding and brands

madman, you are correct ZZ/2z would mean metal shields. A local bearing place told me that the metal shielded ones are better for high speed applications because they deal with higher temperatures better than rubber shields (RS)

Now as for branding You can go with a cheaper one just make sure that you are getting something that can tolerate a good speed, also if you are getting cheap ones make sure to get a multipack in case a few are duds or if you accidentally damage one in installing.

I've been getting HCH branded ones recently they seem to have a lower dude rate than the unbranded ones I was getting. I know Kirby Uses Peer bearings which i'd imagine is a good quality.

 

[vacman1961]

If you send the motor to me I will replace both bearings, clean the fans and cut commutator to proper specs for $25.

 

[lesinutah]

Send me

The bearings I'll do it for jk. I'm not messing with it. You got good advice and help best of luck.

 

[ubergreenguru]

I'd personally recommend SKF Bearings over any other brand. They're readily available on eBay and many other places and are still relatively inexpensive... But will last significantly longer than cheap skateboard bearings from Amazon.

Heck, I replaced the armature bearings on my daily-driver Oreck with SKF 608-2RS JEM bearings (608 size, dual rubber shields, w/ 'GJN' grease aka Mobil Polyrex EM1 grease, rated for EM electric motor spec aka 'C3' clearance) -- and damnit! My Oreck now runs better & smoother than it did when it was brand spankin' new!

Bearings count for A LOT when you consider the typical vacuum cleaner motor is spinning at anywhere from 10,000 RPM to 30,000 RPM.

 

[lesinutah]

Royal

Power tank 8-12 amp motors. Oreck 4.5 amp motors and there considerably higher priced. You want durable bearings higher rpms bearings wouldn't be optimal.

 

[tylerhawkins84]

NSK

I believe these had NSK 608 zz bearings in them from the factory. Of course back then they were made in the US. Now they are manufactured in Indonesia or Japan so I can’t attest to the quality of them. I did find a couple NOS USA made ones on eBay some time ago if I ever choose to or need to rebuild mine but I don’t know how effective 20+ year old bearings will be even new. I also have a spare NOS Lamb motor with the Royal part number, but again probably over 20 years old now. I really hope I don’t ever have to pull the motor out of mine though because they are a very tight fit and it’s hard not to scratch the casing when removing or prying the rear motor support back in.