Screwed-up situation (pun intended)...

[human]

I was in communication with another member earlier this week, answering a few questions he had about Electrolux power nozzles and for whatever reason, I decided the time had come to do something with this scarred-up gray PN-4A I've had sitting on the shelf for two or three years. I have one like it that I gave a custom paint job a few years ago and I seriously thought about sanding and painting this one to match but then I spotted a polished aluminum PN4 shell on eBay for a reasonable price and when the seller offered me a few more dollars off, I thought what the heck; It would be easier to shine that one up than to repaint the one I've got.

The cover arrived today and after giving it a quick going over with Mother's, I took the gray cover off, blew the chassis out with compressed air and fitted the new cover onto it. Wouldn't you know that aside from the smaller motor hump, the PN-4A uses different size screws, thus the title of this thread.

The screws that came with the PN-4A are two inches long and only have threads on the last half inch. The PN-4 uses screws that are 1 3/4 inches long and have threads all the way up. Although the PN-4 cover fits perfectly on the PN-4A chassis, the two-inch screws are too long. Of course, the next size down at Lowe's was 1.5 inches and those were too short. Fortunately, Home Depot had exactly what I needed and for a whopping $1.28.

So my PN-4A is now stylishly rocking a polished aluminum cover and I'm liking its new look. At some point, I may still decide to repaint its original cover, just for the heck. But that's a fairly low priority project when I've still got Kirbys that need polishing.

 

[human]

Sometimes I do the dumbest things...

So, as if getting that polished aluminum PN-4 cover wasn't enough, I also put in the only bid for another complete PN4, which was advertised 'For parts, not working'. That one arrived today and while I thought my gamble might have paid off since the description also said it was untested, it turned out the motor was frozen up and the circuit breaker was bad. I really can't fault the seller because I added things up the way I wanted them to come out and that wasn't reality. So what did I do?

After pricing motors and realizing a replacement would cost as much as a working second hand power nozzle, I decided to gut an ugly, yet working PN-4A and transplant its motor, circuit breaker and pigtail cord into this non-functioning but better looking PN4. I also dropped the polished cover onto it to create a working PN-4 that's less ugly than the PN-4A was. Yes, it was a pretty expensive lesson when you add up whatever I spent on both power nozzles and the extra cover and I didn't really accomplish a whole lot other than a cosmetic upgrade and to increase a burgeoning spare parts inventory. I would have come out WAY ahead to have just bought some sandpaper and a rattle can to give that PN-4A a re-spray.

Just for giggles, I'll probably polish up the other PN-4 cover later this week and then decide which one belongs on the power nozzle. And if I can separate the white pigtail cord from the bad circuit breaker, I'll put it back in its rightful place instead of the gray one that's there now.

 

[fantomfan57]

Hey Human...

I like reading your posts. Keep them coming.

 

[human]

New motor...

last night, I found a replacement motor on eBay for not much money. It had a 'best offer' option so I put in a low-ball offer and darned if it wasn't accepted so now I've got the pieces to fix the motor-less PN-4A that I gutted. The only part of the problem remaining was the bad circuit breaker. While I hadn't found one of those, I did find in my tool shed a can of penetrating lube called CRC Freeze Off and decided to give it a shot--or a good dousing, actually. Wonder of wonders, it freed up the button on the breaker almost instantly so I worked it for a minute or two, just repeatedly pushing the button until the action was smooth, then sanded the contacts and tested it with an ohmmeter. Sure enough, current now flows through the breaker. I then connected the pigtail cord and the short lead that goes from the breaker to the underside of the motor tested the complete assembly and had continuity the whole way. So now that's all back in place and waiting for the motor to arrive. It's going to be a little bit of a FrankenNozzle with all its disparate parts but it'll be working again. Once I get the motor in and test it, I'll have to decide whether to leave the white pigtail in place or swap it with the Silverado gray one I put over onto the PN-4 that gave it the original motor out of the PN4-A so that both will have pigtails that match their other plastics.

 

[human]

FrankenNozzle!!!

So the replacement motor arrived today but when I gave it a test fit, I discovered that an unused mounting tab on the front part of the motor casing wouldn't go down past the circuit breaker interfered with the front part of the motor casing. Faced with a choice of doing some creative cutting or playing mix-n-match with parts from the two motors, I opted for the latter solution. It took a bit of trial and error, including putting the front half of the case on upside down, relative to the back half, but I finally got the thing back together and mounted inside the nozzle. At this point, I figured I had about a 50/50 chance of it actually working, but as Bob Dylan once said, "if you ain't got nothin' you got nothin' to lose' so I hooked it up to my Super J and let it rip. To say I was pleasantly surprised when I fired it up and it ran even quieter than the one into which the original motor had gone would be an understatement.

So now, in addition to the custom motor, my FrankenNozzle, which began life as a Silverado gray PN4-A, has been upgraded with a shiny PN-4 cover, which I like the look of much better the original. I also swapped the pigtail cords between the two nozzles so each now has its original one back that matches the color of its plastics. I did, however, leave the circuit breakers where they were to eliminate a step in the process. The good news is the one I fixed with Freeze Off seems to be working just fine now.

In the photo below, the PN-4 on the left received the original motor from the now fairly modified PN-4A on the right. I definitely like the look of the PN-4A with its upgraded cover. And while it certainly wasn't anywhere near as complicated as putting a modern Chevy LS motor into a vintage Chevelle, I do feel a sense of accomplishment for having successfully pulled it off to bring the PN-4A back to life.