The Summer of Electroluv

[DesertTortoise]

A partial victory today. The Electrolux "shop vac" carpet torpedo was reassembled sans upper cover over the weekend. The motor wasn't smelling and I knew a new hose was inbound any day. This morning I cleaned a metric buttload of crap from the old hose handle, which I am reusing. Good grief, that smell again! Gack. Sanitized it with orange cleaner, touched a file to the contacts, bent one that looked a touch out of alignment and slid the new hose into the old handle.

You can see my set up for the moment of truth. I had no idea what to expect from my submersible electric motor, heh, heh, heh, so I did my trial run on the end of the driveway on an extension cord with a 10BC fire extinguisher at the ready. And the result is?

No drama whatsoever. Operated as intended and it smells, well, there is no smell. The only flaw is that if you rotate the hose in the handle there are two spots where it looses contact. Should I bend the contacts out some more? I am afraid if they are bent out too far they will bend sideways sliding the hose end into the handle.

Satisfied the vacuum itself was working well I tried the powered floor brush. No joy here. So I broke out the VOM and made sure I had voltage at the hose end, and at the end of each wand segment. I noticed the cheap plastic cover on the swivel neck was loose due to the little cover screw being stripped, and one contact was pushed back. I put the contacts back into their slots cast into the swivel neck, rubber banded the cover in place so the contact pins would not move and tried again. Still dead. For giggles I put the still not yet cleaned and plenty nasty Sidekick on the hose and it worked (I ran it maybe two seconds fearing contaminating the vac with that horrible stench). Satisfied everything in the vacuum itself is working perfectly and smelling like a Mike Diamond plumber I put the cover back on and called it good to go. Glamor shots to follow when the powered brush is working and the Sidekick cleaned and de-stunk.

Looks like I have to take the cover off the head and see if I have voltage at the contacts to the motor. If I do I will have to see about disassembling the motor or maybe buying a new one.

Like I said, this vacuum is going to make me earn it. And the summer of electroluv continues ......

 

[stricklybojack]

Thanks...

i love these back from the dead vac stories. The more tenacity shown the more i enjoy going along for the ride. It's a good argument to limit how many vacs you acquire so you can focus your efforts and get them into full operational shape. Then find out what they really perform like by using it at least somewhat regularly.

 

[eurekastar]

haha! The fire extinguisher is a nice touch! Just in case...

 

[DesertTortoise]

Erekastar, remember that was the vacuum whos motor I soaked in water with some orange degreaser. Yes it was out in the hot desert sun for a week and should be dry, but like you said, you never know. First time to that particular rodeo, if it's going to go FOOM, better to have it happen down on the end of the driveway with the extinguisher handy.

 

[Gr8DaneDad]

Oh ye of little faith.


The PN swivel neck likely has a broken wire, or did you press the reset button? Unlike your (okay, tongue in cheek heavy sarcasm coming) cheap ass Cen-tec PN's the Lux will actually trip the breaker rather than snap a belt. 


Yes you can bend the contacts a bit further to maintain connectivity in the handle, just a smidge at a time.

 

[kevin]

Wow -- too bad you didn't do a Youtube video showing all the steps of completely disassembling and cleaning an Electrolux. I'd like to but need some coaching.

Glad that the motor in the tank runs and that the smell is non-existant. Am anxious to see the final product!

Regarding the reek factor I'm thinking that cleaners or manuals should state in bold letters: DO NOT USE CLEANER TO PICK UP BODILY WASTE OR OTHER ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES THAT MAY COMPROMISE THE MOTOR'S FUNCTIONALITY, CLOG THE HOSE, TOOL, OR POWER NOZZLE, AND CREATE A PERPETUAL STENCH IN THE UNIT. INSTEAD FIRST CLEAN UP SUCH CONTAMINANTS WITH A BROOM AND DUSTPAN AND USE SPRAY DISINFECTANT ON REMNANTS PRIOR TO VACUUMING.

Btw ... don't know if you already know but the Epic 8000/C133A was manufactured from about 1997 to 1998. It was the only Epic not to have an 'SR' after its numeric id; likely because it was the last revision of the Renaissance cleaners/Model C104s instead of being its own series like the 6000 SR & 6500 SRs. The Guardian/Model C134s succeeded them as the premium tank during Electrolux Corporation's 75th anniversary.

 

[DesertTortoise]

I know I have power down to the end of the wand, so I'm not thinking the problem is in the handle. I'll strip the cover off the PN, put hose end right on the PN swivel, turn the vac on and start testing to see if I have power at the PN motor. If there is power all the way to the motor, then it is the motor that is defective. If not, then I have to start backing up. It may be something as simple as resetting the red button, which btw I didn't think to try so that will be an adventure for this evening.

At least it is clean to work on now!

Kevin, if you go back through my threads you will see a post where I disassembled the vacuum, and another where I figured out how to get the bag compartment and door off for cleaning. I have referenced those images reassembling the vac so everything went back the way it came apart.