The worst condition royal you’ve ever seen.

[oldskoolguy]

I purchased a $10 royal from goodwill under the impression that I could fix it up and sell it. Unfortunately, it looked like the damage had already been done. The base plate was rusty and upon discovering that the rust was eating away at the metal, the decision was made to toss it. Then the brushroll. That was seized up and didn’t turn so that too had to be thrown away. There were various areas of rust all over the machine from the plate where the cord meets the motor to tiny spots on the hubcaps. The worst was yet to come, the motor was seized up and frozen. It Wouldn’t even turn the slightest bit. I have saved it for now, but I must ask: is this royal worth restoring and selling? Or is it as good as done? The pictures you see are only a sample of this machines terrible condition.

 

[crazykirbydude]

I kinda want to take a crack at fixing it. I've wanted a Royal for a while now. Would you sell it as-is?

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Oldskoolguy

Jack,

Too bad about how neglected this Royal was when you got it! I too say that you should try and see how successfully you can get 'er done!

~Ben

 

[human]

Parts donor?

Perhaps you could look at as a potential parts donor for another one. With that in mind, what parts would you consider salvageable?

 

[oldskoolguy]

Update

Well an attempt was made to drill through the screws with no luck. They seem to be REALLY reinforced or are just simply foolproof. Multiple screw driver heads were used to pull ‘em out. No luck. My last option is to try and use screw extractors, but who knows if that will work with already drilled through screws. If all else fails, I will gladly let you take a crack at it crazy Kirby guy if you’re fine with some drilled screws.

 

[oldskoolguy]

Human,
Regarding the parts, it’s hard to say what is and is not salvageable with stuck screws. I have a few salvageable screws, and other hardware. The switch is salvageable if I disconnect it. The handle too may be salvageable if I cut the cord. The belt plug is salvageable. The bag too I can save the trim is salvageable, but needs removal. The wheels could be salvaged if I took the hubcaps (also salvageable maybe) off. The housing is BADLY pitted along the side, so it’s in a questionable state. Some components are salvageable, but may be hard to save with some hardware that is basically seized.

 

[kirbyklekter]

Not the worst

I've seen by a long shot. working on it would be a labor of love, but if you're not feeling it I'd release it back in to the wild. Selling it as is for anything over 10.00 is instant profit, but if you fix up before selling, it could be dicey getting your money and time spent back, it just depends on how bad it really is. If you have always wanted a Royal in your collection this is a good way to learn about them and you will definitely appreciate this machine even more than if you bought it already restored!

 

[huskyvacs]

This is not "the worst" at all. Why are people afraid of rust so badly? I don't get it. There is something called a WIRE BRUSH and SANDPAPER.

Also vacuums are never an investment. You cannot get something for free and fix it for free, and you cannot get a vacuum for $5 and expect to spend $5 fixing it. I've paid $10 for a vacuum and spent $60 getting it back to museum condition.

Give it a full teardown, clean it up and wash it, take the motor apart and clean it up, give it fresh grease and polish the armature, new carbon brushes, etc, then put it all back together and polish it.

I paid $60 for this Kirby G5 that was left in a leaky moldy basement for decades and she still works perfectly. Just needs to be cleaned up, polished, and the transmission rebuilt.



I also have a Bee-Vac that was left in a barn and is totally locked up, and its 100 years old.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Jack,

Here's a Royal teardown video for you!

(video: VacuumDevil)

~Ben

 

[tolivac]

There is a Royal upright vacuum at the vac place I go to-it is a trade in to a new vacuum the customer bought.The bag is torn and worn.The back wheel mechanism is broken.The motor brushes are worn out.May pass on this one.I did get a FREE Royal upright from the Rainbow place here.Was a trade in to a new Rainbow.The machine came with attachments.The cord is worn but can still work.The vacuum is in fine shape otherwise.
Then another vacuum-the yard care guy I use goes to many yard sales.He found a Kirby Classic Omega that is in fine shape.No attachments.The bag is like new and no smells.Just had a bunch of fluff in it that my NSS M1 "Bench" vacuum ate with gusto.That Kirby also has the METAL fan--something about stuff picked up going thru the metal fan!

 

[crazykirbydude]

I usually just drill the screw heads off and then remove the rest with some channel locks. I did that to a Garry when one of the screw heads broke off. If there's enough screw shaft left, I will tighten my drill chuck down on it and simply reverse it out. Then again, I've never owned or worked on a Royal metal upright, so the situation might be different.

 

[madman]

If it's that rusty and frozen motor, it was almost certainly left in a basement that flooded. My Cadillac was in a similar condition, the fan case had a water line corroded into the aluminum.

Do these have ball bearings or sleeve bearings? If it has sleeve bearings, the actual death knell for this machine will be if the armature shaft bearing surfaces are rusted and pitted. Which is a very real possibility given this machine has clearly been in water for a while. But then again, you could probably get a new armature, but there comes a point where you'd almost be building a new machine from scratch.

 

[oldskoolguy]

Update:

Surprisingly, it lives! Had something stuck under the fan that prevented it from Spinning. I tried to pry it off with a screw driver l, but heard something click , and immediately began to turn the fan. Sure enough, it spun! Plugged it in, turned it on, and it worked. Now I’ve come across another issue: the top cord hook won’t secure (or at least I can’t figure out how the spring goes). I’ve tried many times to put the screw with the spring in, but had zero luck (spring might be worn or it could be human error. In the process I broke the pin the bag secured to and where the screw goes, and created a lager hole in the hook. Thankfully it’s minor (although frustrating to figure out when you think you have it but don’t), compared to everything else.

 

[lesinutah]

Spring

I'm trying to understand the spring.
I've taken a couple of pics of 3 of my royals. This may help you with the spring.
Les

 

[oldskoolguy]

Les, the spring actually goes with the hook. It prevents it from flopping around and keeps The hook still . It’s the same way with a Kirby cord hook (ones that turn obviously).

 

[oldskoolguy]

Bad news does not get better with age. I tried to take the fan off to see if the inside of the motor was okay. In the process, I broke several blades off the armature fan (surprisingly, it was plastic and not metal) by trying to jam it. Then I tried holding the fan while using pliers to get the shaft off, but it was either over tightened by me, or caught on badly corroded, rusted threads making it impossible to remove. Not sure if it’s worth replacing the armature fan or just putting it back together and selling it as is at this point because due to still needing some parts and new hardware plus a nice polish.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Oldskoolguy

Jack,

Plastic fan in your Royal, or were you tinkering with a Kirby? Must be aftermarket?

For your Royal 3000, a replacement impeller fan (look around where still available) is part no. 1608005000, which is still made of metal.

~Ben

 

[lesinutah]

Yes

Kirby is only motor I've seen with plastic/amodel fan on armature.
The plastic Kirby armature is the g series motor.
The royals I have from 1926-2012 all have metal armature fan.
Les

 

[oldskoolguy]

Been a while since I last posted about this Royal that had seen better days, so I figured I’d give an update. I think I owe a picture of the armature fan, so I’ve included that here. This has been sitting in a few pieces in my closet for a while. I couldn’t stand to look at it in such a condition. Some attempts were made to remove the fan but proved unsuccessful. I tried a pry bar, (at a friend’s suggestion), holding the fan and once again jamming the motor. Couldn’t get the off. I probably don’t have the right tools. Just recently, I tested out a scratch remover in small spots on the metal but unsure how it turned out due to using VARIOUS grits of sandpaper. It did remove oxidation though. Yesterday thought, I got around to trying to remove more of the rust that was on different parts and on afew pieces of hardware. That proved to be successful as now previously rusty pieces finally look better. For instance, securing bolt for the handle fork has most if not all of the rust removed on the head. Some other areas were trickier. The inside of the bag collar and along the outside was SERIOUSLY rusted to the point where it needed more than just CLR and a stainless steel brush. It needed something VERY powerful. I could have used a dremel, but don’t have one. a 3m rust/paint stripper wouldn’t fit inside and proved to have very little effect along the outside inside the grooves, so Even then a dremel might not be able to remove a lot of the rust. It might require a VERY heavy duty rust remover to get the rust on the inside and outside of the collar off (believe me, I’ve tried CLR a few times now). Between the last update I gave and removing the fan though, I gave it some thought and made up my mind: I want to sell this since it seems like a lost cause to to me (the latch doesn’t go back up after pressing it down, there’s rust needing removal, the non-genuine armature fan needs replacement but I can’t get the suction fan off, the handle pops out easily, I’ve got hardware I might be unable to remove because I drilled holes in it only to be unable to go all the way through, and I’m having a hard time getting the belt cap back on the rivet). So despite it already being on eBay, I’m still trying my best to remove as much rust, calcium, and black buildup (no idea what that is, but there’s a lot of it on the bag side of the motor housing.