Vax 121 tripping the electrics

[beko1987]

Don't worry, it's not my new in box one!

I picked up a ratty vax yesterday with a 101 wash head. All very excited, I set it up and start vaxing.

Everything was going well, was about to take a video when the power went out... And the vax now smells of burning plastic.

Is this generally fixable, or not? Had to crack out the Nib motor to finish the job.

The car boot vax is sitting in shame for now...

 

[parwaz786]

I hear a lot of stories about VAX's tripping the breaker

 

[james]

This is a very common problem with Vax's.
I think it is new motor time, that is what I have done with any of mine that tripped the breaker.

 

[vintagerepairer]

it sounds like the suppressors have blown, given the smell and the fact that the cleaner has come back to life now that power has been restored. Suppressors seem to be magnets for damp and they don't like it, but that is only one reason for them blowing. Whatever it is, it's worth a strip-down to be sure.

 

[beko1987]

I havent tried it again since it tripped the power, I will turn it on tonight and see if it still runs briefly.

How easy are these to strip down? I don't think I have a long and thin enough socket to get the bolts out from the handle, anyone know of a tool that will fit?

I presume if it is the supressor I can remove it and carry on, or would it be wise to replace it? Saw some carbon brushes on ebay going cheapish too, could carbons cause these symptoms? They dont in old hoover motors but I imagine this motor is a different beast to a 400w dirty fan motor! (Vax is 900w)

Will have a play with my socet set and see if I can get in!

 

[james]

Hmmm, I suppose it could be the suppressor. When one of my Vax's did this I changed the motor and fitted my suppressor to the new motor and that worked fine.
So was my motor that had gone.
Had a 1200W motor I think it was in briefly until I found another 900W one, was a right beast.
Really got the cleaning solution through that washing head when vaxing lol.

To get those handle bolts off, I sometimes use a pair of long nose pliers, it can chew the bolt up a little but it does work if you grip hard enough.
I never tried but maybe a swan neck/ offset spanner may work. Once I used a socket on the end of a flexi drive coupler that I have in my screw driver set which kind of works although was awkward.

 

[irish-vac-king]

ME TO

 

[beko1987]

Cheers for the diagnostic info! Still need to have a go at it! I'm just using my good new vax motor on the old kit!

 

[beko1987]

Back from the archive!

I remembered to bring my socket set home the other day, and found 5 minutes to sit down with the Vax.

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

Aha, a motor!

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

The way things were!

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

Lovely non rustproof bolts in a wet cleaner...

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

The lady who sold it was very insistent it had had 'little use'. Utter bollocks without looking inside and seing this!

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

Think this might be the culprit

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

After some advice from faceache, I'm going to chop the supressor out and join the dots. I also couldnt resist having a good clean. Even though I bought this for use and lending out, it would be rude not to!

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

From Vax 121 Supressor

Hope it works now after all this! Plus I have sick to get out of the bedroom carpet...

 

[davetranter]

Suppressor

Yep.... That looks like a fairly typical exploded suppressor..... We've actually had them ignite in some lighting dimmers, despite them allegedly being 'flameproof'. ;-)

"The lady insisted it had very little use".... Perhaps she was telling the truth... But looking at it, it's certainly had NO maintenance. Poor Vax......

All best

Dave T

 

[beko1987]

I'd forgotten about this, cheers Dave!

After chopping out the supressor and re-crimping it, a good wash and rebuild it works like new!

The fan cooling vents were chokka with carpet, so I spent an hour picking that out, cleaned the big seal it sits on and did 2 hours of vaxing!

Now that I have done this however, I'm looking at dead ones on ebay more and more! Very nice looking boxed one over in Canvey, which looks like it has these issues. Only issue is they wont post, although I haven't asked them if they will yet!

I think the supressor in this one was close to going on fire, but popped first. It smelt so acrid, I had to put it in a public bin outside as it stunk the flat out! Luckily it went from the plastics in the wash.

The chap who changed our upstairs radiator (landladys odd job man) was very impressed with it, and it did it's first job with no issue. Second job will be to shampoo the carpet around the leaky, rusty rad!

 

[dansvaccentre12]

suppressor

hi sam I hav a lux z350e that's dunn the same thing yet don't no our rewire it back up its got 4 wires come of the speed control. and one off the on off button other off cable rewind

 

[beko1987]

Do they all go into the suppressor and come out again?
Have to say I don't know about the lux. If you could pop some pictures up that would help, it took me a while to figure it out.

Failing that, put a new thread up, with lots of pics and the Electrolux beards will help!

 

[dansvaccentre12]

OK WILL DO SORT IT AT WEEK END THKS SAM

 

[dysondestijl]

Hey I have a lux 350E I love it its very quiet and pleasant to use

 

[dansvaccentre12]

I did an till it started smokein from the suppressor best cleaner out

 

[biggy]

difficult to get at bolts

after you get them out use a hacksaw to cut slots across the bolt head you can then use a slotted screwdriver instead of socket or pliers to put them back in place.

 

[blackbirdxx]

Removing supressor from VAX 121

Just wanted to confirm a few things before I make the removal of the suppressor on my VAX 121:

The suppressor has 2 black wires going to it which appear to feed the motor.
it also has 2 blue wires which go to the switch.

Is removal of the suppressor just a matter of cutting the 4 wires and connecting a blue wire to a black wire?
Because there are 2 blue wires coming from the switch, does it matter which of the black wires each are connected to?

Many thanks in advance....