Time for New Vacuum Cleaner?

[utilitarian]

Hi,

I was using my Eureka Boss vacuum cleaner when it started making a horrible flapping noise. Shut it off and started it again. Same noise. Took it apart, cleaned some hair out of the beater bar. Started it and it was quieter for about 3 seconds, then the horrible noise started again. Replaced the belt, which was old and stretched. Ran quiet for 2 seconds, then the horrible noise came back.

It's a "card in the bicycle spokes" kind of sound.

There is also a strange smell from the vacuum when this happens.

It's about 10 to 15 years old, so time to toss, possibly, but would prefer to fix it if possible.

Any clues welcome.

Thanks

[utilitarian]

I should add that the beater brush spins just fine during all this.

[terry]

quoted text -

Our Eureka is about 40 years old. The "strange smell" is often the rubber belt slipping. However since the OPs has been replaced sounds as if something such as a stone, or coin have got into the fan section of the motor? It may be possible to shake it out withou taking it apart. However they are pretty simple to disassemble with very few tools. Parts are often still available!

[terry]

de quoted text -

Oh btw hair tends to get caught around the ends of the beater bar. Those ends can be removed, hair and other gubbins (cotton strands etc. removed) the bearing ends lightly oiled or (even a bit of cooking oil or hand cream!) and reassembled.

[Stormin Mormon]

Hard to describe in words. Flip the vac upside down and pull the beater bar, again. The one end of the bar, there is a tube where the air flow goes. Towards the back of the vacuum (nearer to the handle) is a fan which blows the air and such into the bag. Most likely there is a foreign object in the fan. You may need a flashlight, and a long tweezers or hemostat to get the foreigh object out.

It's choking on a chicken bone! Hack! Hack!

[Stormin Mormon]

Well, that changes everything. It's likely choking on a TURKEY bone, then.

Please let us know what you find.

[Stormin Mormon]

I forgot to mention my favorite fix. Take the vac outdoors, and bring a power cord with you. Unzip the bag, and take the inner disposable bag out. Work on the deck, or asphalt or cement. Point the tube in a safe direction (out over the lawn) and plug in the vac, turn it on. With the bag missing, the vac should develop an incredible air flow past the beater, and out the (unrestricted) tube. Sometimes that will blow out all kinds of strange things.

You may have to leave the bag off, and shake the vac upside down to get the item out of the fan, up the tube, and the item falls on the ground.

[Stormin Mormon]

Nix the cooking oil. It rapidly grows rancid. Sticky, and then worse than useless.

My fav is silicone spray, which doesn't attract dust.

[terry]

Agree on the cooking oil, but the little smear on the very small area of bearing on end of the beater bar, not likely to be a problem. If not that; something else 'greasy' around the house will often do! I seem to remember using a dab of bacon fat once for something! Relative rented an empty summer property couple of years ago, was sent through the mail a brand new, never used key. Arriving at the location rough edges of the new key meant that the young woman could not get key into the lock, let alone turn it. However by rubbing with a stone picked up off the ground and applying a little hand cream she was able to get entry and after that the key got more 'used' and worked fine. There is often a way! Not even Maciver!

[DerbyDad03]

.

A rental place? I would have used the stone to break a window. ;-)

[Roger Shoaf]

Check the ball bearings on the motor shaft. This requires disassembly of the motor, but just be careful and you should be OK.

I have had these bearings fail and it makes a noise similar to your description. Good news is the bearings are cheap, bad news is they are sometimes a bear to pull off the shaft.

[utilitarian]

OK. Update. I ran the motor with the belt off. Got the same noise. I noticed the stem which turns the belt was a bit loose in the motor. Or maybe the whole motor assembly was moving around in it's mooring. Don't remember at this point. I turned it and it spun freely until it stopped. Turned it harder and it got over the resistance, and kept moving, but then stopped again. This time I could not get it to turn in either direction. Plugged it in for just an instant and the motor just buzzed, but the stem did not revolve. I only let it buzz for a fraction of a second. So now ther motor is stuck, apparently. I can see two fans, one on either side of the motor. One is a big plastic fan and one is a smaller metal fan. The plastic fan had a nut loosely holding it on. Maybe it was letting the plastic fan flop around and make the noise. I tightened up the nut. The nut tightened in the opposite direction of a normal nut, interestingly.

From looking into the fans, I can't see any debris in there that would interfere, Maybe one of the metal blades on the metal fan is bent, and rubbing.

I fear that I turned the motor in the wrong direction (backwards) (can't remember which direction) and screwed up the brushes. Is that possible? I can force the metal fan to move by prying on it with a screwdriver.

I can tell now that the stem should be turned counterclockwise, to make the beater roller turn in the correct direction.

[Retirednoguilt]

Sound like the bearings are shot. Time for a new motor if you can find a replacement.

[Roger Shoaf]

Remove the nut holding on the fan.

There will be come long screws that go through the motor lengthwise. Remove these.

There are springs that hold the brushes. These have to be cocked back to remove the brushes.

The motor should now slide apart. You should have two ends with bearing housings, the middle should have the stator and the rotor. On the ends of the rotor shaft you should have a bearing on each end.

The bearings need to be pulled off the shaft and replaced I suspect, about $10 each if you shop around.

[utilitarian]

Thanks for the help, everyone. I will be looking at it this weekend, I hope.

[utilitarian]

How do you get the fan off? I want to take off the large white plastic fan, It turns on the threaded shaft but won't come off. Should I just force it off ???

BTW, 5 silver ball bearings rattled out of the motor when I got it apart. Does that mean it's toast?

And it was completely packed with furry fluffy stuff, which I assume is all junk that I can throw away, not some sort of insulation.

Can't tell by looking how to fix it, other than to buy some new ball bearings and reinsert them wherever they were before.

I can see one end of the shaft has a seat that can hold bearings, but I haven't seen the other end yet. Still under the plastic fan.

Do I only need new ball bearings, or also the bearing "cups"?