Author Topic: Hoover Convertible U1124A May 1961 - Stripdown and Refurb! (Dial-A-Matic) (Read 12863 times)

beko1987 · « **on:** January 05, 2018, 08:08:39 pm »

Hola!

Occasionally, something amazing happens. Occasionally, someone will message you on facebook who has seen something that they know you cannot resist, and that is amazing at all that it's being sold on facebook. This happened last summer! Thanks Jake for this...

It was being sold from a Pub. When I got there, the bloke said they bought the pub a few months ago, and this was the only thing in the loft. Looking at the yellowing it's been there for some time, and has possibly never left the pub since new. They had it in the bar in a corner as a curio, but wanted it out of the way, so onto Facebook it went. Apparently some people had made offers, I handed over full folding without question, and headed home (which was 2 miles away, so I got there quick)

What is this machine?

IT'S A DIAL-A-MATIC!

Hoover Convertible U1124A May 1961 - Stripdown and Refurb! (Dial-A-Matic)

Some grille damage, it's very VERY brittle and fragile

The metalwork is very clean though

It's a bit faded

Let's see what the bag is like

A genuine one! With a hole in it though

The bag fill holder looks a bit peaky

beko1987 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 05, 2018, 08:14:11 pm »

The pre motor 'filter' is a bit filthy

Let's look underneath

The brush strips are flipping excellent, which is a result

Ratings plate is barely readable

I thought this brown mark was a burn mark at first, but it scraped off which is lucky!

The bloke from the pub said it didn't work very well, and I think this has something to do with it

Soon had that fixed. Isn't it beautiful! I've never had one before, they always go for silly money on ebay

I wanted to use it, but the bag was scrap, and I fancied something better than a single walled pattern paper bag, and genuine ones are quite rare and expensive. Luckily, Numatic saved the day!

The fit was a tad loose though, although the seal was good. Loosening 2 of the suction duct screws and hooking the plastic frame behind them then doing them up does the job a treat!

beko1987 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 05, 2018, 09:27:05 pm »

I found a belt that fitted OK enough

Put it next to it's American cousin

Then filmed the before video

And used it for a bit! It helped me clean a mates flat before she moved out

And generally used it for a bit, since I've never had one before! But, it's time to be refurbished came round slightly quicker, mainly because I wanted to re-inforce the grille, which could only be done from the rear, so apart it comes!

First off is the cable

This being dropped reveals the bolt that holds the upper handle on

This cover plate comes off when the bolt is removed

And the handle lifts out to reveal the connector

Connector unconnected, we can have the switch off

The mains cable terminates as so

beko1987 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 05, 2018, 09:32:25 pm »

Then, on the other side the internal wiring goes to the other side of the switch/the other side of the incoming neutral

Neutral terminal is one long nut and bolt

Switch is the usual affair (for a brit machine anyway, not sure if the americans had a different switch)

The cable pulls out of the grommit, but the grommit doesn't easily pull out of the switch plate, and being made of unobtanium, I left it alone!

The handle loom pulls out now

This metal plate forms the 'thread' for the handle bolt, and slides off the handle

Shorter!

From what I gleaned from the US facebook vacuum group, I needed to go down below now

First off is the ruddy big spring that provides the more fluid upright motion when standing the thing up

beko1987 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 05, 2018, 09:38:22 pm »

Baseplate now, held on with 2 rotating clamps

Normally you loosen them and rotate but we'll have them fully out

Baseplate hinges up now, held at the front like a Senior

The seal needs cleaning up, I did try to remove it ala Senior but it didn't come, and not fancying re-creating the seal with tigerseal, I left it

The brushroll is held in with a clamp either side, that pushes down and away from its latch

Brushroll then pulls out

Important stuff

Let's pop the brushroll end caps off

Factory fresh!

beko1987 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 05, 2018, 09:45:23 pm »

One end came apart fine, the very dry and sticky bearing fell out, happy days.

Belt spindle side however...

Mr Hammer and Mr Bearing Puller sorted him out

Brush strips out

And the brushroll is done. Time to sort the suction hose out. The end comes apart like so

The hose can then be pulled through, and the other end twists off

Back to the main machine, and we need to remove the pivots.

This spring comes off

Then the two screws holding the pivot bracket on

beko1987 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 05, 2018, 10:21:58 pm »

There's also a plastic bracket the other side which is held on with 2 screws, I forgot to get a picture of that...

Anyway, then, we need to move slightly on up and open the bag door

Then undo these two metal clips that hold it on

The bag door comes off now

We'd best remove the screws holding the bag on

Whilst we are here, the screw inside the air path releases the adjustment knob

Undoing all the other screws releases the suction duct

The diverter piece lifts out

as does a felt pad, presumably to seal it up a bit

beko1987 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 05, 2018, 10:29:01 pm »

That done, we can remove the cleanerhead. This seemed to involve lifting it up and over the body, but in reality required quite a bit of physical violence before it went, did the trick though

We can remove the front height adjusting wheels now

The axle pops out of the metal holders either side

The outer wheel slides off, revealing a circlip behind that

After that, the inner wheel slides off, and a washer

The other side does the same, and then the whole bar slides out

Height adjuster now, the holding bracket comes off

Then the knob itself

We can move to the rear wheels now

beko1987 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 05, 2018, 10:33:54 pm »

They come off fairly easily, no circlips here

There's a circlip on the recline pedal though

And splits apart

This part is done!

Time for the upper body now

The big pivot bracket can come off now

Then the motor cover can be removed

Evidence of some moisture at some point

We can see the motor now!

beko1987 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 05, 2018, 10:42:51 pm »

Looks fairly clean

There's a bracket to unscrew on one side, then the motor lifts out

With the motor out of the way, we can FINALLY remove all the screws holding the front cover in place, including the 2 brass brackets at the bottom behind the motor

Pop that to one side for now, the bracket that screws the motor down can come off, along with its rubber cap

Unplugging the wires from the supressor splits the loom, and the motor can fully drop out

We don't want the exploding supressor thank you, so off that comes

The rubber seal the other end of the motor can come off

beko1987 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 05, 2018, 10:54:45 pm »

I now attempt to take the motor apart, but not very well as I don't know what I'm doing (as usual), so didn't get it fully apart.

I started by tapping the 3 locating pins out of the rear bearing casing

Which drops that off

Cork washer

Let's undo this nut and washer

Which removes a fan

I took the belt spindle off too, but TBH got no further, and didn't want to break anything, so put it back together, for now.........

And removed the very weedy looking motor casing seals

I then removed the bag door seals, which TBH was a mistake as they took ages to seat properly, but meh, too late now

We now need to remove the upper wiring harness

beko1987 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 05, 2018, 11:12:31 pm »

For reasons I can't quite remember, I had to dismantle the handle socket end

Then feed the wire through that way

Time for that pre motor grille

The metal clip comes off and releases the metal filter

The bag full indicator is quite clever. It works on airflow. By default, it shows 'Check Bag'. The exhaust airflow from the machine blows it 'upwards' and hides the warning. When that airflow drops, it can't blow it shut anymore, and so it appears

However, buggar breaking it so it stayed attached!

The plastics haven't faded that mu...oh

And that, is that! The cable was cleaned

I laughed at the fading some more

And it was all washed dried and polished

beko1987 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 05, 2018, 11:19:09 pm »

And FINALLY, we can get on with the main reason for refurbishing this, that grille! Non destructive Plan A is to mummify it in magic tape

Then, with a new stanley blade, cut out the gaps

We'll see how that looks later, but for now, we pick up the slightly less red and fluffy pre filter grille, the wash washed alot of it away...

Which isn't a massive issue really because it has a HEPA bag now, so it can be fitted for originality

The awful bag door seals went back in

beko1987 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 05, 2018, 11:23:36 pm »

Spinal cable now, and I remember why I had to strip the end, the spade terminals were too big to fit in the hole!

I knew there would be a logical reason

The height adjuster holding bracket made an excelletn tool for pulling the locking barbs back out of the little connectors so they fitted snugly back in the socket