Author Topic: Vorwerk VK120 Home Cleaning System - Stripdown and Refurb! (Read 29779 times)

beko1987 · « **on:** July 31, 2018, 10:05:45 pm »

This has the potential to be very very VERY long, and has been a long time coming!

At the beginning of the year, I bought myself a Vorwerk! No, I didn't spend £1500 on the latest one, I spent £15 on a 1989 VK120

Vorwerk VK120 Home Cleaning System - Stripdown and Refurb!

This was 2 streets away! I won it on ebay (only bidder) and would have walked round and got it if there wasn't so much of it!

What do we have then? Well, we have the VTF731 Dry Cleaning head

Many many bags of Kobosan dry cleaning powder

A spot removal kit

A taped up carry handle

Which was hiding a small crack in the hinge

It's CV

Week 29 1989, it dates the same as a Numatic

The cable exit grommit was torn

beko1987 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 31, 2018, 10:12:51 pm »

A mail order form so I can get some spares

Oh good, I can use my Switch card...

We have the ET340 Power Head

And it's basically very VERY complete! But how well does it work?

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(This dates this, I didn't have my new lighting rig then...)

Very well bar the power head (the bloke did say this in the listing, but I've repaired these before, they snap the wires running through the pivot point. So, let's take the brushes out, and wow their a bit worn aren't they...

Pop the rear wheels out to reveal some screws

Flip the front down to remove the top screws

Open it up and look at 20 years of filth...

Which was nicely compacted

Let's have a look for this broken wire then... Ah, this is broken, but it's not a wire...

beko1987 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 31, 2018, 10:20:46 pm »

Mmmmm, the belt runs around the cog that drives the brushroll spindles

Obviously you cant buy the belts on their own, and all the similar toothed belts, including ones from a few turbo tools I stripped down were not the right ones

The design of this is identical really to the Dyson turbine tool assembly, which does not really come apart unless your really lucky. Needless to say it was soon very broken, although did come apart

So a plan was formulated, and I washed the bag to cheer myself up. This entails taking off the plastic part

Ignoring the peeling edges

The bag itself is very faded

But into the washing machine it went as it would make the vacuum itself work much better

Whilst all this had been going on, I got talking to the biggest Vorwerk parts guy I know, who sent me a box of lovely goodies!

And the powerhead was fixed! This picture shows the amazing track marks left by the perfect condition brushrolls...

beko1987 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 31, 2018, 10:36:46 pm »

Some time then passed, and I was paid a visit by another vacuum collector, as he had bought a machine from another collector the next town over from me, so we trundled over to collect it as it wouldn't post. The guy gave me some more tools gratis as he didnt want them! So I now had an ET30 head, which is a generation older then the other one

And a bit more conventional looking

And a bag full of tools!

The hose is from the generation after my machine, the carry strap is built into the hose here

I also had a duplication of the tools!

Charlie liked using it

Even though it was a pain to store

However, soon its time had come, and downstairs it came to meet its maker (possibly)

beko1987 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 31, 2018, 10:41:14 pm »

The bag opens up

And pulls off the hinge to the main machine

The bag is removed, and the bag holder and plastic end cap from the bag itself go for washing

Mmmmm faded

I washed both hoses, aiming to sell the one I didnt want

Back to the machine itself

The handle and wiring is removed (it does this so it plugs into the ETF head for dry cleaning

And I removed the head from the motor unit

These 2 screws need to be undone

beko1987 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 31, 2018, 10:45:50 pm »

And the motor cover can be removed

Which reveals the motor itself, although that wont come out yet!

The outer skin of the motor housing needs to come off, which I was warned before was a sod of a job! The rubber cover for the power head button holds it all in, and the whole lot needs to be warmed up to make it pliable before it will all move. I still tore the botton cover sadly, but eventually you can get a blunt knife inside to free it all up

Once free, the outer skin will start to slide off

and eventually just falls off, the rubber button falling off with it

Inside here looks a bit tasty

Now the outer skin is off, the motor housing can be opened up by releasing all the tabs

beko1987 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 31, 2018, 10:54:55 pm »

Already I felt I would need to wash my hands several times tonight...

The motor lifts out, and all the wires need to be disconnected. It's fairly simple, there's the main input wires, 2 motor wires, 2 wires to the powerhead plug and 2 wires to the bag full light, all held together in a little terminal block. I took a fair few pictures incase it helps, but when its infront of you, it's easier than it looks (plus I did this nearly 5 months ago, I've forgotten!)

Once free, motor and housing can part company.

The wires to the powerhead run down here. The yellow part is not structural, merely there to channel the wires into the right place for when the motor is fitted

Once out of the way, you can see the screw that holds the plug in place, and the plastic cover for the bag indicator light and bag door latch

Remove the screw

beko1987 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 31, 2018, 11:00:34 pm »

Once removed, you can see the spring plate for the buttons, and the buttons themselves

The buttons just lift out

The wires slide through the green latch

The bulb sits inside the yellow part

The 2 buttons slide off the wires

To remove the wires from the handle end, pop the plastic cover off by pushing on the tabs at the back

Then everything falls out, and you can remove the wires from the terminals

To remove the wires from the powerhead end, remove the yellow cover

and pop the terminals out

Remove the wires from the motor and the loom is free and can be wiped down so you can place it somewhere without destroying stuff with black!

beko1987 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 31, 2018, 11:08:12 pm »

The spring plate does slide across to be removed as well

Now for the powerhouse!

This part here acts as a silencer, and dulls the noise of all the dirt bouncing up into the fan, and from where it rattles around in the fan housing itself

Vacuum god Gareth Sheen had warned me that this bit gets disgusting, so it was no surprise to pull it apart and see this

Up top is another electrical item that I forgot to mention previously! This is the bag indicator mechanism and switch! (2 wires got to this btw!)

This piece adjusts the sensitivity of it all

And removes

This part is where the magic happens! From what I worked out, it works by suction. When the suction is good enough, it's sucked closed and is fine, However when the suction drops, the spring helps it open just a fraction which hits the switch and puts the light on. It was fricking filthy and wouldn't have been working very well at all. You can adjust the sensitivity by turning the knob so it open easier or harder.

The membrane clips to the frame, the membrane is supposed to ensure a good seal

beko1987 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 31, 2018, 11:14:44 pm »

The inside of the muffler

And the outside. The foam had long since died

And just sort of fell off

It had turned to dust a long time ago

The inner part

The more I think about this now, the less I think this contraption was to muffle anything, I think its partly to keep the airflow constant by the inlet to allow the bag full light system to work, and keep dirt out of there...

Either way, we find ourselves at the fan case

No way am I trying to release the spring clips you can see, but the screws were removed

There was a rubber flap at the end of the crimped on part that locked into place on the outer skin of the motor housing, which pops off now

The fancase had a little clog

beko1987 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 31, 2018, 11:25:06 pm »

Soon took care of that!

However, things went downhill from here, as I could not get the motor apart! The fan and top fan are supposed to just unscrew, but didn't, and the captive nut inside the top cooling fan just started to spin, so I had to leave it alone, which was a shame as the bearings needed attention. So I cleaned it up as best I could

And had to leave it

I had to wash my hands and clean my camera at this juncture

The carbon dust really was bad! Once done, it was time to move onto the head! Well, one of them anyway

Turning it over and removing the 2 rear screws flips the baseplate up

The brushroll can then be removed

beko1987 · « **Reply #11 on:** July 31, 2018, 11:39:27 pm »

The brushroll isnt in bad condition. Slightly worn, but oodles of life left in it. Interestingly, as Stu found out, it's the same brushroll that Dyson used in the Cyclon! (https://manchestervacs.co.uk/DysonForum/index.php/topic,1814.50.html) so I could get one, but there's no need really

Upon removing the end caps I noted that the performance would be immediately improved after all this

There is a spring buried inside each end cap too

Once all removed though, their fine!

The 3 front screws on the baseplate remove it fully

The rear screws have a plastic bush to presumably stop them pulling into the head and bending the metal

The top decal is displayed underneath a perspex cover

And now we can dive back into filth! This is the little PCB that controls things

The neck lifts out

beko1987 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 31, 2018, 11:45:00 pm »

2 plastic pegs hold it into the main head

The wiring runs up the neck, and is uncovered by removing a cover

The 2 parts are removed by squeezing and withdrawing 3 plastic lockers

At this stage, it becomes apparent that the wiring has to come up from the motor side first, so it's over to the motor

Off with the foam cover

Off with the pattern belt

Out with the motor and off with the wires

The carbon brushes are fab luckily

beko1987 · « **Reply #13 on:** July 31, 2018, 11:49:23 pm »

The little PCB can be extracted

The motor itself is a bit furry

The belt side seal pulls off

2 long screws separate the 2 halves

There is some odd cover plate, possibly to protect from the belt rubbing through the housing if worn, that was practically being pushed off with the dirt from behind

The Armature pulls out from the top housing

Coil is in good order

Top frame and it's blue protective hat

Anyway, back to the neck and wiring! The yellow cable sleeve pulls off

beko1987 · « **Reply #14 on:** July 31, 2018, 11:55:48 pm »

The wiring can then be withdrawn fully from the whole shebang, starting with the botom half

The top half has an odd spring which forms part of the standing up mechanism, as this head allows the whole machine to stand up on its own

The wiring falls out now!

Back to the chassis of the head, the rear wheels come out now. This head has a habit of the wheels wearing through the chassis. Luckily this one hasnt done this

This is the brushroll adjusting mechanism. This head can be adjusted to compensate for brushroll wear. This metal part here moves around and moves the brushroll a notch at a time with it, the notch at a time lowering the brushroll until you hit a certain point and it resets back to 0 again. I find the middle positions work best for the wear mine has