Dyson DC02 Breakthrough (Antarctica Solo) - Stripdown and Refurbishment!

[beko1987]

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I got asked to refurbish a fair few machines for a good friend of mine last year, and am finally getting round to writing them up! This one is a fairly rare DC02, the white special edition Breakthrough one, goes with a matching DC01 they did at the time!

It was FILTHY!

But very complete!

First up is the floor tool





Which was nice*

The front wheels are removed, revealing a nice self cleaning pad for the wheels...



The whole baseplate is held in with 4 screws and 2 hefty clips



The brush strip is removed



As is the lint picker



All this came off the brushes



The top vanity cover pops off

[beko1987]

With some hammering and levering, the rear wheels came off fairly trouble free



And the pivoting part can be separated with that removed



I rescued the felt strip from it's tomb of shyte



Onto the wands now! And with the top clip removed the bit that covers the join up can be removed



Locking button removed



This locking tab then needs to be prised up a bit



And the wands can then be seperated



This is the part that pushes the locking pins into place, or pushes them out of place to adjust



The smaller wand half has this plastic sealing part that pulls out, it's filthy because it scrapes the inside of the wand at all times

[beko1987]

Onto the hose now



Which easily pops apart. You can see the fading here though sadly



Time for the main machine! We can pop the top, this came waaay before the DC39/54 pop up handle! No innovation there, the innovation is here!



Although my aim was to remove the top half, I realised it was easier to pop it back down quickly and remove the tools, which are fairly mint



Tool door off



Mr Fiennes signature (wonder if this could be forged onto a cheque?)



Right, let's try again



The top part easily unclips from the pivot now. I took the tool door release button off but I do NOT recommend you do this tbh, it was a proper brown trouser moment getting it back on!



Under the pedals was carbon dust city

[beko1987]

The internal ducting can be unscrewed now



The main top release button comes out



To remove the hose inlet, we remove the rubber seal



And then the circlip that holds it on



The top cover comes off the hose inlet randomly, so off it came!



At this stage I usually take the rear wheels off, although one didn't want to come and I didn't want to force it



So upside down it all went



And off came the motor cover, unlike the DC05, the wheels can stay on for this bit if you are just affecting a repair to the motor/cord reel

[beko1987]

The switch needs to be unplugged



Then we can flip the top part over and undo the two screws



Which holds the switch top on



The switch itself lifts out too



Post motor filter gasket can be removed



Not entirely sure what this little chap does, if I refresh my memory I'll explain when we stick it all back together, but out it comes for now



The front wheels come off, but not the wheel holders, as they are VERY difficult to remove from a DC02, and I didn't want to break this as it's a bit unobtanium to get parts for!



With all that top bit out of the way, we can move onto the motor and cord reel



The neutral wire with the plastic cover needs to be removed from the motor PCB

[beko1987]

This releases the thermal cutout loom, the other side plugs into the switch that we removed earlier



Cord reel lifts out now, to replace the cable you can see the grip to remove, then the two terminals



Now I can get to it with some pliers to gently squeeze the locking tabs the other wheel can come off



And one empty motor housing



Onto the motor now, the foam sound deadening lifts off



The plastic motor mount lifts off



The rubber seal for the motor top lifts out of that



And we have An Motor!



I whipped the fan off, which needed washing

[beko1987]

I removed the fan spacers



And had the plastic base off the motor, because that's always a grot spot!



The motor itself is actually quite small without all the other bits



We can stick a drop of oil on the fancase bearing now too!



Cyclone now! Take the lower cone out of the bin



And admire the grot



Take the seal out that seals it to the top cone



Up top, the upper cone pulls/snaps off the cyclone top



Pull (gently) the release valves out, and seperate the seal, valve and springs

[beko1987]

The next step is to take the shroud off the cone, which again, if you don't have to, then don't! Because it's a RIGHT SOD to get clipped back in!



Everything was then washed (black water) and then polished, the filth was amazing tbh!





The usual exploded diagram



And we can launch right into putting the shroud back onto the cone



Much swearing later



I'm not performing the release valve hack (they leak alot of air on the 01 and 02, and a nice bit of tape over the holes transforms them!But then you need to be very careful not to block them up, so best left for a collection piece than a daily driver) so the valves went back together





And put to one side, as you've now got to get the top cone and shroud onto the top plate

[beko1987]

It's a sod, because the cone is basically the same circumference as the top... it needs to clip in to the little clip you see running around the inside



Much more swearing later, it became apparent it was easier to separate the cone and shroud again, fit the shroud



Then fit the cone



Push the release valves in



Lower cone now, top seal on



Pop that into the bin



Fit the bin to the cyclone, and this bit is done!



Onto the motor now!



Screw this part to the motor (assuming you took it off in the first place, it's a bit excessive even I agree!)

[beko1987]

The fan is much cleaner now!



Lobbed that back together



and refitted the fancase seal



Top plastic mount



The foam goes on next, and the clear plastic part comes out of the 2 slits in the foam made just for it



We'll drop the cord reel in now. The rubber coating from the brake wheel is gone, so it does not lock in place now, will need a donor reel and a cable swap in the future to cure that, but for now, having the cable retract rather than never retract is better for the owner!



Drop the motor in alongside it



Run the wires and thermal cutout as required



refit the seal for the motor housing

[beko1987]

And refit the cover to the lower chassis



Nope, still not remembered what this is for tbh, but back it goes!



I found a date wheel under all the sludge! 1996! We can flip it the right way up now



And refit the switch and switch cover



Filter gasket



Front wheels



I found this whilst washing it, there's a little air baffle that sits in the exhaust air path!



It slots into here



Hose inlet back together

[beko1987]

Doesn't look as silly now it's all uniformly faded



The way to get the circlip and seal and hose inlet back on is to fit the seal to the circlip (this is the same method as the DC04 Changeover Valve seal)



Then, holding the hose inlet in one hand, feed the circlip and seal around until it snaps into place



And you have this!



Main chassis release button now! Springs on



And snap it into place



Air duct now, and a very thin foam gasket needs to be fitted (you could use a smear of silicone sealant if this is too far gone)



It's another fiddly job, as it just wants to do this



And you don't want to snap the thin top piece of plastic. Eventually, with some coaxing it snaps into place

[beko1987]

We can fit the power and cord rewind pedals now



Fit the tool door release button





Then clip the top part onto the bottom part



Pop the bin on, and close the lid



I've missed the refitting of the wheels, which is fairly easy as they just push on, stick a small smear of grease around the contacting parts to avoid it scraping about! Tool cover on



Tools fitted, lots of red washed out of the crevice tool, but not the vacuum so something tells me the tools are not original to the cleaner...



Time to re-assemble the 'Banana'



And the only casualty happened in this entire project, the circlip snapped! Easily glued though

[beko1987]

The cuff must be a different plastic compound to the handle, as it's not faded



Time for the wands now! Plastic seal goes into the thinner wand





Locking pin and it's spring are fitted, and do hold themselves in handily



So you can fit the 2 parts together, and push the metal tab back down to lock them together



Adjuster button clips on



I then realised that I'd forgotten to fit the metal locking pin itself, which is a tad stupid, so the last 3 steps were quickly reversed...



And then I fitted it all back together and fitted the cover to the whole thing

[beko1987]

The wand can clip to the machine again now! (the worst parking bracket design ever, a light breeze 2 miles away knocks the wand off...)



Floor tool now! The 2 parts are bought together



And the wheels and axle are fitted, with a smear of grease on the axle to stop the wheels sounding dry and worn



Brush strip clips back into the base plate



Litter picker fitted



Wheels fitted



Vanity cover fitted



I then realised I had completely forgotten to clean the cable and plug up! So did that quickly