Hoover Junior 1346A - Stripdown and Refurbishment!

[beko1987]

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A good while ago now, this came my way for free! A great chap up in Scotland sent it to me as 'you like these, don't you?". Which was amazing really!

This is what it sounded and looked like when it arrived

Not too bad, the usual neglect, but actually very little damage! It ran really well too



Soon, it became it's time for a good old fashioned wipe over with a dirty rag



First off, is the belt cover



Revealing it's credentials



Being this close we can see lots of paint, but no actual damage. Hmmm



Moving on up to take the bag off, the cable looks lovely, in a 'might kill you if you lick it' kind of way



I unhooked the bag from the top



Which was a silly thing to do as it makes it trickier to get at the retaining bolt, so back up it goes and ah! there we are



Off you come!

[beko1987]

Inside, we have an dust bag



The retaining bolt is removed fully and the circlip replaced (the circlip stops it coming right out when loosened to remove the bag, bloody rare to see one fitted nowadays as they usually fall off anyway with enough force turning the bolt)



The bag is in MINT but filthy condition





Cop a load of this retro Eeze-Fix bojack bag!  It's been re-used a few times by the feel of it!



The bag fill tube can be removed from the bellows, and initially it looks blocked



But it's actually the foam sound deadening that stops the noise of the grit bouncing up and into the bag



Both the foam and the bag went into the wash



The foam didn't take much cleaning as it doesn't really hold the dirt, so it came out after a good swoosh about and...



(more later! One of the children has just woken up...)

[beko1987]

It came up rather well





Let's get this nice plug off the cable





It's been tugged at some point or another



Middle handle bolt out



And the top handle off



Remove the circlip holding the bag holder bolt in



And the rod can be removed, and the holder and spring slid out the bottom

[beko1987]

Cord clamp and boot can be slid off the cable now



Lower handle bolt out



And the rubber boot removed from the handle



Belt cover now, inside is very clean



Latch unscrewed



The Hoover roundel was half off as well so I removed that too



Onto the exciting bit now



The release pedal was unscrewed



And the rubber grip slid off

[beko1987]

Time to roll her over and give her a little tickle to reveal the underside...



And remove the bottom cover



Which reveals a very clean motor area, seen ALOT worse (Stuart's brown 1346 springs to mind)



As usual, the spark arrester pad had turned to dust, so it was removed





Time to remove the cable now Clamp removed



Terminals removed and oh look, this might be the original cable!



Lower cord guide removed from the cable



Time for the rear wheels to come off. The 2 rear screws do this

[beko1987]

And off they come



And apart they split



The two other screws release the handle bail



Which lifts out



And with a tap of the magic hammer



is apart! Front wheels now and ah look, an bodge!



Seemed a very good bodge though, doing its job well



I love peeling these back, their always full of crap behind!



And apart the font axle comes too!

[beko1987]

Time to extract the switch now





Then, remove the 4 screws holding the motor in and voila!



The brushroll can come out too



And come apart. One side off



Crikey, full of greasy crap



The other side can be pulled out now



And with the rod gripped, the other end plate can be unscrewed



One bearing side apart, the plastic spacer washer was paper thin (I never get on well with replacing them though, brand new ones cause the roller to bind up, must look into that one day)

[beko1987]

Now time for the other side and ah bo >:(ocks



tap tap tap BANG BANG BANG SMACK



Got ya! The amazingly brilliant brush strips can slide out now



Only flipping Genuine Hoover aren't they! 



Furniture guard removed



Inside the brushroll area, which is usually ruined isn't too shabby either! The thing looks like it's seen mega abuse but deep down it's tidy as anything.





Brushroll clips removed



Cable exit grommit removed

[beko1987]

And we can have the motor apart!





Starting with basically removing all the wiring!



And the supressor



Little pile of bits building



Last little bit



These are the only 2 wires that we need now really!



All this can be binned bar the screws which are of critical importance



And one of the carbon brushes can come out

[beko1987]

Which is also, although a rubbish picture, Genuine Hoover!



The motor shell bolts can be removed now and the cover lifted off





And the other carbon brush removed. Both are excellent, decades of life in them with the use they will get from now on



Fancase bearing clamp removed



And the rear bearing clamp, then the whole armature and coil assembly lifts out



The rear bearing pops off the armature



Then the belt spindle, fan, all the spacer washers and front bearing can be removed from the armature



The front bearing is servicable, the remains of the rubber gasket visible at the bottom

[beko1987]

Underneath all the fluff the coil was spotless, sometimes these go rusty which tbh isn't a problem really as it's hidden but it's nice that this one isn't



Both the carbon holders can come out



The motor shells are stripped now, and again, I've seen much worse!





The washing box is full



As is the screw card



Throughout all of the above, the bag was in soak! I gave it a swoosh about every so often as I got up for a drink/toilet/numb leg, and this is what came out of it

[beko1987]

And back in it went for another couple of hours, then got thoroughly rinsed out. The good thing about the vinyl-ette bags is they don't really hold the dirt when washed, it all just floats off, so no scrubbing required!



The bag fill tube foam is dry, although heavily stained



Everything was washed and dried as normal, all the small metal parts run over the wire wheel on the bench grinder, and I machine polished the plastics









Not a sodding mark on it! In all my years doing vacuums this must be the cleanest non NIB junior I've ever seen! The bag got finished too around this point and hung up to dry



And I spent a few hours cleaning the cable! It's not ribbed though, and I did ask the fellow collectors if it should have been or not, and the answers varied from Yes, No and authorised Hoover cable replacement, as the wire ends are ring crimped and that never happened unless by Hoover. Either way, electricity flows and the cable is in good condition



Time for the obligatory exploded diagram shot

[beko1987]

And in go the carbon brush holders





The front bearing got a soak for a few days in Autosmart Tardis, which strips out ANY old oil and grease. It then gets filled back up with fresh oil, and the oil pad soaked through again for probably the first time in decades



Spins as smooth and as free as you like now! First spacer on



Then the washers



Fibre washer that goes under the fan



Fan



And then the belt spindle to lock it all together!



The rear bearing is a sleeve one, and technically should not have any lubricant. But, at it's age I dont think it hurts, helps take any slight wear out that's formed, although usually there isn't any

[beko1987]

The whole shebang gets dropped into the motor housing now



And clamped down, and checked that it's still smooth and free spinning



Now what I do with Junior motors, is rather than find something to replace the little rubber rope seal that stops the backdraft from the fan filling the motor up with crap, is run a thick bead of silicone over the bearing clamp, then a thin bead around everywhere else, so once it's bolted together it's nice and sealed! It looks a pain to remove but I use cheap silicone (as it usually dries out before I finish the tube) so if someone opens it in 10 years time it'll all fall off/easily peel off anyway!



Then just run round with a damp rag when screwing the 3 bolts in! (2 shorter ones at the front, long one at the back)



Now to wire it up! I've refined my technique since this (October 2018 I did this!) but basically, the black cable that goes to the top carbon brush wants to go straight to one of the screw block terminals. Then, the red live needs hooking up to the switch, then the other side of the switch going to another terminal. So the live is switched, the neutral isn't. It also looks tidier than this as well, without the long wire runs flowing around the place.







More shots of the lovely hood

[beko1987]

Usually I remove the firewall to clean it, then re-seal it back in but I didn't need to on this!



Brushroll clips back in



Then one last look at the clean underside



Before dropping the motor in, and screwing it and the switch together



Front axle re-build now, Nice smear of grease where the wheels will go to stop then squeaking



And back together



I found a better sized screw to fit the retaining plate, so it looks a bit better. Couldn't fit an original screw (I do have some) as the thread was buggared with the massive screw



The handle bail was re-assembled with lashings of grease. Shame about the paint loss on this, but I'd make it worse by trying to re-paint it