Hoover Junior snapping belts

[oldhoover]

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Hi all, new to the forum. I have a 1969 Hoover Junior 1346 which works brilliantly, apart from the belts keep snapping.

I bought it seller refurbed off ebay, and it came with a NOS genuine belt which lasted the longest, but snapped after about a month. Bought some aftermarket replacements and they lasted about 3 days each before snapping.

I've noticed that the belt and the end of the pulley get very hot, very quickly. The rest of the motor stays surprisingly cool. From reading online, it's usually the motor pulley worn out or worn bearings on the brush bar but both items look like brand new. I can post up some pictures of them though if it would help.

Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated, has anyone come across this before? I was going to buy another brush bar and motor pulley but think it would just be throwing random parts at the problem.

[Dysonboy]

Sounds like a seized bearing in the brushroll.

A bearing can look good and like new, but still be seized or worn, especially in vacuums. The amount of times i've seen brushrolls that look to have perfect and like-new bearings, yet are seized up is unreal. If its just seized you can usually get away with taking the seals off, cleaning it out with WD40, and repacking with fresh grease (if its not a sealed bearing that is) The only bearings i've not been able to repair this way are ones that have been submerged in water and rusted beyond saviour (if they've only been damp and slight corrosion/rust they can sometimes be saved still depending how bad), or where they have gotten so hot from being seized it damages the races or melts the internal plastic retaining ring.

When I refurbish vacuums one thing I do is the bearings get repacked with fresh grease, as 9 times out of 10 the bearings are seized to some extent, and very rarely need replacing, just cleaning and re-greasing.

[oldhoover]

Thank you, I've ordered some grease so will give it a go!

[beko1987]

Old thread I know but the modern belts are notorious for being rubbish 😢 I've known collectors go through 3/4 belts trying to do a decent cleaning session.

Hunt some NOS belts from the 70's or 80's out, usually some on Ebay. More likely to last longer.