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Author Topic: DC07 grinding brush bar  (Read 8889 times)

Offline riggs

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DC07 grinding brush bar
« on: August 21, 2015, 01:45:03 pm »
Hello all!

So, I picked up a 2nd hand DC07 (non clutch) a few years back for the bargain price of £20, just had to replace the belt.  Anyway, it's never felt right, seemed very loud and used to go through belts like a mother.  Eventually, something went totally kaput and the brush bar actually melted (along with part of the brush housing and sole plate).  My housemate had a backup vacuum at the time, so I just gave it up as a bad job and it just sat broken and unused for the best part of a year.

Moved into a new place a few months ago and I've tried to get this thing up and running again.  Bought a new brush bar (3rd party), belt (3rd party), sole plate (3rd party) and brush housing (official) and I'm still having problems.  It seemed very loud, like something was grinding somewhere.  Disconnect the belt/brushbar, turned it on and it all sounded fine, so that has potentially ruled out a motor problem.  Reconnected the brush bar/belt and had a quick whirl around 2 rooms - didn't want to spend too long as it sounded awful.  Removed the sole plate/brush bar/belt again and it looks like it's doing the same thing as before, i.e., the brush bar is grinding against the brush housing and shearing off/melting the plastic.

Anyone got any idea as to why it's doing this?  I understand that out of the 4 parts I replaced only 1 of them is a genuine Dyson product, but it just seems like there's something else I'm missing here.  It's as though there's too much tension from the belt, causing the brush bar to grind against the housing.  Can provide pics if necessary.

Thanks fellas.

Offline Madrat

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2015, 02:34:29 pm »
Possible the foot plate or its pivot point are worn and throwing everything out, dose the brushbar housing fit to the foot plate tightly or is it floppy?

Offline riggs

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2015, 03:05:32 pm »
It's not that tight, quite easy to pop it off without the belt fitted.  In fact, spinning the brush bar I can feel the grinding, if I push the brush housing towards the body of the unit then spin the brush the grinding disappears.  Strange that the belt tension isn't enough to keep the brush housing in place.  Seems like an odd design imo.

Offline Madrat

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2015, 03:16:32 pm »
Normally the 2 u shaped bits hold the brushbar housing but I have noticed that on the clutchless dysons they wear more than the ones with a clutch, I would say you need a new or second-hand foot plate.

Offline riggs

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2015, 03:18:34 pm »
I'll have a proper look tomorrow, will try (carefully) to move/push the brush housing with the unit turned on, see if the grinding stops.

Thanks for the help btw ;-)

Offline Madrat

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2015, 03:20:57 pm »

Offline riggs

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2015, 11:08:55 am »
So, I had another look today to try and see where the problem lies.  Removed the sole-plate, powered the machine up and carefully started trying to move the brush housing around (as well as pushing it inwards) to try and stop the grinding noise...didn't help.  No matter where it's positioned it still grinds.

It's almost like the rings around the brushbar (that are located either side of where the belt goes) are too big and are causing friction against the housing.

Here's a few pics of various parts to show what I'm dealing with (click for full size);


(note the sheared/melted plastic on both the housing and the brush bar - this is the result of <30 mins of use).

Does it matter that there's a 1mm-ish gap either side of the brushbar/housing?  I can physically push the bar left/right and have it move.

My folks also have a DC07 so I reckon I'll ask to borrow it one weekend so I've got something to compare to...

Offline Madrat

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2015, 02:31:47 pm »
The foot plate looks a little worn, but its hard to say without actually seeing it, comparing it to another is a very good idea.

Offline macman

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2015, 04:02:55 pm »
Could be:

Bent motor shaft.
Bent brushroll.
Worn brushroll housing (looks like you'll need to change that now regardless).
Worn cleaner head, throwing everything out of alignment.
All you can do is swap parts one by one until you find the fix. This sort of problem is I find one of the most difficult to trace: recently I had a DC14 which wouldn't lock upright: eventually I found the cure by changing the lower motor housing, but there was nothing visibly wrong, it was just solved by trial and error. Ideally you need another DC07 to swap parts back and forth, so if your parents will oblige...

Offline bluebumble485

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2015, 07:28:25 pm »
I agree with the other 2 guys its hard to diagnose a problem we cant see ,I think it is a case of elimination one part at atime
if you have another easy to do good luck

Offline beko1987

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2015, 08:42:29 pm »
Ive had dc04s like this,  its very annoying I agree.  One part will be worn somewhere,  only by a little,  but itll be a problem as everything has to be perfectly mated to work!
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline riggs

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Re: DC07 grinding brush bar
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2015, 11:50:14 pm »
So, I borrowed my folks DC07 and started comparing/replacing parts.  After a few minutes of messing around I've determined that the motor needs replacing, the shaft doesn't spin as freely as my folks; there's a bit of a grinding 'noise' (I say noise, but it's not really audible, but you can feel the vibrations when manually spinning the shaft).

However, there was still something iffy with the housing.  The first thing I swapped over was the brush bar (all the parts on theirs are official Dyson) and it still seemed to grind up against the (official) yellow housing on mine.  Anyway, after some fiddling I've managed to re-assemble the brush/housing so that it doesn't grind anymore, as well as using some very fine grit sandpaper to remove the burred/melted edges.  It seems to spin freely without catching anything, yet it only takes a little push on either side of the brush bar for it to become mis-aligned again and start catching.  Like I said earlier, it's almost like there's a couple of mm "defect" on the housing somewhere which is causing the brush bar to sit slightly too low.  I'll probably just bodge it with some spacers to remedy this.

Anyway, I'll report back once the new motor arrives...

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