Ratpuke's Suckass Vacuum Repair Thread

[Ratpuke]

buy a lathe and make one from scratch

My Dad has a lathe.

I'll be home next week.

Lathes are a lot of fun. Even after it ripped a chunk of my hair out from my pony tail instantly when I was a teenager and scared the living daylights out of me. I knew right away how lucky I was because it could've snapped my neck (or worse). I still have some fancy wood tucked away for the lathe. Maybe someone special will get a gavel for Xmas.

 

[Ratpuke]

My sister has a turtle with a similar problem. Missing a back leg.

They glued a piece of plastic on it's bottom to make sliding easier.

That may work well in this case.

 

[RockDoc]

or glue a turtle in place of the wheel.

 

[Granite Grinder]

Looks like a hockey puck would work well, just paint it baby blue

 

[Ratpuke]

Alright. Where was I? Oh yes.... Another package arrived for me. This time sent pre paid and was from a kind hearted forum member who saw my plight and wanted to help. I love it when people spend time doing the small things to help others (particularly me) out.

THANKS for the package!

 

[Ratpuke]

So, with the flooding/destruction of my basement it took me a little while to uncover my vacuum from the depths of its entrapment in the 'garage sale' box. All the stuff from my crawl space now sits in my living room, waiting for construction to commence on the lower level.

Less floor space to vacuum anyway.


I finally got to use a hex screwdriver. I set about taking out the 6 on the bottom and low and behold opened the beast up.

 

[Ratpuke]

It's always fun to take something apart and wreck it while I'm fixing it.

 

[Ratpuke]

I was told by the local vac shop that there would be a metal plate that I'd have to undo and then remove a metal rod.

Um, nope.

Packaged the beasty up and made sure to get the recoil mechanism properly inserted.

 

[Ratpuke]

Well, that was fun. I bolted it all back together and flipped it upside down and started attacking it with screwdrivers. Afterall, Mr. Sender had mentioned that the vac shop where he got the wheels from said all I had to do was pop the wheels out and replace them.... but I figured it would be enlightening to see what lurked beneath that precious baby blue cover for myself.

Popped the wheel out.

 

[Ratpuke]

and popped the new one in.

 

[Ratpuke]

Thought I was done, eh? Think again.

My beloved vacuum deserved some TLC so I rummaged around in the box of misc. junk I had...

 

[Ratpuke]

...and retrieved something that had come off the baby blue piece of sucking wonder years ago.

 

[Ratpuke]

Next it needed a bit of a bath and a scrub with a magic eraser. Unfortunately, there was a backlog of dishes on the counters so I had to fix the dishwasher before I could proceed. (I'll spare you a thread on that repair).

 

[Ratpuke]

Got that done.

Gave lil blue a scrub and voila! Good as new.

 

[D'Animal]

Congrats!

 

[Ratpuke]

Congrats!

Thanks. I've been itching to be outside wrenching but because of the rain and the basement I've been house bound for the most part. But... the sun is shining so I'm off to grab a beer and my wrenches and go switch out a fuel filter on the 77 (finally!)

 

[REDREEFER]

That things a total classic, i'm glad you were able to save it from the flee market! What an awesome story! iI love it when there's a happy ending!! Now is she sporting a gray wheel and a blue? or did you change em' both? you dont want to get the death wobble now

 

[Ratpuke]

Best thread ever. Lmao.