I sat down with my "Stroud Model E" today and got inside to see what might be going on with the motor.

When I pulled the motor out, the first thing I noticed was that it was pretty sooty looking. The interior of the motor housing was very clean, so it wasn't like someone had vacuumed up soot or something. But even the static eliminator filter was black with a soot-like coating.

I looked at the rubber gasket and it is perfect condition, so the problem with deficient suction wasn't due to it having gone bad.

The motor mounts were a bit hardened but otherwise fine. None of them were disintegrated or split, but one of them had come unglued from the motor ring.

When I pulled out the carbon brushes I observed that one of them is chewed up pretty badly and worn at a sharp angle. I've never come across this before, where just one brush is worn down. They usually wear down evenly. I'm not sure what could have caused this...


 

... until I looked closely at the armature and saw that the commutator is pretty badly chewed up. I don't know if the armature chewed up the carbon brush, or if the carbon brush (or maybe some sand or something) chewed up the armature. Either way, it didn't look pretty.

 
 

  

I fired up the motor and saw that the carbon brushes were arcing and sparking really badly, and that after running just a short period of time smoke started wafting out of end of the carbon brush holder on the side with the worn-down carbon brush.

 
"What's a mother to do..." I really didn't care for the idea of a motor transplant. On the other hand, I could spend hours or days trouble-shooting the original motor with the end result very likely being disappointing.

So, after much deliberating and "What do I do, what do I do...." I decided to go ahead and install a replacement motor -- a complete unit including the rubber seal, frame and motor mounts.The motor came from the same, identical model iteration as the Stroud Model E so I am certain the motors are identical. I would not have wanted to put in a motor from a newer E or from a different model.

I did save the original motor and all the parts in a plastic zip-lock bag marked "STROUD" so I won't accidentally throw it out. One day I may take the motor over to Boulevard Vacuum to see if the guys there can figure out what went wrong with it, and fix it.

Here's a side-by-side shot of the original motor (on the left) and the replacement motor (on the right). Look how much cleaner the replacement motor is, and how smooth the conducting segments of the commutator are.

Here's the replacement motor in place.

By the way, one of the things I change my mind about sometimes, going back and forth about, is whether or not to install a filter in the rear end of my LXs, Es and E-As. (You do have to keep a filter in XXXs because the rear cover will not fit tightly without a filter.)

With a filter in place, these models sound the way I remember them from childhood, a soft, somewhat muffled, pleasant hum. When you've got a clean bag in the machine the sound of the air rushing through the floor nozzle is louder than the sound of the motor!

On the other hand, a filter impedes air flow through the machine, slightly reducing suction power, and also can cause the motor to run hot when the machine is used for long periods of time. Indeed, you rarely find filters in these models any longer because Electrolux recommended not using them after the multi-later filter bags were introduced. Each package of multi-filter bags came with thin cardboard "spacer" to insert inside the rear cover in place of the filter. The cardboard spacer ensured a snug fit so air wouldn't leak and whistle around the rear cover.

Given the specific sentimental nature of this Electrolux I decided to put a filter in it for "old time's sake." I won't be using it enough to worry about it overheating.

To wrap this up, here's a close-up of the replacement toggle switch that Mr. Stroud installed. At first, I couldn't figure out how in the world he was able to tighten that retaining hex-nut since the space it slipped into is so tight! After thinking about it, I realized what he did was to drill a hole in the bottom of the switch channel of the same diameter as the switch's screw-ring. He slipped the nut down inside the switch channel, pushed the switch through the drilled hole from the back side, and tightened it by spinning the botton part of the switch around and round. Very clever, no?!

Here, for comparison, is an original rocker switch.