actually a discussion about this in here regarding the Super J motor. It was one of the serial # runs K----------S. Lux stood behind each and every claim and fixed them all. The five yr warranty on the motor, you'll see under the handle on some surviving canisters is testimony to that. I believe the Super J motor was the biggest and baddest canister motors Lux ever made in house. They spent over a million dollars retooling their plant to make that specific motor. It's bigger, the armature is longer etc than anything previous.

Other than that, there was an initial run of Diamond j motors that were said to shed their commutator plates. I've restored about a half dozen Diamond J's and never seen a motor I couldn't service. Somebody also said in here that due to the sandy, desert type environs there was some Lux motor failure. I've never seen the Diamond J motor failure they're talking about and.....I bought a new one about 84/85. My ex had it until her cleaning lady virtually destroyed it...motor never even flinched. But those motors were outsourced for Lux and very LOUD...compared to the classic Lux wooooosh.

I lot of it of course, depends on the quality of the bags, how full you let the vacuum run and if you're ever tempted to vacuum over something damp etc. Even the best motors can fail if abused.

Let me know if you want that link about the Super J motor.

Kevin

surprise me that there was some significant motor failure with the Diamond J series type motor...it was an outsourced motor for the first time. However, they all got fixed under warranty;as the motors failed up front, not many yrs down the line. Ergo, you had a good one or a bad one from the get go. You could also argue that the ones I restored were surviving examples and as such were either replacement motors or sound originals.  

The info on the Super J motor is well documented and not up for conjecture.  They even know what run of serial numbers you're supposed to stay away from....resulting from the armatures being outsourced after the fire at the Lux factory. Read about it here, as I'm not going to quibble about it further.

That link above is invaluable....I used it a long time ago when I was reckless with a Diamond J on not taking a pic and/or writing down how it was wired. It just took one picture frame from his tutorial to put me back in business. I went to thank him for his contribution, but you can't loop back to a real person. 

Kevin

I'm pretty sure the wiring is mostly the same from the 1205 on....so that link above where the guy breaks down the Diamond J should be self-explanatory. It sure helped me! Although as I mentioned, it worked fine the way I wired it....but according to his pics, I switched just two wires. To be honest, I didn't trace it through to see what the difference would have been.

Kevin

Curious to see what it will pull in inches of water....do you have a gauge? If you've done the motor right, should pull over 70"....some will pull 80"

Kevin

love to hear yet another one up and runnin'!

I recently bought a Super J with dismal suction, but very nice otherwise. I bought a rewound armature for it and am looking forward to a full restoration eventually.

Kevin

two slightly different floor brushes that while the same color, one has the release on top and the other has the release on the side. Both I assume are around the Diamond J period. I'm gonna guess that the side release is newer, because I've never seen one before, as all the floor brush tools back to the G have a top release. No big deal and as long as the color matches, I mix & match accessories.

I've got a tan upholstery brush with green wings. I always thought that was just a repair, but I've seen them for sale like that on eBay.......which makes me wonder if they were ever a production piece in those colors?

Kevin

Use of a hair dryer is an excellent tool, as they have to stretch a bit to snap in. Or a heart gun on its lowest setting.  I found some nice bumpers on eBay for my Super J. The faded lettering I went over with the appropriate colored Sharpie...looks great/fresh.

Kevin

....just as the teal 1205 had black lettering with a red border.

Unless you think Lester's historical article on Electrolux is inaccurate, the lettering of the 1205 bumpers started out red and on final production they went to black....not sure on the borders. The two I have, have no color on the borders.  I'm gonna see if I can find some factory pics of the Super J. I thought they were black with a black border. The two used bumpers I bought came right off a Super J and were very faded black letters and borders....doesn't mean that's correct, but those bumpers had never been touched up, being that faded.

Lester's pics of the 1205's, although grainy, show no color border and none on the 50th Jubilee(1210).  Perhaps the border colors wore off/faded quickly.

Kevin

K_S Super J's were the ones where they had the fire at the plant and could not produce their own armatures,. They were outsourced outside the plant and they had troubles with the motors after that. They also stood by them and if your dealer/salesman fixed your machine, you got a new motor with a sticker under the handle that read ; 'Five Year Warranty'. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the K_S serial run might have been the last iteration of the Super J

As I said earlier, I sent my DD 1205 back to my son in Brooklyn. It had black on black bumpers. I just looked at my other here that needs restoration and I honestly can't tell what the remnant color is on the border, even under a magnifying glass. If I had to guess, I'd say black and black lettering again inside for sure.

If all the Super J's had gold borders, than I did mine wrong. Which means the old faded replacement ones that came off another Super J, black/black, were wrong from the source. Maybe they were originally off a 1205. Kinda maddening.

My ex has the 50th Anniversary Jubilee.....I was there today with our grandson, I could have checked what the model was inside the door. I abhor those color canisters...I only bought the Super J for the bigger motor and its historical significance(the million dollar plant retooling to make the motor and canister body).

The Super J's promotional literature that was used to distribute propaganda to regional Electrolux mangers and salesmen, shows black lettering with a red border. And then dozens of pics followed with testing procedures,  McKee proudly holding one etc, etc. But they are all B&W pics and I can't tell much about colors used on actual models in the lit.

Kevin

Wow...thank you for that on the upholstery brushes! I always assumed that ivory body with the teal sides was a repair of some kind. Very cool that it probably came correctly with one of the G's I have. Is there a source anymore for the horse hair rings to renew the brushes?

I have kind of another anomaly...I have a floor brush that looks like it came from the 1521 era...gray or whatever bland color designation they gave it. It has the wand release on the right side. My other two gray ones have the wand release on the top. I'm puzzled by this....and it makes it impossible to turn to the right side to say, sweep under a sofa. The side wand release hits the floor when the wand is turned.

The colors are not exactly the same;the side release head is more an ivory with a gold plate where the brush is(possibly a Super J floor brush?). The other two are more gray with the top release and a silver plate where the brushes are. Otherwise, the heads are identical.

I don't know how for sure we'd ever know for certain about the bumper colors, unless we could match color to serial #'s. And given that the units are so old now and likely have replacement parts(or have been re-colored)....unless we got some notes from the factory about this issues, I don't know how it could ever be settled. I've come across this in other hobbies where the original company folded, got bought out, or a fire took out all their records. Just becomes an educated guess or conjecture at that point.

As I understood it....only the armatures were outsourced from another company...that part of the plant was damaged by fire. They still had the rest of the plant serviceable and the outsourced, Electrolux spec-ed armatures were put into the in-plant motor housings. I wonder then if Electrolux decided rather than retool again for the armatures, after they made their last run of SJ's.....they just decided to out source all their motors in the future? The SJ was a relatively brief vacuum model run(what, three yrs?) for all the hoopla and expense to build that motor. Maybe they couldn't come back from the stigma of the bad K_S motor failure....I dunno. Had to be a corporate decision based on something.

Kevin  

Yeah, the vac stores that went out of business in recent yrs carried the horse hair rings. I found when replacing the rings with new ones, it was a good idea to use some silicone as well, rather than just trust the plastic tabs. I'll check out that link, thanks.

I think you must be correct...I have a lot of Electrolux floor heads going back to the G(hell yeah, LOVE the gleaner switch!). I don't have any release tabs on the side like that, so I should investigate further. I betcha it came off a Super J....as per your chart....just got a feeling. It came with a machine and some wands, but since I didn't catalog it, I don't remember which machine.

The story on the Diamond J motor failure is legend. But as legends go, the story has evolved into a life of its own and exceeds greatly the original facts. I talked to some people in the biz at the time. Their stories were only slightly similar, but close enough that you could extrapolate the truth from fiction. One version is that Electrolux only had trouble with the Diamond J motors in desert climates. The other version is that initially, the vacs were throwing commutator plates while being demoed. It was suggested that they carry multiple demo units until the problem was resolved. I think the reality probably lies somewhere between those two versions. I don't get the desert air part, unless it had something to do with drying out the motor brushes? Yes, the motors were completely outsourced at the beginning of the DJ production run, hence the rumors about them ALL being bad motors. That just isn't rue.

The new DJ I bought in '84 was a 'force of nature' cleaning system.....a brute. My ex's cleaning lady was only able to destroy the machine from physical abuse in the late 90's. But it wasn't the motor that failed. I have gone through about a half dozen of them so far and never seen any evidence of failing motors. That being said, I have no idea if they all had original motors or not, but I'm sure some did.

My DD DJ pulls almost 80 inches of water. By contrast, the Super J I bought only pulled 60 inches. I bought a rewound armature for the big Super J motor and brushes, but have not had the time to restore that particular machine. I paid more for the armature than the entire vacuum set. I would think the Super J to be at least the equal of the Diamond J.

I'll post what I find out on the 'freak' floor brush!

Kevin   

if I can post some pics. On closer examination, it sure looks like the floor brush was made this way. At first I thought maybe the metal ring had slipped sideways, but if you look closely, you'll see a indent in the body of the swivel neck itself, indicating the release is on the side. I don't see any way to remedy this.

Brush is low hr, but I hate using it for the reasons I stated earlier.

Kevin

but in actual use, I hate it. Got the gold plate on the bottom which I did not photograph.....and the color really isn't gray, but more of an ivory. My two yr old grandson 'vacuums' with that one. I probably have a dozen floor brushes and never saw a side release tab like that. Not to mention all the machines I've restored and sent along....never saw anything like that. Factory floor brush though.

Kevin