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Thread Number: 2963
Air-Way Green Goddess Motor & Cord transplant |
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| Post# 32711 2/19/2008 at 21:56 (5,910 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
My most vintage of vacuums, the Green Goddess, has had a dead motor since I found her 25 years ago lanquishing forlorn in a junk store here in town for $5. She ran for about ten minutes until giving up the ghost in a cloud of smoke and sparks and siezing death rattle noises. :-( I found a similar model Air-Way 'beater' vac for parts a few months back on my travels so it's time the Goddess returned renewed to the Land Of Reborn Vacuums. :-) To do the Goddess Gertrude justice will take a bit of finicky work. The donor motor's cord, in excellent unfrayed condition, runs to the inline bakelite switch and to the also excellent 24 foot clothwrapped cord terminating in a steel-cased wall plug (original?) pictured. But, the Goddess' motor cord runs a short length up the handle terminating in a molded rubber triangular plug that plugs into the Goddess' handle rotary ring switch. 24" of this cord is in fine shape and the last 10" to the motor has been spliced and repaired several times. The 24 foot power cord for the Goddess is a total loss - frayed patched & crumbling with a modern plug. So, the donor motor cord must be surgically spliced to the Goddess molded plug cord in an unnoticable manner. There is a short covered channel in the fan chamber case where the handle attaches that captures and centers the cord - to run up the handle between the bag retaining rods to the ring switch - and this is where the splice must be located to hide the repair. Having now determined this, for the rest of the evening I've been refurbishing the donor motor...greasing bearings, cleaning the commutator, extracting dust bunnies and steel wool polishing up the donor motor housing. They are identical motors & fans except for the Air-Way label. I have taken the liberty of exchanging the enamel-on-brass plates, as the Goddess is Canadian made. The donor motor is now gleaming and running real nice. The horribly corroded and cracked donor fan chamber came with a clean unbroken directional printed dial bubble which has been installed in the Goddess' rust free suction can. Tomorrow night, the cordectomy. 
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| Post# 32729 , Reply# 2 2/20/2008 at 02:32 (5,910 days old) by charles~richard () | ||
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Sundial --- what a GREAT resource to know about! Thx!! Aeolian, good luck with your project. I too have a Green Goddess that's waiting on Dr. Moreau to arrive and perform a vivesection on it. | ||
| Post# 32744 , Reply# 3 2/20/2008 at 06:40 (5,910 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Oh Boy, Volvo, thanks for sharing this resource! Here's one for woven grill cloth for radios/phonographs/televisions, etc. Fortunately, to me, the donor cord in in good shape with no crackling - yet - and since Gertie won't be used all that often except for demos I'll use the cord as is. It would be too much of a pain to have to make up a mold for the rubber motor plug! I could do it, but... but I will order the sample pack from Sundial for later down the road and other projects around the house. Dave CLICK HERE TO GO TO aeoliandave's LINK | ||
| Post# 32925 , Reply# 8 2/21/2008 at 16:50 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Let the rebirth begin... | ||
| Post# 32926 , Reply# 9 2/21/2008 at 16:54 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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| Post# 32929 , Reply# 10 2/21/2008 at 16:58 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Cordectomy test fit | ||
| Post# 32931 , Reply# 11 2/21/2008 at 17:02 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Cordectomy closeup | ||
| Post# 32947 , Reply# 12 2/21/2008 at 18:49 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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She Lives!!! Gertrude The Green Goddess is baaaaack...
Oh, she's not perfectly original and her gold-on-green paint job bears 80 years's worth of domestic battle scars but she runs smooth and strong registering a respectable, I'm supposing, 14" on the Suck-o-meter. Regarding the paintjob, it appears the fibre handle sections were painted a bright apple green with a finish coat of gold varnish? Mine is worn away enough that the gold coat now appears as speckled mottling mostly. The outer bag is in good shapw with no rotting or tears but dreadfully faded to all one color. The stencilling is still just visible. This bag has no airplanes on it. I would like to re-highlight the printing with cloth paint. Charles, is your GG bag in good enough shape you can tell me what color the screen painting should be? Like Kyle's black Air-Way (same model (?) that the donorvac is, I think) a paper liner dustbag is provided for in the bag clamp. On Kyle's and the Donor vac the clamp is an integral part of the outer bag and the inner bag has a spring ring retainer. On my Green Goddess the paper bag has a screw up ring that captures the paper bag opening around a flared tube. The double rod outer bag is a separate unit that fits around the inner bag like a slung hammock. I used a Hoover Upright Type C paper bag with the neck staples removed that fits the length perfectly and fills out the outer bag nicely. Obviously the Charles questions go out to anyone else with a Green Goddess. :-) Dave 
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| Post# 32952 , Reply# 14 2/21/2008 at 19:21 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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| Post# 32953 , Reply# 15 2/21/2008 at 19:34 (5,908 days old) by vintagehoover () | ||
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Black? Perhaps it's registering too darkly on your monitor - it's dark green with lighter green detailing. And made of knitted silk, apparently! This picture should show it better: 
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| Post# 32954 , Reply# 16 2/21/2008 at 20:09 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Ah, now I see.
Mmm, lovely hue that would look right smart with the Godess. So, unless something else comes up I'd go with trying to recolor it like this. Again I examinined my bags under magnification counting loop stitches and I'm flummuxed as to whether it's possible the design is woven in. I was assuming it was screen printed but...What do your eyes tell you? | ||
| Post# 32956 , Reply# 17 2/21/2008 at 20:38 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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I think I'm wrong...your's looks more of a Forest Gr
Closeup of unfaded knitted bag material inside the bag shows multicolor threads in apple green, gold/yellow, silvergrey and beige. This being a doubleknit construction its likely the outer skin was predominantly green and gold with gold lettering & border. The inner bag lining that's ripped is a darkler apple green canvas. This picture has a yellowish hue to it from the task lamp. 
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| Post# 32958 , Reply# 19 2/21/2008 at 20:44 (5,908 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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