Hi all I am new to the royal uprights but I thought my extensive kirby rebuild experience would help me attach the belt to my royal 4000. Well when i turned it on it ran great except for a strong burning belt smell that set off the smoke detector in our bed room. So I pulled the cap and saw by the diagram on the cap that it was twisted in the wrong direction over the shaft,I put it on right and it seems to be OK now.Can you use kirby belts on royal metal uprights?
Richard Groski
Post# 48918 , Reply# 1   8/18/2008 at 08:38 (5,729 days old) by royaler ()  
There is a plastic belt lifter tool that comes with all Royal units that makes it very easy to attach the belt to the pulley. They are made of plastic but are really very sturdy. They are available at all Royal Vac Shops. There are also two types of belts available for Royal Vacs. One is a heavier belt with a rough inner surface for the Commercial units and the newer models. The other is a thinner and smooth belt for the older machines. I have never used a Kirby belt on a Royal so don't know if it would work or not without any damage to the Royal. I have only attempted to put a new Royal belt on once without a belt lifter and I thought I was going to end up with endangered fingers :-). I hope this helps you if you need to install a new belt again.
you can use kirby belts. I have used them before in a commercial royal at the local hardware store and it still works great. if I were to get belts I would prefer the homecare kirby belts for my kirby I would prefer genuine kirby belts and bags.