these pictures were incredibly helpful. i could not not figure out how
to get the cover off until I saw these photos (i could see what screws
he had been removed and which he had not; that allowed me to figure out
how to take it off without breaking something).

before you replace or disassemble the turbine, check the spring that
connects to the on/off switch. you have to remove the cover to see
this.

as it turns out, my problem was not the brush turbine -- a spring had
come loose on the brushes' on/off switch (see right side of Scott's
first photo).

the way the turbine works is that the on/off switch opens and closes a
little door that controls wind from the vacuum. when the switch is in
the 'on' position, the little door is open, allowing wind to go inside
the turbine and turn the gears inside, and they in turn cause the
brushes to spin. in my case, the spring came loose, the little door
stayed closed, and no wind got in no matter how much i played with the
switch on the outside. the whole thing is actually a pretty simple
construction.

i did put some grease and WD40 on the inside of the turbine, which had
started to rust a little.

my model is a steamvac 7431-900.

good luck, and thanks again Scott for taking the time to post pictures.
could not have done it without you and you probably saved me a bundle
in repair costs.


Scott wrote:
***UPDATE***

I found the problem and took the time to document it with some
pictures:

http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo...uff/steam_vac/

Hopefully this will help someone else that encounters the same problem.

Later,

Scott