On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual: http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdf There is not
much there in terms of servicing information.

mcp6453 wrote:
On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual: http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdf There is not
much there in terms of servicing information.
Hi,
Can't see how a lightly used cleaner has so much dirt build up.
Motor is self cooling with little fan blade on the shaft. Maybe dirt
build up in the path of air flow for the motor cooling is plugged up.
If it is using bag, replacing bag when it needs one is a must.
My three stores use cleaners like that and in 20 years I replaced belt
only twice. I had to throw one out. Lazy staff did not replace bag on
time and it got busted ruining the unit.

On Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:47:40 -0600, Tony Hwang
wrote:

mcp6453 wrote:
On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

I think there's a new college fad where people break parts of the
vacuum cleaner and then see how long it takes for the rest to break.

Call the Dean of Students. They know all about it.

Either that or it's clogged. Even with little use, it could get
clogged if one tries to pick up the wrong thing. Clogging is by far
the biggest problem with vacuum cleaners.

I didn't look up your model, I don't even know if it's a cannister or
an upright, but if it's clogged it probably won't cool the way it is
supposed to.

Although I did get a used one once which was using a bag from a loaf
of bread instead of a vacuum-cleaner bag. Of course the air would't
go through it and it didn't work that way.

On Jun 26, 9:49*pm, mcp6453 wrote:
On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual:http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdfThere is not
much there in terms of servicing information.

The usual reason for frequent belt failure is the agitator is not
rotating freely so causing the belt to slip on the motor pulley, so
check it spins freely. The agitator comes apart by unscrewing the
end plates. You often find hairs wrapped around the shaft by the
bearings are the problem.

mcp6453 wrote:
On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual: http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdf There is not
much there in terms of servicing information.

I had a similar problem with our ancient Kirby...the brush roller had
hair and thread built up around the ends of the roller so that it
wouldn't spin. Cleaned out the grunge and it quit burning up belts.

In article ,
mcp6453 wrote:

My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

You're naive. She loaned it to 300 other students on a weekly basis.
College students make all property communal, that way they can afford
more beer.

In article ,
mcp6453 wrote:

On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts.
My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a
paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my
finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily
explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way
that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that
much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a
problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad.
If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a
motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual: http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdf There is
not
much there in terms of servicing information.

Another thought, my g.f. once had a similar issue, it turned out that
someone had mis-assembled the thing and the brush cylinder wasn't riding
in its designated pocket bushing at one end. Enough friction resulted
that the shaft melted a new pocket in the housing, the motor overheated
opening the thermal fuse, and the belt was destroyed.

On Jun 26, 4:49*pm, mcp6453 wrote:
On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual:http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdfThere is not
much there in terms of servicing information.

You might want to pull the motor apart just for grins and giggles.
When the motor on my wifes vac went out I took it apart to find a ball
bearing gone bad. THe number on the bearing seemed familiar to me. A
little checking proved it to be the same bearing as used on most
rollerblades. I found the local skating rink had the parts and I
purchased a ceramic replacements replacing both bearings in the motor.
I havent had anyother problems in 15 years out of that vac.


JImmie

On Jun 27, 7:48*am, "
wrote:
mcp6453 wrote:
On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual:http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdfThere is not
much there in terms of servicing information.

I had a similar problem with our ancient Kirby...the brush roller had
hair and thread built up around the ends of the roller so that it
wouldn't spin. *Cleaned out the grunge and it quit burning up belts.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I agree that hair on the roller/brush is probably keeping the thing
from spoinning freely. With the old belt totally removed, run the
motor for a couple of minutes and see if the pulley gets hot. A sharp
pair of scissors or a pointy knife will let you remove the hairs on
the roller, including the end caps. I'd bet a weeks pension that will
solve the belt burning problem.

On Jun 27, 8:35*pm, "hr(bob) "
wrote:
On Jun 27, 7:48*am, "
wrote:





mcp6453 wrote:
On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual:http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdfThereis not
much there in terms of servicing information.

I had a similar problem with our ancient Kirby...the brush roller had
hair and thread built up around the ends of the roller so that it
wouldn't spin. *Cleaned out the grunge and it quit burning up belts.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I agree that hair on the roller/brush is probably keeping the thing
from spoinning freely. *With the old belt totally removed, run the
motor for a couple of minutes and see if the pulley gets hot. *A sharp
pair of scissors or a pointy knife will let you remove the hairs on
the roller, including the end caps. *I'd bet a weeks pension that will
solve the belt burning problem.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

No, you need to take it apart. Only takes a few minutes.

On Jun 27, 4:03*am, harry wrote:
On Jun 26, 9:49*pm, mcp6453 wrote:





On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual:http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U5140900.pdfThereis not
much there in terms of servicing information.

The usual reason for frequent belt failure is the agitator is not
rotating freely so causing the belt to slip on the motor pulley, so
check it spins freely. * The agitator comes apart by unscrewing the
end plates. You often find hairs wrapped around the shaft by the
bearings are the problem.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes the agitator or 'beater' (as some call it in an upright vacuum)
may not be rotating freely so the belt jams and burns up.

Hair and other debris around the end bearings of the ''agitator' can
often clog them. Also a nail, or hairpin jam, can be deadly. On belts.
But that is preferable to the motor jamming and burning out! We even
had a small stone from someone's shoe that jammed ours!

We always keep spare belts (and the correct disposable bags) on hand
and every few months check that the 'agitator' spins freely. Use oil
very sparingly on the agitator end bearings. Only takes a few minutes.
They are a prettyy simple device; basically an electric motor driving
a fan and an agitator.

However like most things electro-mecahnical a vacuum needs some
preventive and ongoing maintenance. Ours is 40+ years old, and used a
couple of times a week for a few minutes each time needs very little
attention; maybe every couple of years; unless one can hear (or smell
a rubber belt burning) that something is wrong.

So unless one just waits until something goes wrong and then junks it
and buys a new one. But that's consumerism/over consumption and our
garbage dumps/landfills are full of stuff that need not be there.

We have another partially stripped similar model vacuum that we kept
just in case the motor in ours ever did burn out. Since that hasn't
happened in over 40 years I guess OK to junk one or the other vaccuum
since it looks like both are going to outlive me!

Oh.BTW fixed one for somebody and found the belt had been put on
backwards. So the agitator was turning wrong way.

On Jun 28, 11:22*am, terry wrote:

Ah; agitator = beater bar = brush cylinder = ???????????? any others
terms?

On Jun 28, 2:22*pm, terry wrote:
On Jun 27, 4:03*am, harry wrote:





On Jun 26, 9:49*pm, mcp6453 wrote:

On the advice of Consumer Reports and others, I purchased a Hoover U5140-900
vacuum cleaner a couple of years ago. As of today, it has broken two belts. My
daughter had it in her apartment at college, so it has not had heavy use.

After I took it apart, I checked the motor pulley to see if it had any dirt
accumulation. Since it did, I turned on the power to the vacuum and held a paper
towel against the pulley to clean it. Much to my surprise, it burned my finger.
Thinking that the friction between the pulley and my finger would easily explain
the burning sensation, I turned off the power and then felt the pulley (which
really looks more like a spindle to me). It was very hot. There is no way that
the friction between the pulley and the paper towel caused it to heat that much.
Therefore, I have to conclude that the motor is heating the pulley.

The pulley has to be getting hot enough to weaken or melt the belt. I haven't
taken the motor housing apart to see if there is an obstruction, but before I
dig too deeply, I wanted to ask whether anyone here had heard of such a problem.
My guess is that the bearing in the motor where the pulley protrudes is bad. If
that's true, I doubt the unit is worth repairing, if you can even get a motor.
It's not an expensive unit anyway, but it was highly rated.

Here is the manual:http://www.hoover.com/pdfs/manuals/U....pdfThereisnot
much there in terms of servicing information.

The usual reason for frequent belt failure is the agitator is not
rotating freely so causing the belt to slip on the motor pulley, so
check it spins freely. * The agitator comes apart by unscrewing the
end plates. You often find hairs wrapped around the shaft by the
bearings are the problem.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes the agitator or 'beater' (as some call it in an upright vacuum)
may not be rotating freely so the belt jams and burns up.

Hair and other debris around the end bearings of the ''agitator' can
often clog them. Also a nail, or hairpin jam, can be deadly. On belts.
But that is preferable to the motor jamming and burning out! We even
had a small stone from someone's shoe that jammed ours!

We always keep spare belts (and the correct disposable bags) on hand
and every few months check that the 'agitator' spins freely. Use oil
very sparingly on the agitator end bearings. Only takes a few minutes.
They are a prettyy simple device; basically an electric motor driving
a fan and an agitator.

However like most things electro-mecahnical a vacuum needs some
preventive and ongoing maintenance. Ours is 40+ years old, and used a
couple of times a week for a few minutes each time needs very little
attention; maybe every couple of years; unless one can hear (or smell
a rubber belt burning) that something is wrong.

So unless one just waits until something goes wrong and then junks it
and buys a new one. But that's consumerism/over consumption and our
garbage dumps/landfills are full of stuff that need not be there.

We have another partially stripped similar model vacuum that we kept
just in case the motor in ours ever did burn out. Since that hasn't
happened in over 40 years I guess OK to junk one or the other vaccuum
since it looks like both are going to outlive me!

Oh.BTW fixed one for somebody and found the belt had been put on
backwards. So the agitator was turning wrong way.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You won't fix the new ones as easy. They're designed NOT to be fixed.