Technical Advice for 1985 Hoover Logic 1300e a3620

[a3620]

Hello folks, hope everyone is well.

Sorry to bother you again.

You were very kind in helping me fix my beloved Hoover logic a3620 1300 last January and I'm happy to report that it has been working well thanks to your advice.

However, I need your help again.

Cut a long story short, the suspension is playing up and just before it spins, the drum wants to bash through the side of the machine. It's terrifying!

I should add, it has stood on the same concrete floor with the same person loading/using it for decades, so its not "user error"

Back in Jan, I fitted a genuine Hoover new old stock suspension kit which had the lower 2 piece Nylon/plastic bushes and the top rubber mountings, plus washers etc. This was fitted ok and the drum still sits nice and straight.

When fitting the suspension kit, I noticed there was also a plastic spring locator/top mounting cup "thingy" sitting in the top of each spring; these were/still-are damaged, but replacements were not included with the repair kit.

I assumed the top "cups?" were not relevant, otherwise they would have been included in the kit? It appears they simply centre the spring, so I improvised a repair and the machine worked OK ..till now.

I have investigated and can see the Suspension kit still looks good as new, with no obvious issues to the drum mountings, frame, concrete-block, springs etc, etc. The drum almost seems to wagg side to side hitting the side of the cabinet.

I have fiddled about but reckon a suspension strip-down is needed. This is obviously a pain to do, so I would like to try and pinpoint the fault and source parts before starting.

So my questions/thoughts are:

1: I'll get a silly question out of the way first - There is plenty of grease on the suspension shafts. Could this be causing too much movement of the springs/shafts, in other words, should there be some friction to act as a damper, and all that grease is making it too loose?

2: Could it simply be the springs have gone weak with age?

3: Do you think the broken top plastic spring mount/locator cup/s is causing the issue by allowing the top of the springs to move about too much, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

4: Assuming the top mounting cup is the issue and replacements are unavailable, can you recommend a DIY repair? E.g I thought maybe cut/weld a piece of tube to form a metal version, or simply use some rubber pipe to locate the spring top etc?
Maybe something from another machine will do?

5: Could it be anything other than the mountings? It works perfectly well in all other ways, it only tries to take-off immediately before the spin.

Thank you so much in advance, any thoughts, help would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Chris.

 

[cfz2882]

check the drum.

check the drum for runout(wobble) by manually turning it or observe running without any load-if there is more than a trace of runout,there could be a bearing or spider problem causing more vibration than the suspension can handle.Besides the usual corrosion and breakage than can happen,corrosion can occur between an aluminum spider and a Stainless steel drum-forcing it to wobble.

 

[keymatic3203]

Hi Chris

From my own experience, and it's not a silly question.

The grease on the suspension could be part of the problem, as the plastic guides also act as dampers, and as you suggest the grease is reducing the friction too much. That's if you've used ordinary workshop grease that is.

You need to use Molykote DX paste, it's available on ebay, the smallest tube you can get will be plenty, turquoise blue/white tube. This is designed for sliding surfaces reducing friction at low to medium speeds. With this paste and the new guides, the drum shouldn't move quite so freely up and down, and when you watch the drum fill, at some point you will see the tub suddenly drop slightly, this happens when the suspension damping is working properly.

As for those top cups, yes ideally you should replace them if broken, they help hold the rods square to the mounting brackets, annoyingly they don't ever seem to be as available as the suspension kits, or made by qualtex etc, but I think for your main problem the grease is the issue.

Apologies if you did use dx paste and maybe it just a matter or cleaning the guides up and using a little less.

hope that is helpful,

Mathew

 

[keymatic3203]

Hi Chris

From my own experience, and it's not a silly question.

The grease on the suspension could be part of the problem, as the plastic guides also act as dampers, and as you suggest the grease is reducing the friction too much. That's if you've used ordinary workshop grease that is.

You need to use Molykote DX paste, it's available on ebay, the smallest tube you can get will be plenty, turquoise blue/white tube. This is designed for sliding surfaces reducing friction at low to medium speeds. With this paste and the new guides, the drum shouldn't move quite so freely up and down, and when you watch the drum fill, at some point you will see the tub suddenly drop slightly, this happens when the suspension damping is working properly.

As for those top cups, yes ideally you should replace them if broken, they help hold the rods square to the mounting brackets, annoyingly they don't ever seem to be as available as the suspension kits, or made by qualtex etc, but I think for your main problem the grease is the issue.

Apologies if you did use dx paste and maybe it just a matter or cleaning the guides up and using a little less.

hope that is helpful,

Mathew

 

[keymatic3203]

sorry for posting twice

I only manage to do this every other time I post now.

 

[a3620]

Many thanks for your reply.
Sorry, I should have mentioned my January repairs included new bearings and general "clean-up" of the spider, drum etc.
The drum seems perfectly true with/without load and the bearings still appear as new with no play.
During spin, it is smooth as silk. It only bangs because of the torque caused by the initial start-up.

 

[a3620]

Mathew, thank you so much, you are a legend!

No, I smothered everything in Castrol general purpose grease assuming free movement was the key to smooth running! In fact I can bounce the drum very smoothly and freely with no apparent resistance or damping.

Looks like I need to completely clean off all my grease and use the correct type you recommend.
I did see a note on the Hoover mounting kit packet stating that a specific grease was needed, but I disregarded this without appreciating how the drum and its suspension is a delicately balanced.

looks like I also need to revisit those top mounts, though I guess I'll have to fabricate something.

Any tips on removing the springs? When I removed them last time in Jan, I already had the machine stripped to replace the bearings and also the front panel and circuitry was removed to repair the timer, so I had "fairly" easy access.

I obviously need to invert the machine, but do I need to remove the door seal etc, or is there enough room to simply invert and the spring mountings come out of the locating holes/mounts?

Thank you again.

 

[gizmo]

Can you post a photo of the top mounts? Or a link to a photo, even if it is to a NLA listing?

 

I might have a pair here - from an Australian Hoover Zodiac. They may be the same, they may be different, I just don't know. The Zodiac was based on the UK Hoover 3236H from memory, but it evolved to be increasingly different over time. I don't think the drum mounts ever changed.

 

Chris.