The Keymatic Arrives !!!

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ricky5050

ricky5050

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
670
Location
Durham Britain
The Hoover Keymatic i won on eBAY arrived today. It is in very good condition, with original handbook and hoses. The body will clean up very well and it is all complete. It will need a new door seal/boot possibly a tubulator belt,but i managed to get it going after several attempts ( you have to push the key plate once inserted to get it to fire up). I have not tried water in yet as not sure how the drain sump hoses are. I have lots of questions see later pics Richard

5-10-2007-16-47-1--ricky5050.jpg
 
Rear shot

ooh its a bit complicated!! Notice the original transport straps were still in place and have been since 1971! so it has not been shook around

5-10-2007-16-51-4--ricky5050.jpg
 
other side

Is this a gearbox on the end of the motor ? if so does it need oil.Now some questions!

i tried to run a spin only programme and the machine clicked away till just before rinse 3 and stayed there a while with the drum turning, it did not advance or seem to ever shift from tumble to spin, any ideas?

The motor casing was very hot to the touch after 1 -2 min running is that correct? all seems free and the brake was not binding, does it hide a gearbox? any oil needed

how hot should the motor run?

also there was some squeaks and squeals from the belts pulleys?

Now then can you buy a turbulator belt or door seal anywhere.

Prizes will be give upon best answers, the judges decision is final no purchase necessary!!!

More to come over the weekend as i clean it!!

5-10-2007-16-56-35--ricky5050.jpg
 
Exciting!

I'm so glad for you that it came with the transit straps - at least it should be intact mechanically. Looks like it's built like a battleship!

I hope you can get her going properly, but rather you than me, I have to say! Hopefully a member with the service manuals can help out.

Good luck!
 
Hi Ricky

Pushing the keyplate in briefly to start is normal.

"Turbulator belt" - I assume you mean the spin belt - the round section one that turns the corner - I have several spares of those, if you want one. You might be able to find one closer to home, though. The original ones are lke a "rubberized rope" belt, looks like yours is original. You can also get modern ones made up to length, they are made of round section stretchy plastic. I have one clear plastic one, which was a non-genuine spare part, or a belt supplier can make one up to match your sample, they are generally red plastic and here over are called "redthane belts". I think Mike (Chestermike) has a redthane belt on his. Anyway if you can wait for postage, you are welcome to one of mine. What is wrong with yours - is it cracked? if it is just loose, you can re-tension it by adjusting the motor mounts.

If you hunt around you will probably find a "new old stock" door boot in an old spare parts shop. If you have no luck,post here as I think there is a shop in suburban Melbourne that has parts for Keymatics. They did ten years ago when I had mine. The replacement boots are black and last longer than the blue originals.
When I last dealt with them, the shop still used a Keymatic for washing their cleaning rags, the owner was a fan of the machines and had several dead machines for spares out the back, plus a small stock of new old stock parts. I got their last new sump hose.
Look at the sump hose - although it has bits going everywhere, it is all one part, an amazing bit of work. I reckon you could make one up out of separate hoses if you had to but it would be quite a job. Hopefully yours is ok, but they are prone to rotting out. Also the fill hoses from the inlet valves to the sump hose extension tube are very thin and crumble with age, as does the vent hose at the top of the drum - a curved rubber hose which is very thin, soft and flexible so it doesn't transmit vibration.

As long as the belts are correctly tensioned, I wouldn't worry about a bit of noise - these machines have very quiet motors but make a symphony of mechanical sounds - scrapes, whirrs, rattles are all normal.

How long did you leave it to spin - it should pump out for 1.5 minutes, then advance to spin.

Chris
 
yay, congratulations,
it certainly looks in good condition, glad to see not everyone lets their old trusty machine go to rust.
Hopefully you will be able to find new parts for it, ebay usually have a few spares kicking around if you delve deep enough.
I've always been curious as to how these would be to watch and listen to, i hope you may be able to get some videos of it when its all nice and done up :), if you get chance that is :)

take care mate
matt
 
Does this actually use a card reader of some sort? That's what that thing at the bottom of the first shot of the electrics looks like. I assume the cards are printed circuit boards with edge contacts? I've never seen or heard of a machine like this.
 
Nice!

Congrats with a really nice Keymatic! Hope you can get it in working order very soon;) Best wishes from Norway!

Timon
 
latest latest

Thanks guys for all your support!

I Have discovered what was wrong with the motor , it has an internal starter switch that was stuck on and so overheating, after removing and cleaning it it now starts and runs silently, however in assuming some pulleys were seized i oiled them. This machine is very complicated, the motor rotates in a certain direction and causes the drum to rotate at tumble speed , but when going into spin the motor reverses direction instantly which causes the drum to speed up into spin but in the same direction it was going as tumble but has some sort of clutch , but i think i oiled it so now it tumbles normally but then when going into spin it squeals and shrieks so i will have to clean off the oil (any ideas), but apart from a new door boot and poss rope type belt it seems ok. I will try a local shop it has ancient things even reconned 119s juniors in the window!

speak soon

Richard
 
Hi Richard

Squealing noise - don't spin the machine without water in it - there is a ceramic faced seal inside which MUST be wet or it will wear out.
Other ideas for the squeal - disconnect the belts. Set the machine to spin again. If it is quiet, the squeal is in either the drum, the idler pulleys (where the spin belt turns the corner), or the clutches. (The clutches are on the back of the drum, not in the motor.)Possibly the drum brake - there is a silver brake drum between the pulleys and the wash drum. There is a cable from the door switch to a lever on the back,the lever has a small brake pad which rubs on the drum to slow it if the door is opened during spin. If it is out of adjustment, the brake pad could still be rubbing on the little silver brake drum during spin.
If it still squeals with the belts disconnected, it is in the motor, or possibly the pump.

For interest, here's how the clutches for wash and spin work:

It's quite simple, really. The motor lies crossways under the drum. It has one pulley on its shaft at one end, and a reduction gear at the other, with a pulley on the reduction gear. This means the motor assembly has a fast pulley and a slow pulley. (about 15:1 ratio??? )
The drum has two pulleys on its shaft, each has a very simple clutch between the shaft and the pulley. The pulley drives the drum clockwise, freewheels (spins free) when turned anti-clockwise. So whichever pulley turns clockwise drives the drum.
The pulleys on the motor turn in opposite directions, so if the slow pulley on the motor turns clockwise, the fast pulley turns anti-clockwise. In that case, the slow pulley drives its belt, which drives its drum pulley clockwise, which turns the drum slowly clockwise - the WASH action. The other pulley spins fast anticlockwise, which doesn't drive the drum, it just spins. If the pulsator clutch is engaged, that fast pulley drives the pulsator (impeller) inside the drum, too.

If the motor sudenly reverses, then the slow pulley is now turning anti-clockwise, which doesn't drive the drum, it just idles around. The fast pulley is now turning clockwise, which drives the drum FAST - the SPIN action.
So reversing the motor changes the drum action from slow clockwise to fast clockwise. The drum can never turn anti-clockwise, as any pulley turning anticlockwise just slips.

Chris.
 
Heh. Congratulations on your Keymatic, ricky5050. I remember mine very well.

I have to say, yours are in much greater condition than the one i had, was in. For instance, in the shot of the wires, some of the wires, especially those that went from the keyplate unit, had broke on mine. Therefore it just got stuck on several places in the program and sometimes the fuses blowed.

The machine i had had been stored at my familys house. Almost never used because my mom hated the machine. Then in 2001 they decided to throw it away and i took it home. It worked really great until 2005 or 2006 when the motor broke.

I was lucky and found a motor for it and it worked for a while more. Then late 2006 i noticed it began to stuck on several places during the program. Sometimes it went ok after a while. Other times i had to put in the "spin only" card, remove that. Put in pre wash or rinse to do the rinses.

I felt this didnt worked very well. I sold the machine to a collector here in sweden that had worked with repairing machines. He later sold the machine to someone in Norway because it was so much to do with it.

I hope yours will work better and that you will have a good time with it. This machine IS considered rare in most countries and its quite an amazing machine. If it was made today it would cost millions to buy it (i think)

On another note, Gizmo is right, dont spin the machine without water. Its not very good to do that.

I,m looking forward to more pics and (hopefully) some video clips as well.
 
Nice One!!

Hi Richard, Wow, really glad you won this after missing out on the other recent one!!!Now thats something I have never seen, a 46yr old machine with its TRANSIT brackets in, it looks in fine fettle as well, mine is due a service & spa treatment, it worked fine UNTIL the support wire snapped and the drum dropped smacking the wiring loom case cover, and ripping a few hoses out of their sockets!!!

This wire, (the one you can see attached to the sides under the main spring) runs across and underneath the front of the tub and positions it in the "Tilt" angle...is the weakest link of the whole machine me thinks, I cant believe its soooo thin, rather like a thin cyle gear wire, BUT as Chris says, this machine does bounce around a lot inside and doesnt generally dance on your kitchen floor....

Have you ever seen sooo much rubber hoses etc in a front loader...LOl please make sure you do a simple water test outside after inspecting all the hoses, this beasty pumps so fast you could be sittin in water if it fails...

The weird thing about the boots is I found one black one a few months before my machine turned up, these turquoise original boots are so fragile that I used glycerine on it to keep it as long as I could...(which was until last week when I moved it whilst filming it and the whole thing ripped apart at the top, Am sifting through a load of Qualtex old spares at the moment to see if any fit, will let you know..

Email me your address and I`ll send you a copy of the manual,(and something else I just found that you will need for your other classic) fascinating bedtime reading...Can you tell me the serial number to date it, it looks a later model due to the badge and the newer keyplate...

Enjoy the restore, Mike
 
Hello Richard. It's great that classics like this go to good homes. I hope you really enjoy playing with it.

I bet is sounds quite different from the later square door machines, especially on spin.

Rob
 

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