my hoover steam vac deluxe brushes won't turn?

I just took mine apart and found why the brushes wouldn't turn. You have to start by taking the cover off which consists of 7 screws and the brush on/off switch. Once you get the cover off there is two tubes that you can remove from the air drive and the spring on top that the switch operates. On the bottom is two screws that will allow you to remove the air drive from the unit. Take the cover off the airdrive and you will find two plastic gears and a metal shaft with two bearings - one on each end. This shaft is what the air drive turns and then turns the gears and in turn the brushes turn. On mine the bearings on each end were all rusted and seized up. I used some wd40 and penatrating oil. Put it all back together and it turns perfectly for now...

aaron
December 2007

Hi, I seem to have the same problem with my cleaner. There are two black plastic things (motors?) inside the cleaner (once you've removed the outer cover). One is larger than the other (located in the centre) - the smaller off the side. Which one needs to opened and cleaned to get the brushes working again?

Stephen York
February 2007

Yes, take the top off, it takes a small bit of prying and you have to remove the cap from the brush on/off latch, and unhook a wire from a piece that moves when you lower the handle. Unscrew the small air-driven motor part - near the front of the machine - and remove the hoses, open it up over a sink, clean it out - we sprayed WD-40 in there. Then put it all back together! There's a bit of unhooking parts from other parts, and removing more screws than you'd think. Do it gently, and try to keep track of which screws go into which hole. There are a few that are only slightly longer than other ones, and it makes a difference.

Lee Katman
February 2007

Unfortunately I had the same problem. I took apart the entire thing before I found out they were air driven. You probably have some dirt in the gears as I did. If you are not mecanically inclined then I would take it to a repair shop. It wasn't that hard but You will need some patience and some new grease for after you clean it out. Basically you remove the top off of it (just a few philips head screws ). After that you can remove the entire housing for the air driven motor with two more screws and a quick disconnection of the two hoses on either side of it. There are four screws that hold togethere the housing and some gears and bearings inside. Clean it all out and replace the grease you removed. After that put it all back together and if you did it right it should work again.

Zac Carlson
December 2006