You’ve most likely arrived here because you have successfully diagnosed that your wet and dry Vax vacuum cleaner has come down with a case of a faulty pump.
Well luckily here at eSpares we can help supply the correct replacement part and even provide you with assistance and knowledge to perform the repair yourself. Now understand compared to many of our other articles this is a slightly more complex repair but don’t fret because anyone can have a go and repair their machine with no complications.
A benefit to repairing an appliance yourself is the cost you’ll save compared to trashing your appliance and buying a new one. Even calling out the engineer will be far more counterproductive, following our easy step by step guide.
What You Will Need:
Step 1 - Safety Advice
Safety First! Please ensure that you have disconnected the appliance from the mains before starting any repair.
Step 2 - Splitting the Cleaner
This repair will require you to access the pump, the pump is located within the motor housing. The first thing we need to do is to separate the head assembly from the base unit - nice and simple, undo the clips on either side.
With room to start the operation - we need to now unscrew the two screws to access the motor and pump, these screws can be found on the handle cover, one at the top and one at the side. Once removed the handle will separate into two parts, you can now undo the cable grip and using the box driver you can remove the two bolts on either side of the handle. One underneath the cable grip and one on the opposite side.
Step 3 - Getting Under the Motor Cover
When you've done that you should now be able to lift the lid of the motor cover up - however be careful there are several cables underneath which are attached to terminals and you don’t want these to get damaged.
With the cover lifted up, you should see that there are two cables which are attached by spade connectors to release these press the barbs that are on the connectors and pull them off. If this is particularly tricky you can use a flat head screwdriver to push the barb in while you pull the connector off.
With the connectors release you can take a philips screwdriver and undo the screw down at the side which holds the cover over the top of the motor.
Step 4 - Accessing the Pump
Now with the motor cover removed, you need to separate the handle and switch assembly; this is connected to motor housing. To remove it, you need to remove the two cables, and again releasing the barbs which hold them in place, and secondly, there is a rubber grommet that can be pulled out. Once separated you now need to undo the three bolts.
Now I've done that I need to separate these two halves of the housing to access the pump underneath. But before I do so I'm just going to feed the pipe back into the housing and this will give me a bit more space to pull the two halves apart.
Step 5 - Replacing the Pump
With the motor housing separated you will see that the pump is located on the underside of the upper piece. Now you have access to the pump however before you remove the pump, you need to pull the pipes off.
Start by removing the hose from the pump and remove the bracket holding the pump in place - by undoing the screws either side will achieve this.
Once the screws have been removed you can now remove the pipe from the other end of the pump. Using a flat head screwdriver carefully ease the pipe off the pump, work the pump off the end and then use a pair of long needle-nosed pliers to pull the pipe off.
Now all we need to do is fit the new pump in the opposite way to removing it.
Step 6 - The Reassembly
With the pump, bracket, pipe and hose back in place you can now begin to reassemble the machine.
Join the two housing pieces together, ensure that you're putting the motor unit back together and don't have any trapped cables in there, if you do have any trapped cables it can affect your appliance performance.
Remember to tighten the three bolts, you can replace the rubber grommet before connecting the two cables again. You can now put the switch assembly and the handle back together.
Now you can refit the cover which sits over the top of the motor. With the cover in place you need to refit the cable, once the spade connectors are in place you can put the lid back in place.
Almost done - we just need to refit the cable grip and the handle. Once all is secure you can put the top assembly back onto the machine's body and voila your wet and dry vacuum is has been repaired and ready to clean your floors.
There you have it! Not the simplest of tasks but achievable without the concerns of holding an engineering degree. It is worth recommending to flush the appliances system after each use, this will rid your machine of any detergent which can crystallize within the pump and could cause damage over time if not cleaned.
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