I accidentally ran over the cord and then machine motor slowed down and stopped running. It wouldn't turn back on

If you were not vacuuming, just running it on blower setting you should be alright. The Separator prevents large items from getting into the vacuum when you are vacuuming. There is a gasket there that protects the motor from water. Double check where the separator goes and make sure there is no gunk or debris there, if so clean it out before running. Being that you were able to run it without any problems, noises or smells I would say you are probably fine.

GoodVac.com Technician
www.goodvac.com
1-800-775-6586

The Motor has locked up due to over heating. Once that happens the only way to go is either replace the motor drive or get a new cleaner. Do not try and keep energizing the Vacuum as you could blow circuit-breakers or start an electrical fire.

Mine did the same thing. The electrical cord is loose where it plugs into the machine. When you pull the vacuum into the room it puts just enough strain on the cord to break the electrical connection. Push the plug on the cord firmly into the vacuum.

It sounds like you have a faulty switch or a bad power cord those would be the first place to start troubleshooting

Remove the bottom plate to see if the belt came off of the motor shaft, or perhaps it broke in two when the brush stopped turning. Hope this helps!

Hello,

Ok, thanks for the clarification. Even though the cord doesn't have any external damage, it's still very possible that it has gone bad. When a Sebo upright doesn't even start, this can mean one of several things. The parts that could go bad that would cause the machine not to turn on would be the cord (most common on a Sebo), the on/off switch, the PC board that's on top of the motor, or the actual motor. In the 7 years that I've been selling Sebo, I have only changed out one PC board, and I've never had to replace a single motor on a Sebo yet. I have had to replace several cords over the years, some showing external damage, others didn't show any damage.

The cord and the switch are going to be the easiest parts to test, and also happen to be the most common, so this is a great place to start.


Here's how you can test the switch and the cord on the vacuum cleaner. You'll need to have a simply Electrical tester that will test if current is going through the cord. Here's a link to a similar one that is very inexpensive that I used in this repair solution:
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh7/R-100183054/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053


Step 1. Unwrap the electrical cord from the vacuum cleaner, and set the entire cord aside. Also remove the on-board wand that rests directly behind the bag housing. After the wand has been taken out, you should see on the left side of the vacuum where the handle goes into the body of the vacuum a little gray lever (my picture this lever is yellow as I only had a Sebo X5 on the floor, but the repair is identical). This is what the lever looks like:



Step 2. As you'll see if you look closely, the lever says "closed". Turn the lever towards the front of the vacuum so the lever reads "open".



Step 3. Once the lever is moved to open, lift straight up on the entire handle assembly to remove it from the vacuum cleaner.



Step 4. Once you have the handle assembly out of the vacuum cleaner, turn the handle upside down. You'll be able to see two small metal electrical terminals that connect into the base of the vacuum where the handle meets the vacuum cleaner. Make sure that both terminals are visible. I have seen a few Sebo's where the handle has come loose, and these terminals no longer make connection to the rest of the vacuum, causing the vacuum not to turn on. You can re-attach the handle into the vacuum cleaner, turn the lever on the side from open back to closed, and test the vacuum to see if it comes on.

Step 5. If the vacuum failed to come on after reinstalling the handle, take the handle back out of the vacuum. Put one of the wires from your electrical tester into each terminal in the bottom of the handle assembly. Make sure that the tester is actually making contact with the metal terminals. It should look like this:



Step 6. With each of the electrical tester wires pushed down into the handle and making sure they are making contact, plug the cord into a standard wall outlet. If current is present, the electrical tester will light up. If not light comes on, try flipping the on/off switch and see if this has an effect on if the tester lights up or not:



As you can see in the picture above, the cord and switch on this vacuum are good. If your tester lights up when you put it into the handle, then this means that your cord and switch are good. This means that either your motor, or PC board have gone bad.

If the tester signals that you don't have any power at the bottom of the handle, then this means that either your switch or your cord is bad.

If you will please let me know the results of the electrical test here on the bottom of the handle, I will then go into the next steps of the repair, and explain how to open up the machine and either replace the cord / switch, or if you did have power here, the pc board or the motor.

Please just use the clarification request form that you used last time. I hope this was helpful in diagnosing your machine. If this helped you, please be kind and rate the repair as helpful by clicking the thumbs up icons in the top of the repair.

I look forward to helping you fix your Sebo.

Chris J.
GoVacuum

Most times this will be caused by one of 3 items, the cord, the switch or the carbon brushes in the motor. Inspect the plug area on the cord for strain twist it gently and look to see if the cord appears a bit white where it meets the plug or if the cord appears crushed just before the plug.
Also inspect where the cord meets the body of the vac for the same signs of wear or any locations where it may have been caught in the power head , etc.
If you have test meter, check for resistance change at the plug while twisting and finally try the same twisting with the vac plugged in if necessary but keep your fingers back from the plug in case the cord blows... gently twist and pull slightly to see if the motor continues to run.
Most often when a switch fails it just dies and doesn't become intermitant... so with a meter it will generally test good or bad , nothing else..
Sometimes on a well worn vac when the motor doesn't start the carbon brushes in the motor have worn down. A heavy duty motor such as the Rexair can often be rebuilt if brushes are required.
If you turn the machine on and bump or jolt the side of the body as if to spin it, you can often "trick " the motor into starting. If this happens it is most likely a carbon brush issue , if not time for a new motor.
Rainbow/Rexair machines have a fairly good motor however because of how they run drawing moist air through they often rust as they age. This is a tedius rebuild and best left to a pro shop with parts on hand if requiring brushes. Most shops will simpley scrap a worn motor if rusty and replace it completely.
Before you spend big $ on a repair or replacement....
One last thing....... pull the exhaust cap at the back of the vac. You will seen fine powder dust and residue.Wipe your finger across it. This is what the Rexair releases into your home each time it runs, but you don't smell it because it comes out in the form of humidity...like after a spring rain.
That same humidity is rusting your motor gradually year by year. Although this motor has a long life span, consider that you have been breathing dirty humidity as it runs. If you put orange drink crystals in the water bucket and run the vac, the exhaust air would smell like orange juice,... so what is in the tank comes out in the air, including your dirty water.
Most Rexair owners buy thinking they are helping to reduce allergins.. yet what is on that exhaust plug proves otherwise. If your home is essentially carpet free and you are vigilant maintaining and rinsing the bucket, you might consider rebuilding this vac.. Otherwise consider a good High end European vac like a SEBO,MIELE, Nilfisk etc for better filtration and reliability

The belt will stop itself from spinning if you accidentally picked up a shoestring or vacuumed the edged of a carpet and the carpet got caught. To have the brush spinning again, simply step on the front of the machine, pull back the handle, turn the machine on with the red power button and press the gray button next to the red button - that's the ON/OFF button for the brushbar. If it doesn't spin, press and hold the button down for 10 seconds. If it still doesn't work, call the Dyson helpline, they'll have you open up the cleaner and inspect the belt and brushbar motor and if all else fails, they'll refer you to a local repair dealer in your area to fix it.

sounds like it might have broken a wire in the cord and may have to replace the cord unless you can find the broken wire and splice it back together

There is a switch, but could be a bad cord, or the motor went bad.