Poolvac Won't Turn

[Bocaire]

I have been a PoolVac user for 23 years, and I have purchased 7 PoolVacs in that time, the most recent of which was bought in 2009. Of course, all the units from recent years have been the PoolVac Ultra.I am very familiar with the interior, and have totally disassembled, repaired and reassembled many of my units. At the present time, I have 3 units, one in current use, and the other two functioning as spares. When a unit exhibits signs of a failure, I swap it out, and do the necessary repair/rebuild on the failed unit.

I can probably work on these units blindfolded, after 23 years of experience.

The unit that was currently in use was my number 7 unit (in service for about 18 months), and it suddenly started hanging up at the sides of the pool, and it just stayed there for long periods. The unit had just had a new set of concrete shoes put on, and wings and flaps were still in very good condition. And when the unit was not "hung up", it moved around very nicely, indicating good water flow through it.

All this indicated to me that the gear box AXV408P was not functioning properly, as I have had to replace numerous gear boxes in my 23 years with PoolVacs. So I opened up the unit, and removed the gear box. I manually blew into it, and it seemed to be functional, and the red circular flow director rotated nicely. But I ordered a new gear box, and installed it. Unfortunately, after the install, there was no improvement - the unit still hangs up shortly after putting it back in the pool.

So, I took my number 7 unit out, and put in my number 6 unit into the pool, and it of course ran perfectly, turned properly, and did what it was supposed to do.

I understand very well the function and running of the gear box, the gear train connecting it to the top hose connector, and the small red rotating flow director disk. As it rotates, it changes the flow direction hitting the medium turbine wheel, and that reverses the direction of the rotation of the associated gears, and slowly rotates the hose connection coming out the top, and turns the PoolVac's direction. For the area not cut out in the red flow director disk, the PoolVac does not rotate, but continues in essentially a straight line.

I am at a loss to understand the problem with my number 7 unit, as all my observations seem to say that all the elements are working properly. If I grab the exterior hose connection, and slowly turn it, all the internal gearbox gears can be heard spinning. Nothing is jamming up anywhere. But, since the unit will not turn, obviously something is not functioning properly, but I'm at a loss to see what.

Can anyone offer me any suggestions on resolving this current problem?

Thanks for any suggestions

[txpoolguy]

If the unit stops moving, then it's probably something other than the gearbox. Since you've already repalced that, no news there. When Ol' #7 stops moving, do the pods keep moving? You might check the connection of the pod to the shaft of the a-frame - make sure it's very tight. Check your turbine & turbine bearings for free movement, use your flow gauge to ensure proper vacuum. Check the little blue-green piece that holds the a-frames in place in the middle.

[Bocaire]

Thanks for your reply

When it goes up against the pool wall, or corner, everything else is running fine. If I reposition it away from the wall, it moves along very nicely. The turbine is running fine. And, I even put in new bearings, although they weren't really needed.

The only thing I can think of doing, is to partly disassemble the unit, leaving the red rotating disk on the gear box exposed, and go into the pool, holding the unit upside down under water, and confirm that the red flow disk is rotating. All my tests on it indicate that it should be fine. If that is rotating, then it then has to something in the medium turbine wheel, or one of the gears that follow.

As I noted, I have confirmed that the hole gear train is connected, and appears to be working properly, as I manually slowly turned the top hose connector unit, and everything could be heard spinning inside. And the medium turbine wheel looks perfectly fine, and spins freely.

This is indeed a very strange situation. It's the first time in all my 23 years of repair/rebuild that soemthing like this has come up, which defires explanation.