Hi Folks, anyone got any good ideas? I'm hoping to resurrect the YDK motor in a Dyson DC14 vacuum cleaner. It's only 15 years old, and on its second set of brushes, so it's too young to let die… If I can repair it, I might be able to offset the brownie points earned against having to use the horrible thing, so it's worth a few hours of cursing.

I've discovered that an armature winding wire has broken, just at its junction with the commutator. Of course, it has to be one of the wires that lies in the inner layer of the obliquely-orientated wires to and from the commutator bars, and there's no slack. Assuming I can extract the armature, I may be able to winkle about 1 cm of the broken wire out from under the others, into an accessible position, to graft on a short length which can then be joined to the commutator.

It looks like an awkward job, requiring micro-surgical techniques. Has anyone any tips or suggestions relevant to this sort of endeavour? Should I attempt to make a mechanical junction at the commutator (if possible), rather than, or in addition to, soldering the new wire in? It looks like the winding wires have been connected to the commutator by crimping or, possibly, spot welding (difficult to see with the armature in situ, but no solder evident).

Quite – my worry too. I was expecting to have to bind any soldered joint. 'There has to be some way of fixing this,' he said, in quiet desperation…

Andrew – thanks, I hadn't heard of SEBO. A quick search reveals the model selling for about 310 GBP in John Lewis is magically NZ$1200 – about 600GBP – here. We get ripped off like this all the time. That's why repair becomes 'do or die'. I guess, for similar reasons, the local recycling (joke in NZ) centre doesn't have skips containing any Dysons – otherwise it's a good idea Chris. Luckily, it's not all gloom in NZ. We have only one active (known) case of Covid-19. Unfortunately, the economy is now wrecked, and the national debt is ridiculous. The government is throwing money around, all over the place, with no apparent idea of what it's supposed to do. Guess who will pay.

We had an Henry when in UK, but left it there in 2005, fearing that it would not be possible to clean it well enough to satisfy bio-security checks at the border, when we moved our stuff here (NZ). He was much missed. IIRC, Henry cost us 90 quid. I saw one a few years later, in the local branch of a national chain of DIY stores; price $600, which translates to about 300 quid at today's rate. Possibly only(!) 250 quid then. How is such a rip-off possible? They're still available here, but I don't know the current inflated price. A few SEBO models are available here, at about twice the UK price, but at least they are the full-power jobs, not EU limp-wristed versions. I'll investigate importing a pattern motor for the Dyson. I expect freight will cost more than the motor, but it'll still be cheaper than Kiwi prices…