An upright vacuum cleaner having an off-the-floor suction hose attachment port located in the passageway connected to the agitator chamber or front nozzle with a suction generating means, and having a sliding door for closing off the passageway intermediate the chamber and hose attachment port during off-the-floor operation, which door is automatically returned to its initial position opening the passageway when the operating handle position is altered to allow on-the-floor operation. The agitator or roller brush is lifted completely from contact with the floor or carpet when the vacuum cleaning apparatus is used for off-the-floor operation and is done so independently of the floor height adjustment setting for various on-the-floor cleaning operations by rotating the retainer axle member about the axis of the front casters and relative to the chassis. The retainer axle member further includes a chassis height adjusting support surface, and the cleaner hood includes a chassis height adjustment member carried and supported thereby for manual operator-assisted sliding engagement with the hood and with the retainer axle member. The height adjustment member includes a pair of laterally spaced cam surfaces and each cam surface includes identical step cams of varying height, thereby defining a plurality of pairs of matched height adjusting cam lobes laterally offset from one another. Each of the cam lobes engages the support surface of the axle retainer member whereby the chassis is supported laterally at two positions on the axle retainer member and provides side-to-side stability to the cleaner head assembly.