I suggest you consider buying a sheet of plywood and using that to replace or reinforce the particle board.

The simple test is, of course, whether you get power on the brass 'fingers' when you plug it in. My first repair is to cut off a few inches from the centre end, but if that doesn't work, I cut off a few inches at the plug end. It can be kind to replace the entire cable with a longer one.

I have fixed loads of these. They are really robust. Typical failures are...

1. The cable fails at the vacuum end. The fix is to cut off the last few inches and reconnect. Sometimes it's the plug end.

2. The PCB can occasionally fail. Easy to get a replacement on ebay.

3. The motor might die very occasionally. I'd probably replace the Henry at that point, though motors can usually be found except for the very oldest ones.