Originally Posted by
irishrose
Is the belt too tight? When I bought one machine, it was sluggish until I loosened the belt.
That was the first thing I checked. Any looser and the belt slips. I'm certain it's from 3-in-1 oil, since I found the stuff in the hook.
On another note, I was at the Habitat Restore this afternoon and found a 201. It had the potted motor, light in the front, etc. but the gears were so stiff I could barely rotate the flywheel. Looked inside and it was black with hardened crud. Poor thing. The flywheel took a lot of effort just to get it to turn a few inches. I showed this to one of the workers there and told them the $125 price tag needed to include that the machine needed major work on it.
Mine doesn't seem near as bad now. It's needing a soaking in kerosene but she's not crying out for help like that one did.