Joe, somehow a lightbulb went off and I checked Yahoo for a Kenmore sewing group - success. I found a service manual for a similar machine and asked my question there. I got the shell off - there was one screw hidden deep inside where you can't see it - darn those sneaky Janome engineers!
There's so much inside this machine, it was hard to follow the path, but I found what I thought was the problem - a gunked up spring that wasn't moving freely. I introduced it to my friend Mr. Triflow and things cleared up. Don't know if it is a permanent solution, but it's working for now.
One thing this has little adventure showed me - even more reasons to love my Rocketeer!
Tate