OK, I fiddled with the motor for my 31-15.
First, GROSS!!! The motor was supposed to go outside and be blown out this summer but first the roof intervened then DH was in a motorcycle accident. I'm just now catching up on the summer to do list as a result. Best I can tell, there's about 65 years of dust and grunge in there and someone at some point managed to over grease the motor and there's dark sticky brown goo everywhere inside. DH emptied an entire can of electrical contact cleaner in there and brought it back in with an apology that it wasn't near clean. Mmmm,.. goo and grunge.
Second, I did something I don't usually do. I didn't inspect this motor when it first came home. Usually all electrical and the motors are inspected before they go into use. It was a busy spring and the summer was a mess and I must have forgotten. The external wiring looked so good, the internals should be good too right? Uh,... no.
Third, I have no idea why people care so little about electricity that they're willing to make frankly dangerous repairs! Opening up the motor to look at the wiring and find the squeak that's been making me nuts - it's a pitch and a volume that makes me ill to hear it so I can't currently use the machine or be in the room if it's being used - I found a real surprise. All of the wires for the light - the 2 from the motor and the 2 from the light are joined at the same area as the rest of the wiring but only they have what looks like medical tape on them? Taking the tape off, it's a wonder this machine didn't throw a breaker or otherwise cause a commotion! All 4 wires were shorted together under the worst tape job I've ever seen. On top of this, almost all of the rest of the wires were crunchy and brittle. I spent the night rewiring from the coils forward and tomorrow I'm going to get the metal shielded wire and wire appropriate for the light and finish completely replacing all of the wiring. One gianormous can of worms I hadn't been thinking of opening but oh well.
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Fourth, The light on this machine has always been a little weird. The first clue I should have had that there was the wiring problem that I found above is the 15 bulbs in the drawer. The light on a 31-15 is wired directly to the motor - yuck - but if I read right, it's also half the voltage of the motor, connected to only one phase(? I can't find the post I read it in anymore) - so it's not an easy rewire to connect it to regular mains or to the switch instead. That had been my hope.
Fifth, I'm also on the lookout tomorrow for one very long bolt that DH broke when reassembling the part of the motor he'd taken apart - it's one of the 4 that hold the motor casings together. We have a rule, if one of us helps take something apart, that person has to be there to give input or to put it back together when the time comes. It's just no fun to fumble my way through putting something back together I've not seen come apart. Tonight, I should have sent him to bed 5 minutes earlier than I did. :P
So, one question I did have about this: To take the motor off and service it properly, one has to take the light apart to route the wiring through the table. In the process of this, DH lost a set screw (rookie mistake - standing while removing a set screw that could have been loosened only.) To avoid this, I was thinking of a male and female spade connector for both of the light wires, if they will fit in that compartment with the rest of the wiring. Then when it's time to service, I can just disconnect them there, rather than taking the light apart again or twisting and untwisting the wiring at the motor. Is there any reason not to do this?