livesimplemama

I just picked up a 101-4 in the #40 cabinet at the thrift store a few days ago. I first saw the cabinet and wanted it as the perfect height for a bedside table, however, upon realizing what it was housing I've mustered up the ambition to repair/refurbish this machine myself. I've taken a majority of it a part already to inspect and besides it being pretty grimey it seems very much workable! That said, it does need to be completely rewired since the old rubber wire insulation is falling off in crumbs and some of the wire is fraying. The parts themselves seem to be in good working order and the motor is in good shape (form what I've researched). It was missing the wall plug but I have already ordered a replacement and a new three prong terminal body to replace the existing two prong since I have to rewire it anyway and finding a replacement outlet cord for that seemed near impossible.

I am going to try to keep the original knee controller so long as it still works but from what I understand, it seems very doable to switch it to a foot pedal. I have taken a part all the wiring and it is really quite simple. When you look at the bottom of the machine there are two cords (technically 4 different wire but they are connected into sets of two) coming out. One is coming from the motor and one from the light. The motor cord has one wire that connects to the knee controller motor as pictured above in DKuehn picture, the other goes into the power terminal. The light wires both go directly to the power terminal. Also you will need another wire going from the knee controller to the power terminal. If you want to replace the knee controller with a pedal I believe you would wire it in the same manor as the knee controller. The wiring comes out very easily too. Just unscrew everything from under the cabinet and carefully detach the entire motor. The wires will need to be pushed through one at a time from a hole at the bottom of the machine and then they will come out completely with the motor. Well, the light wire will stay connected to the light but it can be pulled up and worked on through the motor opening much more easily.

I'm having a hard time trying to rewire the light on the machine. Does anyone know if and how to totally remove the silver lamp piece from the machine? The casing on the wiring is bad and the wiring inside may be damaged but I can't find a good way to get it off to see/repair.