HI kate, welcome from central Ohio. I learned to sew on my mother's treadle sewing machine and have an old treadle machine in my basement. It's been down there at least thirty years and I have no idea which auction it came from. I'll never use it since I have two vintage Sears machines and a Janome which I use all the time. The treadle also needs refinishing badly and my refinishing days are far behind me.
I can remember my mother doing some kind of maintenance on the belt on her machine but what it was I have no idea now.
My only pet peeve with her treadle machine was the bobbin winder was either broken or missing. Winding all those bobbins was a real pain but the machine had a beautiful stitch and just purred along without any problems on all my 4-H projects through the years. I'm sure you'll love it when you get it going. I haven't been in this group very long but it seems that everyone is nice and willing to help in anyway they can.
You're very competent to be able to upload photos. I have no idea how to go about it.