How do you know if you can? *Or is that, if you NEED to? Joe pretty much nailed it on the wires..as long as they are in god shape you won't need to. I generally use a cotton ball and denatured alcohol (any alcohol will do) and run it down the length of the cords to any oil and gunk. If they look in decent shape after that you are good.

I haven't had problems cleaning motors with CRC Lectra-motive but it does have a caution about using with plastics. They also have an electronics cleaner that is reputed to me safer.

Thanks, Cari, I'll check it out. Glad to know there are no capacitors. Insulation is all cracked off the cord so it will not be plugged in - maybe I should cut off the plug so there won't be any danger,although it's in a safe place. Still, kids will go anywhere, and it's pink, so I'll cut it!

Margaret, if you do rewire you will be ahead of me.

With capacitors, what I usually do is unplug and then hit the power button or the pedal a few times. The idea there is that any stored power will be used up trying to run. I've done this for years with computers and computer equipment. My router likes to be powered off fully for about 5 minutes before it applies new settings. (I will never buy another Netgear router!) I have that down to a couple of minutes reliably to apply settings properly.

I've done more damage to my nervous system by forgetting to unplug a cord (or unplugging the wrong end) before working on it than with anything with capacitors because of "good practices". :-/