J...
I'm inclined to go with Phranzdan's comment from 5+ years ago. I'd suspect the gearbox and the horrific grease issue that many of the repro accessories had to deal with. My experience was with a couple Gantry Cranes of the same vintage. I was able to get into the gearboxes, remove the gears, clean them of that gummy "lubrication" (
⇒
⇒
) re-lube with Labelle 106 grease. Now, 15+ years later, I can still operate those cranes with smooth 100% function ability. What a difference!!
Not being familiar with the re-made 164 (I restored an original, instead), is it possible to check the function of the internal gear box by disconnecting it from the drive and trying to turn the input shaft manually?? This was a step I used with the Gantry Crane gear boxes and it dramatically pointed to the problem!...I couldn't even turn the input shaft in its original condition!!
The Gantry Crane gearboxes were not permanently sealed. The two box halves were held together with, I recall, 3 molded-in snap clips. They were gently pried apart, one at a time. Then the innards were easily accessible and removable for cleaning. The mechanism was basically all plastic, so I was careful to use cleaning materials and fresh lube that were 'plastic compatible'. That's especially important, because I don't believe the gears themselves were available...only the COMPLETE gearbox assembly (=$$!) Cleaned and lubed, the assembly was easily reconstructed, the box halves snapped together, and the accessory put back into operation.
If you could talk some pictures of that gearbox it would help those of us not familiar with it to further advise.
Hope we can be of help...
KD
