As much as Ed is attempting to be humorous, but failing, he does have a point. Just a couple parts add up quick, and probably not worth doing as something else may go wrong. And if it's the electric control or motor, it's scrap. These things have a life of perhaps 6 to 9 yrs. I might fix something at 6 yrs, and have, depending on what broke. If a just a belt or something simple? Yes replace.
Post 8 mentioned bearings/bushings. That's almost a complete disassembly and a couple hours. I wouldn't bother unless the machine was less than 5yrs.
TailHooked is amusing at post 7 and his point is valid. If you don't know what's wrong ...
osd has best advice at post 2. One of the KC gals had a clogged up vent hose. 5 min. Even though barter was on the table, I said just buy lunch. Still see her.
Originally Posted by Unique_Carpenter
My machine was 10 years old when I did the repair. I've no reason to believe it will not last another 10 years. I can not say it was the best $100 bucks I ever spent, but it's up there. Yeah, it took a couple hours - time that would have been spent on the computer or watching TV. At a $300 savings (more like a $500 in my case because my machine has lots of bells and whistles), a couple hours works out to be $150 an hour. I've seen 'working girls' who didn't make that kind of money.