Quote from 070302 MMD:

    "It was mentioned in the original posting that the Duo-Art motor
    that was running hot had been rewound.  If that is the case, there
    is either a problem with the rewinding job, or the motor is over-
    loaded, possibly by improper spill-valve setting or use of the
    wrong pulley.  If the motor was not rewound but merely 'recondi- 
    tioned,' who knows what they might have done."

No!  It probably was not rewound for higher voltages, just back to what
it was, and therefore it overheats, which is what caused the original
to give out.  Old motors can overheat and fail because today's supply
voltage is too high.  In the era of player pianos, line voltage was 95
to 105.  In the 40's it went up to 110v, in the 50's it went up to
117v; and now it is 120 volts standardized.

So I run my wife's motorized player piano using a variac (variable
voltage transformer, with a brush slider).  I find that it plays well
at 90 volts.  Ok, I'm an engineer and have such toys; but you can place
something in series with the motor to give it lower voltage and longer
life.  One adapter I have is just a cube tap placed in series with the
motor.  I plug in lamps, or an old iron (shirt smoothing type), or a
old toaster into the cube tap.  It works fine to make Christmas lights
last years, with less tree drying also.

If you don't have a voltmeter, just plug in stuff, and note whether
things still work.  You can't hurt anything in the motor; just plug in
bigger-power stuff, if the motor does not spin enough to get to normal
playing pressures.

Will Herzog