Awl --

After much much ado, thinking the motor had burned out, it turns out the
pulley shaft, wihch has some clutch-like ditty or maybe even a brake on it,
has a lot of resistance. The lathe chuck itself can be free spinning, but
this shaft/clutch/brake ditty turns, but with significant resistance.

Thus, as this lathe seems to be one with a constantly running motor, when
you release the emergency stop, the motor is started somewhat loaded, and
trips breakers, cuz it can't get up to speed -- 3 ph, looks like 5 hp.

PLUS......
This clutch/brake ditty on the pulley shaft has two wires going to it!
Within the gear box, oil and all.
I don't know if they are supposed to be energized to release this clutch
(brake?), and that the problem might just be electrical, with no power to
these wires.

There is a manual around, but this is not my lathe, and I haven't been able
to sit down and really look at it.
And, I don't know how much I would be able to decipher. This is a french
lathe, apparently, altho the manual is in english, but I think french
notation is on various drawings.

Excellent lathe, but not repairman-friendly. What a bear....
For example, the sight glass/oil fill is in the *least* accessible part of
the lathe.
The motor is miserable miserable to remove, 10x more miserable to put back,
and belt tensioning semi-mysterious. Versus hardinges, which seem pretty
straightforward in the motor/drive dept.

Any idears on the root problem?
I had posted previously on a high-current full-wave rectifier being in the
box, which some suggested was for braking.

If the problem is electrical, and I can't sleuth it out adequately, can I
manually release/disengage something so that at least the lathe can be
used?

--
EA