PC 333 sander won't spin

[tlendway]

Motor runs fine, pad spins rapidly if held in the air, but stops spinning with even a tiny amount of resistance. Fan (#91) spins fast, 1-1 with the motor. Right before failure the pad seemed to be slowing down, and the tool ran louder than usual, vibration seemed to increase a bit. The random orbit belt is ok, and none of the bearings are seized. What part drives the spinning of the pad? I can't seem to find any parts that look damaged.

[DoctorD]

it still sounds like the bearing under the pad is . take the pad off , where the belt rides the idler pully look 4 a deep groove . if it has 1 loose the screw <left hand>and turn the idler 180.

[tlendway]

No groove in the idler pulley. Completely disassembled the unit, found 3 working bearings, can't find any more. Can't figure out how this thing is supposed to work - what makes the pad spin at a different RPM than the motor? What could be broken to cause the pad to stop spinning?

[DoctorD]

the lower bearing , belt, pully. if the belt is not tight it will slip.but the lower bearing on your finger , and spin it . if go' s more then 2 times replce it

[tlendway]

Ok if I spin the lower bearing (the one that's essentially inside of the pad support piece), the pad support turns less than 360 degrees (I haven't bothered to disassemble the bearing from the pad, that ring will be hard to remove). So there's a bit of friction there, but it does not feel like it's grinding. Sorry I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to this stuff - is this bearing supposed to spin more easily than this?

[DoctorD]

i still think the bearing is the problem. i do 5 or 6 of those sander s a week