I picked up the running platform from the welder yesterday. They had welded the broken part of the steel frame, and reinforced the other side so it shouldn’t break the same way.
When I got home, I started to reassemble it. The reassembly process was a reall pain, because I am sure I was doing it in a different order than how it is done in the factory. I really had to pull and pry parts in order to get bolt holes lined up. And then it was a pain to get the bolts into the holes as other parts would be in the way. One lock nut slipped and fell down into the part of the frame attached to the motor. I tilted the whole treadmill, this way and that, but couldn’t get it to come out. I couldn’t even hear it moving around. I ended up going to Home Depot and buying a couple more lock nuts. Once I had the treadmill mostly put together, I had to readjust the roller on the top side, as well as the roll on the bottom side. I adjusted the rollers until the belt seemed to be rolling relatively straight and centered. Then I replaced the cover. I wasn’t scheduled to run last night, but am scheduled to run tonight. I may give it a shot.
I think part of what contributed to the frame breaking is that I tend to run at the front end of the platform. So my weight bouncing up and down would place a lot of stress on the brackets that allow the unit to incline. Maybe I will try to run more to the middle of the belt.

Posted by Rob in Running on December 22nd, 2006 |