Hello everyone.
I bought an old Astoria branded Super Jolly from a restaurant. Apparently it was in use until they put it for sale... Not so sure now.
Well it was in bad cosmetic shape but it was running. The burrs were so dull that it is a wonder that they could do espresso with them (if they could).
Completely disassembled the grinder and repainted it. Cleaned everything and installed brand new burrs (Thanks again to Bill Crossland!).
It starts nicely and spins true. The one bad thing is that it seems that the motor has very little torque capacity. When starting with beans in the chamber it will not start turning unless it is set to a very coarse spacing. It grinds very nicely at espresso settings when loaded after the motor is started. This is manageable when single dosing which is how I would use this machine anyway but I would still want to make it work properly.

I have disassembled it a second and third time to make sure that everything was OK. I cleaned and checked the bearings they rotate nicely without any notchiness. I have greased them.
I have tested the capacitor and it checks OK. I have even changed it with a new one when the problem persisted.
I have also bypassed the timer with an on/off switch.

I am at a loss now. Is there something that I missed that anyone could suggest?

If you can, check the loaded and unloaded current draw.

It's possible one of the windings is open. Unplug the device and close the power switch. Connect an ohmmeter across the line and neutral terminals and note the reading. A 250w is about 7r, a 350w about 4r.

Is the capacitor the correct size?

Thank you Ian
Main winding is 9.3 ohms and the secondary winding is 24.2 ohms. 8.5 uF capacitor connected in series with the secondary. Unloaded draw is around 1.3 amp at start and 0.7 amp running with no load. I have not verified with a coffee load but at stall the draw is around 3.4 amp.

The capacitor is the same size as the one that was on the machine.

What is the 7r and 4r? Is r for resistance? My motor electricity is very rusty. Long time since school for this lowly mechanical engineer.

Sure its not a 230v grinder on a 110v outlet?

That's the easiest thing I know that would cause a grinder to give less power.

Holly!!! Never thought of that!! The ?$/&*()h##! Liars!
Apologies, I am jumping to conclusion here...

Thank you Roeland.
There is no identification plate anywhere but I looked at the timer switch and it is rated for 220-380VAC. In it self it is not a proof but it would explain a lot. The capacitor is rated 400Vac.
How could I ascertain this?

Nice catch!
What did the end of the plug end of the cord look like when you got it?

Whale wrote:Thank you Ian
Main winding is 9.3 ohms and the secondary winding is 24.2 ohms. 8.5 uF capacitor connected in series with the secondary. Unloaded draw is around 1.3 amp at start and 0.7 amp running with no load. I have not verified with a coffee load but at stall the draw is around 3.4 amp.

The capacitor is the same size as the one that was on the machine.

What is the 7r and 4r? Is r for resistance? My motor electricity is very rusty. Long time since school for this lowly mechanical engineer.

r is for ohms, k is for 1000 ohms.

From the measurements, I'd guess 220v as did Roeland
The 220v Mazzer uses an 8uF, the 110v 30uF capacitors

from http://www.espressoparts.com/mazzersupe...inderparts

Yep! Since the Capacitor is indeed 8.5 uF...
The whole cord was a replacement. I was told that the other got riped off by accident...

Well. You can't trust anyone (other than you guys of course!!). The restaurant I got it from is now closed and I do not readily have the coordinates of the owners.
I'll put a proper 240Vac plug on it and keep it to use with the big 2 groups Conti that I have sitting in the basement. Someday I'll set it up.

Thanks again guys!

Just to conclude. I have rewired it with a 240 VAC cord and tried it on a 240 outlet. What a difference! The Old Jolly now spins when it starts because of the torque.
I am debating whether to get a step up transformer or to just store it. I guess there is not much of a market for an old beat up 220Vac Super Jolly in America. The transformer would take a lot of space...

OTOH, if you have a 240V espresso machine, tacking on an outlet for the grinder is easy, if you've got the current capacity.