Reel noise on my S Plus

[AnDaLe!]

Picked up a second machine yesterday.  SPlus DD, 1996, 3 reels, 2CM.  Bought it in a 12 tilt, changed the battery, and from a 61 went directly to a working game.  At first the reels sounded fine, but after about an hour the second reel got really noisy.  The best I can describe it is like a cat growling while eating....grumm grumm grumm...if you have a cat you know what i mean.  Almost like a bad vibration.  I pulled the reel assembly, then removed the reel....first time doing this.  Really not much to see but the motor and optic.  Twisted the motor some, then put it all back together.  The result was an improvement, but with each play it got worse/louder.  Do i need to replace the motor or does it simply need some kind of lubrication?

[cowboygames]

Don't EVER lubricate a stepper motor. Barring any obvious problems, like something loose on the reel basket or the machine that's rubbing and causing the noise then you probably need to replace the reel

[Ron (r273)]

Do a search on noisy reels. Lots to read.

Ron (r273)

[knagl]

Have you seen this sticky post at the top of the S+ section?

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=4303.0

[AnDaLe!]

Thanks guys, actually I did do a search on reel noise and ran into a lot of posts on getting the strips tight and properly seated.  Somehow I missed the sticky post that Kevin was kind enough to direct me to.  Also in my haste, I did not mention that the louder the noise, the more the reel rocked back and forth when stopping.  When I removed it to check it out, it seemed very tight on the shaft, which led me to think it must be the motor because the reel looked fine.  I did mention that when i first turned it on it was fine, but an hour later it was noisy.  Today I realized this must have something to do with the motor being warmed up due to the fact they are always "on".  I might have some bad bearings in the motor, who knows.  I am going to pull it again and try the cable-tie/tape fix and see what happens.  I will report back with the results.  Thanks again for the help!