How to Make a Carousel Move

Uncoil the carousel's electric cord and plug it into the nearest outlet. The cord can be found beneath the carousel's clutch, connected to the same electric engine that the clutch is connected to. Sometimes, the engine is housed inside a protective metal plate. If this is the case, unscrew the screws in the plate with a screwdriver, and lift the plate from the engine. The cord should be visible after the plate's removal.

Crawl beneath the carousel. Make sure that someone else knows you are doing this, and is willing to stand by the carousel and prevent other workers from starting the machine while you are beneath it. Take a canister of at least five gallons of diesel fuel with you beneath the machine. Find the 10 horsepower diesel engine. It should be located near the carousel's drive shaft, which is found in the very center of the carousel.

Note: Some carousels have trap doors that open to the engine. If your carousel has one, it will be located near the center of the main platform, and may require a key. Look for this before climbing beneath the machine.

Fuel the carousel. Return to the carousel clutch. You may need a key to initiate the clutch. The clutch can be turned on by placing the key in the keyhole, turning it, and pushing forward the clutch's lever. The carousel should begin turning. If not, the gears may have grown stiff from lack of use. If so, begin at the electric engine below the clutch, and, after crawling beneath the carousel once more, follow the sequence of gears leading from the electric engine to the main drive shaft. Oil every gear you encounter by squirting or rubbing oil onto the gear. The most important gears to oil include the pinion gear (connected by a pulley to the electric motor), the platform gear (attached to the pinion gear) and the drive gear (attached to the platform gear by another pinion gear).

Return to the clutch. Have several friends or coworkers grab a hold of the carousel platform and give it a push to assist its motion. After starting the clutch once more, the carousel should begin moving.