DeArmond 602 Voume Pedal question

[Jonathan Hart]

Just picked up a very clean DeArmond voume pedal on Ebay for $30 to use with my lap steel. My only issue with it is that as it moves, I can feel every tooth on the little plastic gear. Has anyone run into this, and come up with a way to make it move more smoothly? I know I've used white lithium grease on much newer expression pedals, but that was on nylon bushings on the pivot points, and I don't know how well it would work on the rack and pulley teeth.