I have a 1957 Paidar Chair,
It had a problem where if the lever wasn’t locked (so the chair won’t spin) it would start inching down with the customer seated. It also would go down very slowly. All other functions worked fine.

Now, the chair won’t go down at all if somebody is seated in it. If the chair is empty, it will go down, but very slowly, and it makes a shuddering sound while it goes down.

All other functions are working properly. Anybody know how to go about fixing this, or know someone in Chicago that can fix?