Anyone know how to repair a sticky dial indicator? Options

[Langing]

I have an old (perhaps over 50 years old) Federal B-21 dial indicator (0.0001") that I had been using to measure run-out. Lately, it seems sticky and unreliable. The pointer needle doesn't seem to move in a smooth, continuous manner, and I have come to mistrust it's readings.

Since we have to measure run-out when we replace hubs and rotors, according to the FSM, surely someone on this website knows how to fix a sticky dial indicator, right? Whoever you are, please, can you advise me on how to clean the inner workings of mine?

I can open it from the back. I can see the mainspring, the rack of the rack and pinion mechanism, the gears, adjusting screws, another return spring, etc. I am just afraid of taking it completely apart because of a traumatic experience I once had with a clock when about the age of 3.

Is there some liquid cleaning chemical I could pour into it, or soak it in (say acetone), to break up any stickiness that has accumulated on the working parts over its lifetime. I'm for doing whatever I can by myself and don't want to pay a watch repair man good bucks to do something that ought to be easy. And most important of all, I need to get it fixed now, so I can get my car back on the road.

Oh, and I have searched this website and found nothing at all on this "key" piece of community knowledge.

TIA