I recently bought a shag rug for my living room. Not realizing that the motor/actuator for my electric recliner sat directly over the floor, the fibers got caught in the actuator which is now seized and no longer functions. The motor is still fine, however, so if I could find a way to dissolve the polyester fibers and clean up the actuator I could get it working without having to buy a $170 replacement.
For further clarification, the actuator is a large metal screw with a plastic piece that fits over it like a ring on a finger. The plastic piece gets bolted to the recliner’s internal hardware. The only other way to “fix” it that I can think of is to break off the plastic piece but I am unable to find a replacement part.
This is probably your best advice. Any solvent that will completely dissolve the polyester is pretty likely to damage the plastic part as well, but running some isopropyl in there could weaken the fibers to the point that the motor can break them up. Higher concentrations of isopropyl will work better, but even the 70% stuff work if you can heat it up past 150F