Brian,
I think I remember Myford getting a bit of flack when the lathe first came out because of the steel spindle running in the cast iron headstock being one of the cost cutting factors they had implemented to keep the cost of the lathe down. The lathe was just over £100 in 1973 when I got mine. I remember that the three jaw, four jaw and Jacobs chuck pretty well doubled that price.
The motor was second hand and came from a dealer in North London, picked up when I was on business in London. The motor is still going strong. 
I got a bit of a scare when I ran the countershaft bearing surface by forgetting to lubricate it. So I fitted large wick fed lubricators to the headstock to aviod the same thing happening to the spindle.
Jim.