No worries at all - we all move at our own pace...
The brake band is shown in the manual - was just curious if your machine (still) had it. Folks attempt to fix things sometimes because it needs to work for them right now and use ”temporary solutions” because a job needs to get done (I include myself in this group). The key is to then go back to investigate what the root cause of the problem is/was and repair it properly.
I would need to study the manual in order to find out how the brake band on your lathe actually works before I can answer the question of where and how it is supposed to be attached. I have seen some machines where the clutch lever (motor start lever) does double duty: move it in one direction to engage the clutch (start the motor), move it back to center position to disengage the clutch (turn off the motor), move it a little more off center to engage the brake. It all depends on the design.
I agree with having the machine functional first and foremost. Therefore, just keep asking questions if you think something is not right/feels off with how your lathe sounds/works presently like you did with the current problem of the spindle stalling out.
We hope that our observation of the rotated adjusting bolt is/was correct and thus solves your clutch issue.
I now have a Standard Modern 1120, a Colchester Master 2500, and a CMT Ursus 250. The SM 1340 that I used to have has now found a very good home in
@tkalxx ’s shop.
Before the current set of lathes, I started out with a Standard Modern 9” Utilathe (we had those at our HighSchool together with some 11” Utilathes, IIRC).