Originally Posted by missgigglewings
I received free, an older metal, Montgomery Ward sewing machine. It looks great but the gears are frozen. A repair man has had it soaking in something for over a month and is giving it back to me. It is still frozen but he said it would cost over 200.00 to take apart the gears and fix it to run. The motor hums along, so I know it is ok. Anyone have any ides about this little problem! I like the machine because you can drop the feed dogs, it is nice and clean and there is no rust.
Someone probably used the wrong lubricant on it, (like 3 in 1 oil that ages to horrid orange chewing gum consistency in the works). The one I had that was frozen up like that I finally used a combination of denatured alcohol and "mean green" degreaser applied and scrubbed with a toothbrush on all the gears. It took it off, just be careful to keep it off the finish if you can--maybe cover the painted metal exterior with plastic wrap. After brushing it and scrubbing it, I kept working the wheel back and forth till it started to move,then cleaned each new area of gear as it was exposed. Took a while to get all the gum out, but then washed it down with kerosene and then oiled it. Caution: flammable stuff, don't plug in machine and run motor till it is all nice and dried for a day, and work on cleaning outdoors if possible.