I have been hassling with the needle bar clamp lately. I have already spent well over an hour messing with it. If anybody has any tips on putting it back together I sure would love to know what it is. I've been searching info on the timing/needle as well. I'll post info one of these days. Until I get the needle bar clamp back together I'm can't do anything else on this machine. It is no wonder Singer didn't make real many of these - I bet the repair men invented whole new languages of words for that needle bar clamp.