J Miller

According to a chart I found over at Yahoo's Japanese machine group, the J-A19 number is Toyota and they made Morse machines. Yes, Toyota Motor Corporation, the same ones that make cars. From what I have read they are of excellent quality.

Now the easy stuff:

A: Replace the light, that's no big deal. That will also tell you if the internal wiring is good or not. You already know the circuits from the wall socket through the cord block to the foot controller then to the motor work.

B: Inspect the machine.

The motor is an external motor held on to the machine by a bracket so you can easily inspect it. Is the wiring bad or not? Look close for cut, cracked, abraded, soft, gooey, or crumbling insulation and poorly done splices. If you see that, it will need rewired. If you don't see these things check the plug. It should be solidly attached to the cord with no cracks or broken parts. Plugs are easy to replace.

Check the cord block wiring for the same deterioration as the motor. If you see it the cord block should be replaced. Same thing for plugs.

To check the foot controller connections you'll have to disassemble (usually just pull the back off) the controller and visually check the connections.

Check the needle park position.
That machine should have a "L-M-R" control somewhere on the front of the machine. It could be a horizontal or a rotary control. It will be interconnected with the stitch width control.
Find it and put it on "M" then set the stitch width control to straight stitch and see where the needle parks. It should be centered in the needle slot. If so good. If not it will have to be adjusted.

(NOTE Some machines park the needle to the left when on straight stitch. Those machine will not have a "L-M-R" control.

Now to less easy part.
I have two of that type of machines. They use internal cam stacks with very complex linkage and controls.
One control can have several functions depending on what the other controls are set at.

Pull the top off of the machine and look at it. There are many many moving parts that can be gummed up with old oil or sometimes grease. I've cleaned out what looked like old chassis grease from several machines. Yuck.

An owners manual will tell you specific places to oil and or grease. My method is this. Linkage, shafts, sliders, rotating things, non Singer motors, all get oil. Metal gears, forks on main shaft cams-(not stitch cams), and certain plastic gears get grease. Some times the stitch and pattern cam stacks will need grease, sometimes not. I do the same thing underneath the bottom of the machine.

If you over oil the machine as you are getting it freed up, don't worry about it. Due to the design of the machine most excess oil will drip down and end up under the machine. You can use cotton swabs or a rag on to wipe much of it up.

Basically just use your eyes to examine then begin to run the controls. I have two machines similar to yours, so with a clearer pic I can help with the controls. It's better if you find an owners manual, but you can figure them out sans manual if you have to.

Edited to add: I've become very partial to Tri-Flow oil and grease. The oil is worth it for the good job lubing it does and the grease is great as well. Sew-Classic has it, and your local bicycle shop might too. Mine does.



Joe