I just monkeyed with the Wards a bit more. It's the knob. I gave the tapered pin a few gentle taps on the end and it moves freely. Also when I do finally get it apart I'm going to have to repair the joint where the linkage attaches to the knob's shaft. The little arm on the shaft itself is loose. The joint where the arm is attached to the end of the shaft is pressed and peened together and it is no longer tight, the arm spins on the shaft. No big deal, I can fix that when things are apart. The little bugger is frustrating though. Especially when being able to drop the feed dogs is one of the reasons I bought the machine. Even if I did check it first I would have bought it. The key is going to be getting the set screw off the knob. When that happens the rest will get easy. I just don't want to damage the knob and have to hunt down a new one.
Rodney