wilburness

I was at an antique mall yesterday. I discovered a Necchi model 554, lavender in color. the price was just shy of $100. too rich for me but I couldn't let it out of my mind. there was a sale this weekend soooo I bought it. while waiting for the SM to be brought up front, I made a comment that here I was buying it and had not seen it run. no problem they said, there is an outlet right there. so I plugged it in. hmmmm could not get the motor to engage and run the machine. it would hand turn, but not run off the motor. the motor just hummed along quietly. thinking there was a knob a button or lever that needed to be engaged or not, I read the manual. NADA. still a nice hum but no movement. the lady at the desk came with a can of WD40 and was going to spray and I stopped her. Whew! I took off the top (this had been opened befor due to missing one screw and fresh oil applied) and could not see anything that was interfering, or broken. the motor is encased and I did not have my tools with.

I did get my money back. she came down to half price but I was worried it would be too expensive to repair. I came home and researched it and cannot find one like it. looks like it was one of the last models made in Italy before they started making them in Japan.

any ideas what it could be? the motor ran... it did not engage the needle bar to move. but if I hand turned the wheel, the needle bar went up and down.