MFord,
You'll need to take the top off, the bottom inspection plate off, and the face plate off to really oil everything. There's nothing wrong with the new Singer oil. A lot of us recommend Tri-Flow oil because it's better, but regular old sewing machine oil is fine.
Try to get some Singer grease for the gears if you can. There's not much in a hardware store that's suitable for sewing machines.
Nova Montgomery's has the oil, the Singer grease, and she's selling a new grease that's supposed to be suitable for the old Singer motors as well as gears. I haven't tried it yet, but I will.
I put the links in to N. M.'s in this thread: {
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...e-t255272.html }
Also make sure it's really clean in the bobbin area. Sometimes that will put a load on things too.
Joe