Originally Posted by
RotaryQueen
The cams are C cams, the most common kenmore cams that I have seen and interchange with many other kenmore models, including some that are super high shank models.
The picture you show is similar, but not identical to the 1774. Mine has a white and a green dot on the right side of the lever for special stitch selection where your picture shows an exclamation mark. The cam cover is also different, larger with a parallelogram shape.
I must have been half-awake, of course those are C cams. Wow.
This is really interesting. The 158.17740 and 158.17741 were both made by Maruzen/Jaguar. The machines are said to have been manufactured in either 1974 or 1975. Where it gets really interesting is that I have pictures of four different machines said to be model 1774. Each one of them is ever-so-slightly different. The photo I added above shows the one machine with a small cam door while all the others have larger doors. The dot and exclamation are on two of the four machines, while the other two have the dot and exclamation point -and also- a white and green dot below the exclamation point. This isn't the first time I've seen subtle differences between one year's model and the next. It make be possible that one is a true 1974, while the others are 1975? But I can't say for sure.
Presser feet are an additional problem for me. I have hundreds of photos of Kenmore sewing machines and rarely any information as to which machine had which size foot. When exactly Kenmore machines shifted from low to high shank is a good question. When they shifted from high to super high is just as mysterious. Some times I think they offered two sizes in the same model year. It's a real tangle - so thank you Rotary Queen for allowing me to at least identify one model. =)