Originally Posted by
Orson
I've got her in front of the heat register to see about loosening up some of the old grease. I don't know if my mechanical ability is up to the task of disassembly and reassembly. I took off the top and my eyes got big. I know the 401 is a serious machine with lots of stitch capability, but seeing that was intimidating. I did just find several YouTube videos on servicing the 401, so that may give me the boost in confidence I need to tackle the job.
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
If I can do it, you can. If you will notice, Joe Miller said take out the cam stack. Miriam said not to. I went the cowards way and didn't take it out. After I read the service manual (
you can get a copy of copy here), I think I could have replaced it, but have not really had any problems with it.
I really did buy a bottle of 90% rubbing alcohol at Walmart and used that on the second or third time cleaning it. Don't get it on the red stitch width selector, it will take the paint off. I put a piece of paper towel under the area I was trying to clean to catch the drips of alcohol. I used a toothbrush, q-tips, cotton balls, toothpicks and strips of t-shirt material to clean the machine (depending on what I thought would work best at the time and place).
You can do it. It's not hard, just time consuming. You may have to clean it 6 or 7 times before you find all the sticky places, but you'll also learn a lot about how the machine works while you do it.
bkay
Second thought - Kerosene will take the dried oil off and won't remove the paint on the stitch selector. It takes longer and more work, though. I bought mine sold as lamp oil at Walmart.