Singer 404 -- Help needed
 

Best to treat it like any 'attic fresh' vintage machine; clean and oil completely. Then test, run, check timing.
The 'bounce' in the drive is normal. There is a spring on the drive gear. 404 is a solid machine, should work well with a little care.

The motor is internal, placed vertically, a bit different than the external motors of many other models like the Featherweight. Detect the meshing gears, there are two under an one on top, find a good grease for them, clean well before applying new. Every other joint, hinge, and gear is oiled. This is a type of machine which ofte goes from very noisy to rather quiet when cleaned and oiled.

Thanks so much for the help, SingerCLA and Mickey2!
Going to work on it today.
ila :)

One more bit of advice about these machines. They'll often have a noisy whine from the motor. This is caused by 60yr. old dried grease in the upper motor bearing. There are two fixes for this. One is to replace that bearing. The second fix, easier and costs less, is to put a drop of 30wt. motor oil into the top of the bearing and run the machine for a few minutes giving the oil time to soften the dried grease. I guarantee this works.

Cari

Hi Cari-in-Oly,
How will I know where the bearing is?
ila

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Look at where the green arrow is pointing, right below that gear is where the drop of 30wt. goes. Thanks to Joe for first posting this pic with the red arrows. I added the green arrow.

Cari

Hi again, everyone,
I have the 404 oiled and lubed and everything sounds much, much smoother, but it still sounds awfully loud to me. Sewing-machine oil wouldn't do any good for the bearing, would it? I don't have any of the 30 wt. oil and haven't had a chance to ask the neighbors.
I wish there were a way to know what this machine *should* sound like.
Ila

Running it in some more, actually using it, more oil where it needs it, and the drop of 30wt. will help with the noise. Who knows how long it sat in that sad condition, it can only get better. No, regular sewing machine oil probably won't help the bearing, but you can try one drop and see. I wouldn't use any more because it's so thin it might run through the bearing before it has a chance to mix with the hard grease. That's why the thicker 30wt. is recommended. I have a syringe of 30wt. because I run into this issue from time to time.

Cari

I agree with Cari, use the machine, and keep oiling and greasing. Sometimes using greases like Triflow can make a difference. If the gears seem to howl something awful I have added a single drop of oil with added teflon (Triflow or Finish Line Cermaic Wet Lube). As long as it doesn't seep any where else it doesn't do any damage. In this demonstration video it comes off as rather noisy though? Regardless I would still work to minimise it. The 401 isn't very noisy at all when cleaned, oiled and greased. Go over the oil points in the manual, oil the hook and race too, and don't forget the gears under the base. If your's is a 404 it's a straight stitch only, and doesn't have all the cam and swing needle parts. Here's another video, these are serviced machines too. I think it has to be 30 weight oil (lawn mower oil I think), SAE 30 oil should be easily found.