Originally Posted by
ArchaicArcane
Hi Kim,
I saw your post on a certain website that shall not be named so I don't get censored yet again, as well as the Singer Slant Yahoo group. I'm going to respond here, to keep all the responses in the same place.
First, thank you for the very clear pictures! That helps us diagnose a lot!
I think you're right in that the finger that should be in the collar is the "whole" problem. In order to move it, if you can get the needle to the far left, it may give you some extra room to maneuver. This is because the "flapper" will be looser and putting less pressure on what you're trying to move. Don't be afraid to put a little gentle pressure on that flapper to move it to the left as well. No harder than someone who runs the above mentioned website did in that video that you said you watched on YouTube. - Now don't anyone else go watch those videos! That would be a violation....
Additionally, when you do get it loose, check to see if anything is bent. In normal use, and yes - I popped the cover off my 411G to check this - that finger should not be able to move that far out, the linkages shouldn't allow it.
Thanks so much Tammi! This is great advice. The front finger is pushing against the shaft collar but doesn't appear to be bent. I thought if I could grip the shaft collar hard enough, I could pull it up and the finger would fall into its slot, but I can't pull it. My husband tried last night too. I did order some tri-flow oil and dry degreaser. I'm going to aim right the degreaser at the bottom of that shaft and see if I can free any goo that would allow me to pull up on the collar... and then oil again. If no success, it's going in for "real" service. I was trying to wait until after the holidays, but ready to get it fixed properly
Thank you so much for these tips, I will keep working with it.