DawnJoy

Hi all - I'm new to this board but have received my grandmother's Singer Zig Zag 758 that she used to sew clothes for me on in the 70s! Unfortunately, it runs slow and even freezes up/sticks after about 30 seconds. Any ideas of how to remedy this? Thanks!

SteveH

Welcome to the board.

Take a look here :http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...v-t167789.html

J Miller

The machine most likely needs a thorough cleaning and lubrication. Old oil gums up, some times the gears are greased and the old grease gets hard, and then it doesn't want to run.

Remove the top and the front piece and the bottom cover and clean, clean, clean, clean.

If it moves, should move, looks like it should or might move, clean it. Especially all the gears. Make sure the machine is lint free too.

Then oil everything that moves, should move, looks like it should or might move. If the gears had grease on them then that's a toughy. Some say to grease the plastic gears, some say never ever grease plastic gears. All I know is every Singer I've had with plastic gears had some kind of white grease on them, and Singer sells a white grease for gears.
I either use the white Singer grease, or Tri-Flow synthetic grease. I think the T-F is better.

So, that's where I'd start.

Joe

Rodney

Welcome aboard! Steve and Joe both gave you good advice. A good cleaning and oiling makes a huge difference in a machine's performance. Tri-Flow synthetic oil seems to do a better job of breaking down gummy deposits of old dry oil than regular sewing machine oil. Both are fine. Don't use WD-40 or 3 in 1 oil unless you want a mess on your hands.
Rodney

J Miller

" Don't use WD-40 or 3 in 1 oil unless you want a worse mess on your hands."

There, I fixed it for you.


Jole