Railroadersbrat

I am wondering what my fiance got me into here.

Very quick backstory, had a friend of ours call us this week to tell us she was without propane, company wouldn't fill her tank because a leak was discovered so they bled the tank and the lines dry and left. She's an older woman, almost 70 and we never say no to anyone that age, especially with the kind of winter we've had, so I immediately sent him over there and he spent several days with her. Happy to report, the system has been fixed and she now has heat.

Because he went over there to help her on such short notice, she handed him two sewing machines that she's had for a little under a year, inherited them when her brother passed away last year. She knows I'm big on Singer sewing machines so she figured that maybe I could clean them both up and use them. I'm not one to say no to a Singer machine, that's what I learned on and had for many years. I was extremely worried when he got them home, however, and told me they had been sitting out in her carport since she got them and we have had a very wet, humid winter so far and a few days of bone chilling cold.

Once he had gone to bed (opposite sleep schedules), I decided to take a look at it and oh boy. Aside from the surface dirt, it looked okay, I slowly turned the hand wheel and noticed the needle moved up and down, so I plugged it in. What I've found so far...

Needle does move up and down when the hand wheel is manually turned but not when the pedal is pressed. Needle also swings to the right position, will not stay in the center or left position.

Buttons for individual stitches are not lighting up, only stitch that works seems to be the straight stitch. Theory on that is because the needle mechanism is screwed up somehow, it won't switch to the other stitches.

Some good news is that the feed dogs and bobbin mechanism works correctly and when I popped the bobbin case out to look under it to see if it was full of lint, I was shocked to see just a little bit of dust and nothing else. There is some rust that's built up on very few parts, but I haven't broken into it fully yet, I don't have the correct lighting to do that right now, I need to wait until daylight and I can get my fiance's drop light in here. Other good news is I have all the accessories that came with it, only one presser foot has some rust on it, the rest look as if they just came off the assembly line.

I am really hoping the needle issue is just a drive belt that's loose, broken or may dry rotted, that I can do. Does anyone have any other ideas? Any help would be appreciated!

leonf

This is a bit newer than many of us here play with.I bet if you take off the cover under the balance wheel you will fin da worn belt. shouldn't be too hard to replace it.

oil behind the faceplate may get your needle position to working better. Have fun with it. glad your fella is so handy,

I play in the Santa Fe band, the oldest railroad band in the USA>

OurWorkbench

As Leon mentioned, this is a little newer than what most deal with here in the vintage section. However, it appears that it is about 36 years old. I downloaded the manual from https://www.singer.com/support and found that it has some similarity to the Touch & Sew series machines. It looks to be a slant shank, with wind in place bobbin, and even a chain stitch capability with additional accessories.

My first thought, as to why the needle wouldn't move with motor, but would with hand wheel, was that it was set for bobbin winding. After looking at the manual, it is a wind in place bobbin, I think it is possible that the winding mechanism is not working correctly. It appears that it may have a "board" that if nothing is lit up that it could have a bad board. Just some thoughts, as I don't have any direct experience with this machine.

I'm a manual reader. I have been known to read the manual, several times before even touching a machine. Of course, there are times when I only check the manual if something isn't working the way I think it should going on the theory -- "When all else fails, read the manual."

Good luck. It looks like it has some nice stitches that would be fun to play with.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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Railroadersbrat

My dad was a yard foreman for the Union Pacific for 35 years

I am number six of seven kids that he and my mom raised and I am number five to follow his footsteps into the railroad industry. Our eldest brother was vice president for the Kansas City Southern, my second brother and third oldest sister worked for Union Pacific and me and my younger sister worked for BNSF. Railroading is deep in our bloodline, but anyone that works for any of the railroads is family in our books.

bkay

If Janey is correct (she usually is) and it has a wind in place bobbin, then be aware that that mechanism is one of the first places that give out on a touch and sew. On the touch and sew machines, there is a "plastic" gear that shatters after a certain amount of time. If you open up the area under the bobbin, it will be obvious. It will have bits of plastic laying around. (Most people don't consider it worth fixing if the gears are shattered.) This is the "go to" site for slant machine parts and information. TandTrepair.com

As Janey suggests, get the manual (it's a free download from Singer) and make sure you are using it correctly.

Also, I had that problem with the needle not zig-zagging on a 401. It just took lots of cleaning and oiling to get it to work correctly. If that's the case, there is some tutorials on this site for doing that.

Good luck.
bkay