KathyJB

I was going to take my Kenmore to the repair man today, but decided to let my engineer son take a look at it. Then I said, I'll look at it. The problem was that the belt didn't seem tight enough to move the needle. I thought maybe the motor needed to be adjusted, but I never could find any information about how to do it. (I ordered a manual for this machine today) So I got to looking at it. Low and behold there is a little pad like thing on the machine that the motor rests on when you pull on the belt. So I got to thinking that the belt had probably wore out and instead of the motor being adjusted, the belt needed replacing.
Does that sound about right? Anyone else have one of these heavy monsters? I can't wait to get that needle racing up and down.

quiltedsunshine

Those Kenmores sometimes have a 2-belt system, with a central pulley. So there's a belt that goes up to the hand wheel, and another belt that goes down to the motor, but they're both attached to the pulley in the middle. That central pulley can freeze-up. That's usually the problem.

KathyJB

hmmmm, that would require looking inside? Where do I look to see if it has 2 belts? I don't have the owners manual so I don't really know what to do. I ordered one today though.

ann31039

parts direct on sears.com has alot of the exploded diagrams even when they don't have a manual. try there.

mlmack

That machine only has one belt, and I don't know that there is really away to adjust the motor to change the tension on the belt.

I used to have a model 52, that is similar to the 85, and I seem to recall that the motor pivot was spring loaded to put tension on the belt. I may be misremembering that part though.

If everything works when you turn the hand wheel, a new belt would probably solve the issue.

KathyJB

Well I got the new belt in and it doesn't help. In fact I think something on the top, one of the things that hold thread has lowered itself into the machine. I have no idea why it did that. I guess it goes to the repair man this week. Blimey. I so wanted to do this myself. I'll go look at the exploded diagrams, but frankly I don't want to do anymore wrong to the machine.

KathyJB

Well my son got the belt on for me, but I'm thinking it's way too small. It's too tight and now it won't turn at all. Yep, going to take it to the repair man tomorrow.

SteveH

KathyJB, if you could post a photo or two we can probably help.

mlmack

Can you turn the handwheel with the belt off of the machine?