1956 201.

When I press the foot pedal to sew, my 201 goes 'knock'. Its in the handwheel area but appears to involve the whole horizontal shaft.

It happens only once at the start, then sew beautifully, nothing else wrong. It's all well oiled. I've taken the wheel off and the finger gear and wheel are well greased. When I loosen the wheel the needle disengages and the bobbin winder works just fine.

I've had the motor cover off and that all looks fine. The needle length lever works fine. Baffled. Any ideas? I'm new to working on them but know my way around with screwdriver.

Send PM to Miriam...she just took a several days class with Ray White on all kinds of machines. She actually brought dead to life!! :-)

Miriam would have to look at it. Ask Cathy.

LOL Well Thanks but since it doesn't affect the stitches or anything else, I'll just keep sewing with it. At some point I'll start dismantling and reassembling. Gosh, I wish Ray was in this part of the country.

Couple of simple things to check which cant hurt anything. Pull on the rods underneath the bed and see there is no excessive play---sometimes the cone bearing get out of adjustment with lots of use. Wouldn't hurt to remove the gear covers on the bottom and grease the bevel gears if you havn't already done so. Lastly pry up on the oval cover at spool pin and give a good shot of oil. All basic maintenance.

Knocks are difficult to isolate and I find a careful and sometimes excessive oiling usually solves the problem.

Good Luck
Jon

Giving it a good basic maintenance would be where Ray says to start.

I'll do those things. Will let you know if it works. Like I said, I'm new at this. I've had old machines for twenty years but just started using them exclusively last year. Well, there is that pitiful new Singer someone gave me. It winds bobbins pretty good.

Don't forget the Sherlock Holmes hat

THIS MAY help
take a very long screwdriver and touch it lightly to part you believe sound is coming from while its rotating. Place your ear to the end of the handle.
When you come upon the part thats worn, youll know..this is how mechanics isolate a bad part on an engine.
It acts as a stethoscope (sp?)
not knowing how , parts may be an issue....does sound like a bad bearing ...


it will

Thanks etcha. I took the wheel off again and turned it by hand, definitely a catch somewhere. Next I tried etcha's idea with the screw driver. Sure nuff, there was a variation in sound but not on the horizontal cam. I put oil everywhere, including the bevel gears( good to know what they are called). I've got to get some gear grease but I suspect its the same thing my DH used to service big rigs. Anyway, the knock is gone. Youse guys are the greatest.