99k Bobbin Issue
 

Ok, if this is a dumb question, please be gentle!

I got my 99k all cleaned up, oiled, and it seemed to be running like a champ. Well, to impress my husband with my handy work, I whip out a piece of denim to show him how beautifully this machine runs after a good clean. Of course, in my cockiness, it won't sew! :(
Upon further inspection, the bobbin is not working. It won't pull up with the needle, and even if manually pulled up through, will not do anything. Any thoughts on what might be wrong? If so, how do I fix this?

When I get home, I can post pics to help clarify things if needed.

Thanks in advance!

Needle in correctly?

CD in Oklahoma

Oh, I'll have to check on that...I didn't see that in the manual. If that's not my problem, I'll post back. However, is the bobbin supposed to be moving at all when running the machine, or will the threaded thread, turn it while it pulls it when it's stitching? I hope that makes sense.

The bobbin only moves when the thread is pulled. Did you thread the bobbin correctly? Worst case would be the timing is off. Others more knowledgeable than me can probably help you with that issue.
Rodney

Singer 99s: Needle goes in flat to the right, is threaded left to right.
Bobbin is placed in the bobbin case so as you pull the thread it rotates counter clock wise.

Joe

Ok, I had the needle in correctly. Re-threaded the machine, got the bobbin all set, and threaded through the two slits as shown in the manual, and still .... nothing. My husband of course, is still having a field day with this because of my gloating yesterday. I NEED to get this fixed! I can't let him "win", LOL.

Here are some pics, how I threaded the bobbin, and pics of the bobbin itself. Maybe when I took things apart to clean it (it was literally clogged with material), I broke something, or didn't put something back in correctly. The spring thing that faces the front had a wad of fabric completely entwined in it (had to remove it to get all the material out). Is that my problem? Not sure what that spring does, maybe I messed something up with that? Whatever help you can offer, as always, is greatly appreciated!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]458249[/ATTACH]
Front of bobbin


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Sideview

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From the backside

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Starting to thread (pic is sideways; the thread is held out to the left), just about to round the first "slot"

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Through first "slot", going to round the second one

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Finished threading, ready to put cover on.

I am working on a 99 also. I will be watching this thread. I should be getting some bobbins soon from dealer so I can try to sew on it.

This is the first one I have worked on with a drop in bobbin.

That spring holds a felt “wiper” that sticks out against the race. You keep the felt wet with sewing machine oil to lightly lubricate the race. That spring screws out like a bolt, then a piece of felt is twisted into the spring, and then the spring is screwed back into the bracket.

If you had the hook shaft out while cleaning, it’s probably out of time. With a needle in and the needle and slide plates off, turn the hand wheel to see where the hook is when the needle has been down and is beginning the trip back up. If the hook isn’t at the needle, it’s out of time.

If you didn’t remove the hook shaft, I’d thread both top and bottom again one more time, and leave the slide plate off to see what the thread is doing when your hook goes around to catch it. You may need to leave the needle plate off too to see things.

CD in Oklahoma

Well, I'm super embarrassed to admit this, but this felt "wiper", was removed! I thought it was clogged fabric! I feel so stupid right now. :shock:

So, now that I went through the agony of removing that felt, did I wreck something? Will I need to stuff something else in there?

I do think it's out of time. Are you able to tell me how to get the machine back in time?

I think I'm going to go crawl under a table for awhile. Ugh....that's what I get for jumping right into things :(

Always make sure you're right before bragging...
Look at the bright side. Your husband will probably let you keep collecting just for the entertainment value. :D

The first and last pictures you showed are correct for threading the bobbin.
Sorry I haven't had to try to time one yet. I'm of no use to you. I'll be watching this thread. If it is a timing issue I would like to know how too. I have a 99 waiting for me to get to it yet.
Rodney

remove needle plate and bobbin slide cover, lower threaded needle to its lowest point. Take another picture and post it. Also at its lowest point take a pic of where the take up lever is in relation to tje top of its slot, and tell the good floks here whether it was moving up or down at that point if its not at the top of its travel. They'll have ya in stitches in no time!

I saw a good explanation of how to replace the red felt (apparently called a race wick - who knew?). It's for a Singer 66, which is very similar to the 99. Hope this helps:
http://color-my-world-with-warmth.bl...k-on-66-1.html

Rodney, when it comes to bragging about fixing something to my husband, I can't help myself. He's always the handy one, so when I can capitalize on an opportunity, I take it. Although it does (rarely, of course) *ahem....backfire. No need to admit that to him though, I'll just chalk it up to having an abnormal machine. ;)
I'm sure he is enjoying my frustrations though. I would be if I were him.

Champanier, that's a great and informative tutorial...thanks for posting it! Once I get this thing running properly, I'll work on this!

Alright, here are the pics.

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Ugh...sideways again, but here is the front view

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pic from the back

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Pic of the take up lever while needle is all the way down.

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Another view of take up lever while needle is down.

When I have the needle in its lowest position, the take up level is still going down. The needle then proceeds to move upward, while the level bar continues to go down.

Rach,

Can you see the loop form that should lasso the pointed hook? Is the loop not forming, too high, or too low ? When a machine won't sew its always a good idea to turn by hand and watch with flashlight what goes wrong with the stitch and take it from there. Needle change is first step I should mention.

Jon

Yes, it is forming a loop. There is just nothing there for it to grab. It doesn't appear to be happening too high or too low. Then again, I'm far from an expert. It appears to be happening correctly for me.

I manually fed the bobbin thread up through the needle plate, which would happen if the loop properly grabbed the thread. This too did not result in any stitches.

I did change the needle, that didn't do anything.

Is there a way to post a video on here? I'd be willing to take one of what's happening, if it would help. Maybe I'm explaining things incorrectly or am missing something?

You can make a youtube video and post a link. See if this pic and manual helps out.

http://www.ismacs.net/singer_sewing_...g-machine.html

http://www.parts.singerco.com/IPinstManuals/66.pdf

Jlhmnj, I cannot thank you enough! The diagrams walked me step by step through the process, and I have my machine up and running now!

After testing a few swatches of fabric however, the machine occasionally gets stuck. It's like it's hitting something hard, but when I turn the hand wheel, the needle is not hitting anything. I'm not sure if the thread is getting stuck around the bobbin, or if there's just a few quirks that will work themselves out once the machine gets a good few runs? Any thoughts?

Re oil especially bobbin area using manual. Try running w/o thread and see if stoppage reoccurs. I'd put the 99 on time out for bad behavior.

Jon

I saved the timing manual to my computer.
Thanks!
Rodney

When I run the 99 without thread, it runs like a champ 100% of the time. When I sew, 95% if the time I have no issue. The other 5%, it gets "stuck", or the feed dogs seem to stop advancing the fabric. I stop, remove thread from needle and give it a go that way...and there's nothing that appears wrong! I'm starting to think that either this machine doesn't like me, or that it's possessed. I guess that just gives me a reason to look for another, LOL.

Yes. Look for another. One more reason to tell your DH that you need another 99k :)

are the "tails" from the threads getting stuck. Trim off the old ones and hold out the new ones when you staet and see what happens then, don't "pull" them. Does your needle plate have burrs either top or bottom.just my 2¢

Hmmmm,

A few ideas:

Is the top tension tight enough to stop machine?
See if you can find exactly where the thread is binding.
Check out figure 3, is binding occuring due to lack of thread clearance and/ or did you remove that screw in photo.

Very puzzling,
Jon

http://www.parts.singerco.com/IPinstManuals/66.pdf

Jim...the tails aren't getting stuck. I have been gently holding them out of the way until I'm sure there's no way possible of "stuckage", unless I'm doing something wrong, which we all know is possible. Checked for burs, nothing there either.

Jon... I sigh, lower my head, feel my cheeks turning red, turn my head in embarrassment, and sadly admit I removed the screw. After I did it, I saw in another manual that is says to NEVER remove the screw....but I did. Arrrg!

When I first got the timing fixed, I noticed that the thread was really hard to pull through and up, and figured it may be due to the thread clearance. What I did was loosen the screw, just a trifle, and it seemed to do the trick...but with my luck, I probably wrecked something else. Oy! :mad:

I guess the thread getting stuck in and around the bobbin due to the thread clearance could cause some binding, thus making it seem like the needle doesn't want to move, right? It would explain why when I pull out the thread and run the machine by itself all is well. However, it still runs fine most of the time. I wonder why it's only happening intermittently?

What size needle are you using? What size thread?

Tension discs are clean ?

*sigh* there are several blog posts I would point you to, but I keep getting my hand smacked for pointing people to uh,.. a site that may or may not belong to me. I could have shown you timing things, tension things, 99 bobbin area things. :(

This will help some though: http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...g-t195869.html

As will this:
http://www.tfsr.org/publications/tec...achine_manual/

First, the stuckages could have to do with an intermittent catching of the top thread. When it happens, gently pull on the thread to the left of the tension disks, does it move relatively freely? (it will have some tension on it, but shouldn't be "Stuck". ) If it doesn't, pull on the thread on the right side of the tensioner, is it free? If it's free on the right and not the left, the problem is either the tensioner or something (duh!) to the left of it. ;) If it's not, I would first check the spool to make sure you're not catching on the little "slit" on the spool.

If it's on the left: check the needle plate, the entire thread path for burrs. Can you post a photo of the stitches, preferably with a different color in top and bottom? (If you take the throat plate off and watch the stitch being formed, it's also very enlightening... that top thread does a lot more than the average sewist thinks it does. ;)

Screw "EE" being loosened and things being adjusted are not the end of the world.

Tammi,

I'm curious as to the trouble with pointing people to a site that may or may not belong to you. Is this a no no?

Jon

Ok. I have a bunch of things to try yet thanks to all this positive feedback!

First, I'm using a Singer needle, size 110/18....it's all I had. The thread is some very old stuff on a wooden spool, it only says "40" on it. I just had it handy and decided to use it. The bobbin that came with my 99 was already threaded...it's some cheap, weak crappy thread, but I don't have any other bobbins right now, and haven't thought to wind it with some good stuff yet (I don't want to waste my good thread if I can't get this 99 to work decently). Right now, it's about to earn a spot on a shelf for a while. If anyone sees that this could be an issue (needle/thread), let me know.

Second, tension disks appear clean. However, I'll get more fabric and see what happens tonight. If it sticks again, I will try your suggestions, Tammi, and see if I discover anything.

Thirdly, I'm not someone who will get upset about being referred to another helpful area. If your worried, just PM me. ;)

Thanks again for all the help guys! I hope I can one day repay the favor!

From the "Rules":Sometimes it seems to be OK, but other times not as much. There are so many posts I've put up because I know they'll help people here and elsewhere...

The needle's probably a little large for that thread, but it shouldn't be causing issues with the tension.
fuzzy disks can cause upper thread to be looser than you expect. A 99k should have a numbered dial. Assuming that the tensioner is correctly assembled, if it's set to about 4, I would think tension should be reasonable.
I'll putter around on my blog and send you a PM with some links then. Hopefully, they can give you a few hints.

You need the right type of bobbin. Not any class 66 will work in there. You need to make sure they are high quality metal ones. Try Sew Classic, theirs work in there. I had no luck with plastic or cheep metal 66 class for my 99k, but ironically the cheep plastic ones work in my 201, go figure.

I'd suggest using new thread, top and bottom, also new needle. Saving the good stuff until it's running right, can exacerbate smaller problems. Vintage windings on bobbins, sometimes want to stick to themselves. Then, if it works, you can reintroduce the old bits one at a time and see which was the culprit.

thanks for the reminder, I have recommended sights w/o thinking about it...

Difference is that the links weren't to your own website. Even though I'm not selling anything, it's still considered a call to action.

hence why so many people probably say "i am not affiliated", etc etc all the time I guess. Eventually, it will chase some of us away. :(

I sincerely hope not! The leads to blogs and websites have been extremely helpful to me. When I google search, all I get is lots of c*** leads for sites that are just basically ebay feedthroughs, or totally unrelated.

I've said it before - Google's polluted! It's so hard to get a good search for anything there nowadays. I use Bing off and on too, there's less fleabay and Amazon stuff but sometimes it seems to miss some important legitimate hits too.

Yeah....don't get chased away! I have been lucky enough to get so much valuable help for you guys, that I'd feel completely lost without you!

I'm not going anywhere for the moment. ;) I finally sent that PM with some link that may be able to help you. Again, sorry for the delay. I'm behind on everything ATM.