Help w/a Singer 15-91
 

My DH finally got my 15-91 rewired, yipee...however one problem I am still having is the needle bar moves when winding a bobbin. I have watched Rain's blog and cleaned it a couple of times and it still moves. I wonder, can the stop motion clamp washer wear out? It seems like mine only makes contact on the very outside edge. The way I noticed that was after I put the drop of oil on the balance wheel, put the washer on and gave it a turn, I took the washer back off and the washer only had oil on the very outer edge. Could that be a problem? Perhaps there was something else on the video that I missed. I have this same problem w/my 99. The 99 has a different washer than the 15-91.

Oh yes, I also wondered if there is a way to clean the feed dogs, mine are rusty and sometimes the thread seems to get caught and mess up.

Thanks for any help,
Jp

Well, perhaps I should try what he suggested at the very end of the video and hold the take up lever.

Thanks for the help,
Jp

I've had this experience myself, and usually cured it with luck rather than knowledge. Sometimes I had the washer on backwards, especially at first. Sometimes, I swear it has helped to rotate the washer 180 degrees. sometimes I oil the heck out of the washer and handwheel, and it works. Maybe someone else has an idea... and yes you can hold the takeup lever if all else fails.

Clean the inside handwheel and shaft well with steel wool and penetrant so nice and smooth. Drop or two of oil once nice and clean. Gumminess is oftentimes the culprit. Check out the owners manual for correct installation.

Brass brush should work on the feed dogs once plate is removed.

Jon

Thanks Jim and Jon. I tried holding the take up lever but of course once I let go it still moves. I think the next step is trying the steel wool. I feel pretty certain the washer it is in correctly, I tried to pay close attention to that.

Thanks for the help, I am so glad to have this machine up and running, it is a similar story someone else recently posted...grandmothers machine, then mothers, now mine. Both grandmother and mother have passed away ('97 & '91) so it thrills me to use the machine they both used at one time. I have not treated it very well and it shows in rust and the shellac flaking off. Oh well, it stills sews nicely.

Jp

I invariably put the washer on 180 degrees off, and have to undo everything and rotate it. If the knob doesn't turn very much when you loosen it, the washer likely needs to be rotated 180 degrees, or the knob won't unscrew far enough to free the hand wheel.

Rest assured, if the washer is polished, the hand wheel clean and the hub polished, it will free wheel without the needle bar moving. The tolerances are so close everything has to be clean. It works so smooth when everything is polished.

well, I still feel like the washer is right, the knob turns quite a bit when I disengage the clutch. Yesterday I grabbed the steel wool and cleaned the inside of the hand wheel, still moves. I guess I will repeat the cleaning process one more time and see what goes. Hubby is thinking of taking his dremel or a drill w/a wire brush and lightly cleaning inside the hand wheel also. I will probably let him if my cleaning attempts fail again.

When sewing w/it yesterday my fabric kept catching in the space under the feeddogs. the needle plate has a larger rectangle to the left, then the needle hole and a smaller rectangle to the right...it seemed like the fabric was jsut catching in the back rectangle. Does anyone understand what I am trying to say?

One more thing...when the take up lever is at it's highest point, the needle is not, is that normal?

Thanks for the help,
Jp

cleaning BOTH sides of a moving connection is important, your DH is right, clean/buff the inside of the handwheel when it meets the shaft...

Thanks Steve, I am going to give it another cleaning and see what happens. Might be back for more help, but hopefully that will fix the problem.

Jp