My Rocketeer! Poor thing!
 

Oh my goodness - I did it!!

The light comes on, but nothing from the motor. However, I have *never* had anything to do with a knee pedal; could totally be operator error. It looked like the hinge was broken on the faceplate, but my 13 year old got it on. It is discolored =(( and dirty. The fabric scrap had nice stitches in it . . . The cabinet is beat up in the back, and the veneer is peeling off of a drawer.

When the motor didn't work, she knew that was bad. I remembered what Miriam said, and told her that the machine was probably worth $5. That I didn't need the cabinet really. She said to make her an offer, and I said what's the lowest you'd take? My kid said, oh . . six or seven? So I said, maybe ten or fifteen? And after we'd tinkered some more trying to get the motor to come on . . . She said she'd take ten. I was so tickled.

Then, when I got home . . I found all this. I am afraid I cheated her . . these attachments . . wow!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]401620[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]401621[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]401622[/ATTACH]

Beautiful hope you get her up and running.

You've got a mixture of Singer, Greist, and Kenmore accessories as well as Singer and I think Kenmore cams.

Even if the machine don't run, you got your moneys worth in the accessories and cams.

Before you condemn the motor, check that the machine turns freely. 401s are not hard to turn normally. After eleminating that, check the wiring at the motor, and at the plug at the base of the machine. Also check the cord to the wall socket and to the knee controller.

Lots of things to check out.

Joe

Wow, hope you get it up and running!

Nice! hope the moter is an easy fix.

I would also check the wiring inside. Also check the cord and make sure it's not cracked or shredded. Clean it up and lube and oil it. Maybe tap on the motor lightly. Who knows ?? When I got each of my FW's I cleaned, oiled and lubed them and they ran much more smoothly. Hope you get it running

You can get new power cords. The motor can come out pretty easily to work on or change out for a different one - some times you have to tinker with them a little. The machine was worth that without all the goodies! Very good deal.

The grunge will come off it with a good solution of OxiClean and Dawn dish soap. I usually use a microfiber cloth on the 400 and 500 series machines and it does them no harm. (Not recommended on a "Black" Singer machine - i.e the cast iron machines, and I don't use them on the featherweights so the finish isn't marred in anyway.)

oh I will get some oxiclean at the store today!! =))

You can see one that I did,... it's not the dirtiest one I've ever had, but it's the one I photographed the process on, here: http://www.archaicarcane.com/2013/01/the-difference-a-day-makes/

The pictures are small, but if you click on them, they get clearer.

From your blog: "A quick look on the Internet yielded a recipe to rid the machine of its unwelcome scent: 1 cup Peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda and a tiny bit of hand soap. We mixed it up and put it into a spray bottle, sprayed it on and let it dry then wiped it away. The smell seems to be gone now, but I haven’t done a kitty sniff test yet."

What kind of hand soap did you use; liquid, paste, bar, brand ????

None of our machines have been violated by our puddy tats, but other things have.

Also, is Oxycleen a powder or a liquid and which did you use?

Joe

Maybe, I reckon!!! Great deal! I would love to have one, just don't have anymore space for them...:thumbup:

I think it was either Dial Liquid soap, or there's a chance we even used Dawn. I can't fathom how a bar would ever work....

Oxy is a powder.

Our machines and rest of the house have for the most part not been violated either. I've had 2 machines now though that have been violated prior to their arrival at the house. One was the 401 I detailed in that post, and the other was a Kenmore I was tuning up for a client. I recognised the cats' and dog's interest in the machine the second time and hid the machine unless I was working on it.

The 401 passed the sniff test too. Now if only I could find the magic solution to eradicate stale cigarette smoke smells and make the 301 friendly to live with. Phew!

How do you get that smell out of the motor? I have a blue clone with a smelly motor. I'm thinking different motor?

ArchaicArcane,

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna try that.

Miriam,
Go to an auto parts place and get some electrical motor spray cleaner and hose it out. That might work.
My blue clone still blows smoke clouds when I use it. I'm gonna try that before I take the motor apart.

Joe

I would think too that it's mostly the motor case that smells...disassemble, spray the peroxide solution onto the case pieces (not the coils or the armature) and let dry, rinse and reassemble. Might work. If there are any of the rubber grommets for the wires, or marettes change them out too. The plastic and the rubber will have soaked it up, and when they get warm.... yuck.

I had an electrical guy tell me to use brake clean.... it might work if the electrical motor spray doesn't. If nothing else, that brake clean should be able to overpower the other smell. It smells awful.

I'd probably do a double feature. motor cleaner on the armature, I still don't think I'd do the coils, or at least be really careful if they're the wrapped ones (like the singer motors) and then do the peroxide on the outside.

Maybe you'll find your "occasionally open circuit" too.

Tammi,

Breakclean is designed to remove oils and grease from break parts. Break parts consist of metal, rubber and plastic. So it's doubtful it will hurt any of the motor parts.

I just might take the motor off the blue clone and hose it the the breakclean.

Joe

There's some brand of brake cleaner that DH got from Princess Auto (our version of Harbor freight, I think) that was chlorinated and non-flammable (inflammable?) and it melted plastic. Make sure you use the regular old nasty smelling alcohol based stuff. It's cheaper and works better too. We paid more for destruction. I was not pleased.

The chlorinated stuff is pretty hard to find around here. I actually prefer it when doing car parts, but with other things I prefer the non-chlorinated stuff. To me it all stinks.

Joe