sewing machine belts
 

I have a Japanese machine that requires about a 15" belt. There come in regular and V-belt. How do I know which one my machine requires?

bkay

What do the drive fitting on the motor and the drive groove on the hand wheel look like? I'm assuming you can't find a manual because it's a 15 clone, yes?

I much prefer the V belts. I own at least 40 Japanese machines and I've found that they like them better. I buy the narrow V belts when I can find them.

Cari

No, it's not a 15 clone. I never was able to find a manual for it. It's a odd duck (Lenco). The cam is a screw in cam on the back of the machine.

I've had it for a long time. I bought it at auction. It had a broken black rubber belt with it. The seller said it was an old belt, so I bought another one like it. It was the wrong size belt. I was just about to order one when I realized I did not know which belt to order.

I was going to order online. How would I know it's a narrow V belt?

bkay
[ATTACH=CONFIG]581321[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]581322[/ATTACH]

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]581324[/ATTACH]

There's a good explanation of belt types on sew-classic.com: http://shop.sew-classic.com/A-1-Free...structions.htm
Like she says, the lugged belts are the best, and they pretty much last forever, but the v-belts look more original. The stretch o-ring belts wear out the motor bearings.

Hope it sews as good as it looks. You are certainly right in your "odd duck" observation. Beautiful shine on that cabinet too.

No you don't want to use a rubber belt, those things are one of my pet peeves. Though full disclosure I have one machine with a rubber belt on it. It came to me with it, and the pulley isn't the original and is held on by a huge screw. The belt isn't tight and the machine works great so I'm not gonna mess with it.
Your pulley doesn't look(from the angle of your pic) like a V pulley, it looks straight sided so a straight sided normal lug belt should work just fine. Most of these old machines have some adjustment for raising or lowering the motor a bit so it's not always imperative to get just the right length, more important is to make sure the width of the belt will fit your pulley and hand wheel groove.

Cari

After an hour of searching, I found the manual. It doesn't mention the belt, however. It's manufactured by Sanshin (stamped on the underside). It was badged as a Sewmore 711 Sewing Machine, A Universal Deluxe ZigZag Sewing Machine, a Monmouth Sewing Machine and mine is a Lenco Sewing Machine. Tia's has the manual. Hopefully this will be searchable.

bkay

I don't think I've ever seen a manual for a household machine that tells you what belt to use. It's educated guesswork at best. As long as it works without putting stress on the motor it's the right one.

Cari

I think my memory may be going downhill. I just found a thread on VSS from Jan. 2016, where I found the manual. I had my feathers in a snit because when Tia's ask for all my personal info to buy a download paid by paypal, so I didn't buy it.

Some more badges for this machine are Keystone AZ-5, Universal AZ-5 and Standard Sewing Super ZigZag.

Thanks, Cari. I didn't want to measure it again. I first measured where the motor was sitting, not at the outermost position. I guess I will get that done now.