Oh boy, I am glued to this Computer,reading about all of this stuff. You all are so good at fixing machines. I have missed my evening meal.ha. Although I think this should be rated. Speaking of flappers and pins and needles and bars and etc.! Getting your sleeves to move up a column and your back. Keep it going!

Thank you Christy! I'm going to continue cleaning and try to do just that. The knobs give no movement, but perhaps I will be able to pull up on the stack with my fingers so this little fella can fall back into its slot. I won't force it though and if it's not resolved soon without force, I will take it to a professional :) Thanks again!

It isn't just the slot that keeps the machine stuck. That shaft the knobs ride on can get gummy, too.

Thanks! Will take a peek.

Hi Kim,

I saw your post on a certain website that shall not be named so I don't get censored yet again, as well as the Singer Slant Yahoo group. I'm going to respond here, to keep all the responses in the same place.

First, thank you for the very clear pictures! That helps us diagnose a lot!

I think you're right in that the finger that should be in the collar is the "whole" problem. In order to move it, if you can get the needle to the far left, it may give you some extra room to maneuver. This is because the "flapper" will be looser and putting less pressure on what you're trying to move. Don't be afraid to put a little gentle pressure on that flapper to move it to the left as well. No harder than someone who runs the above mentioned website did in that video that you said you watched on YouTube. - Now don't anyone else go watch those videos! That would be a violation....

Additionally, when you do get it loose, check to see if anything is bent. In normal use, and yes - I popped the cover off my 411G to check this - that finger should not be able to move that far out, the linkages shouldn't allow it.

Thanks so much Tammi! This is great advice. The front finger is pushing against the shaft collar but doesn't appear to be bent. I thought if I could grip the shaft collar hard enough, I could pull it up and the finger would fall into its slot, but I can't pull it. My husband tried last night too. I did order some tri-flow oil and dry degreaser. I'm going to aim right the degreaser at the bottom of that shaft and see if I can free any goo that would allow me to pull up on the collar... and then oil again. If no success, it's going in for "real" service. I was trying to wait until after the holidays, but ready to get it fixed properly ;) Thank you so much for these tips, I will keep working with it.

And I thought it was very unusual when my son talked my cousin through some minor repairs on her long arm over the phone! The 403A machine -- my son picked up for me at Goodwill for $41, is a terriffic machine -- Miriam told me so before I got the chance to work on it -- and she was sure right! I knew she would be, though! Keep at it, I'm sure it will eventually come around to working the way it should and the way you want it too! I don't think there's much that our experts on this board cannot do! Great going, Miriam and Tammi!

Jeanette

I think you might want to see if the finger will move down as well as the collar moving up. If the collar is where it's supposed to be, it won't move, but the finger might. I don't know if that makes sense at all??? I can't tell from the photos which one is wrong. This really is one of those times that it's easier to touch to diagnose.

Naw! When I was in IT, I walked my aunt through changing a hard drive in her computer on the phone. :) I don't think I'd do timing via phone, but a lot of minor things are surprisingly easy if 2 people communicate well with each other.

Thanks everyone, I ended up taking it in for service. He fixed it and declared it to be running well. (Husband is putting it back in the cabinet for me now.) I also learned that I have a 401g not a 401a. I had never heard of the 401g so when I saw 401 on the manual, I assumed I had the 401a. Now I'm reading a helpful post started by Miriam about the 401g. :)

Well I could just cry - $90 later and the stitch selector for A-J has some movement (so yay!) but when I opened it up, that finger STILL isn't in the collar slot for the K-S side. The finger is now resting on top of the collar and goes into notches above the collar. So I can't move the knob past O. :( I still suspect there is gunk below the K-S collar and the collar sticks in it, and refuses to travel up the shaft.

Kicking myself for not moving the knobs in the store. Just took his word for it. (He had stitch examples he had done with the machine.) It will be a two-hour round trip, but at least I expect he will stand besides his work.