Stitch length lever bouncing up and down while sewing
 

Thanks for your help in advance.
Purchased a 201 at an estate sale for 20$ but the stitch length lever is bouncing up and down when sewing. What's the fix?

I'm not sure what the exact fix is. Have you cleaned and oiled the machine? Have you tried holding the lever with one hand and turn the hand wheel with the other? If while doing that if the hand wheel doesn't turn (or is hard to turn), I think it might have some gunk somewhere that needs to be cleaned out and oiled well. It might just be a nut on the lever needs tightening. It looks like you have other machines with the same stitch length regulators (201s & 15) that you can compare this machine to.

A couple of links that you can check out
http://web.archive.org/web/201610160...achine_manual/ All the pdfs there are worth downloading and quite helpful. I think the one for the stitch length is "The Machine Top"
The other is http://malepatternboldness.blogspot....ger-15-91.html Maybe read down through the comments.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

There's usually two things that cause this. The most common is under the needle plate; the feed dogs can be packed full of dust and lint and it to the extent it presses on the stitch length function. Unscrew the needle plate, clean out all fluff, take an pin or tooth pick and scrape out the grooves in the feed dogs. If this is the case you can be sure the bobbin case has to come out to be cleaned too. Carefully check the parts under the base for any thread, piece of broken neede etc.

The other is if you have a very loose stitch length lever, I think there is a screw on the side some where that can be tightened, but I have to look up the details.

That lever screw turns counterclockwise

Was the machine serviced?

DH fixed up a 15-91 for me and had the same problem, and there was something that he had to flip around and it fixed it, but neither of us can remember exactly what he did . . . pretty sure it was something behind stitch length cover plate . . .

A 201 for $20? :thumbup:

Will be following all your suggestions this weekend when we clean and polish. Will post pics after.

Like the left side crank / bottom bracket on a bike?

And also the left pedal. Keeps them from unscrewing as one rides. I've heard that the Wright brothers came up with this.