Took a FW COMPLETELY apart. Help!
 

Hello everyone, my husband and painted a FW for a family member. The machine was in really rough shape when we got it. We took it completely apart before we painted it. It was pretty cool to see all the pieces that make up the machine. Anyway, we got it successfully back together, or so we thought. It sews great except for the stitch length.

I consider my husband and I pretty handy, and generally I feel like we can fix anything. However, the stitch length is off by about 4 stitches too many, no matter what we do. Did we make a huge mistake when we took the machine completely apart? We disturbed the mesh of the gears, which I see now repair manuals say not to do. Did we break some cardinal rule of sewing machine repair?

Are we screwed? Please help. Thank you.

First off the answer is NO, you are not "screwed"... You are going to learn more about sewing machines than you thought, but that is about it.

A good first step would be a couple of photos posted so we can see what's up. Focus on the underside and any thing that looks to be connected to the stitch length adjuster.

I ALWAYS take pictures of each part of a machine before i take it apart.
I also try to mark (or make good observations) of how parts orient and take notes.

Remember, they put it together, so can you.

Steve, thank you for the encouragement. It was just what I needed. We adjusted the feed rock shaft and the feed lifting rock shaft. Basically we repositioned the feed dogs. It worked!

This is the maual I used:

http://www.singer-featherweight.com/.../Service6.html

I don't have time to post pictures right now, but I will later.

Sweet! glad to hear it works now.