Why you so noisy??
 

I recently picked up a 201-3 that's probably going to have to turn into a parts machine. (The body's that rough, no one would take it, and I need the spool pin plate from it)

Since the motor shaft still turns, I thought I'd rewire the motor. Now, I confess, I did -not- test the motor before I rewired, I took the word of the girl we bought it from. She said "Here you want to see that it still runs?" I looked at the wiring and said "No! Don't plug that in! I believe the motor works to some degree, I'm not worried." After all, with the shellac largely gone, the decals worn off, it not being -that- rare a machine, and it having the plate I needed, chances are it would never "run" again.

Well here's the thing: I figured if the motor would run, it could also become a donor. So I went in, cleaned the armature, checked the brushes, added grease (I'm not sure it's been greased ever in its life!) checked the wiring, replaced the cracked wiring from the marrettes to the outlet, and reassembled. Then I fired it up.

A few things came to mind.
1. Where did you learn to yell like that? It's the loudest motor I can remember ever hearing for a sewing machine. It sounds "normal", just really loud, maybe slightly higher pitched. (not scrubbing in the brushes loud) I can't see sewing in another room while DH is trying to sleep, which I can do with almost any other machine in the house.
2. Simmer down young fella!! It's by far the fastest moving motor I've heard or seen in the BAJ series. I'd say 20 - 30% faster as a guess. Watching the armature spin with the cover to the brushes off, at full speed it looks like the sparks are starting to turn to a tiny fireball, not individual sparks like I'm used to seeing.
3. Where'd you get that? I found this sitting on my desk when I disassembled. I don't recall ever seeing it in any other BAJ motors I've disassembled,... does anyone recognise it? Is it the quiet switch? ;) Its measurements are roughly 11/16ths by 7/16th and the bend is not quite in the middle. I'm pretty sure it wasn't left over from the 411G I just serviced, or the electronic foot pedal that I wired up, but it has no Singer part number on it, so who knows.
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DH says it's 99% unlikely it was rewound for more power or anything, so I don't understand the speed thing, but I can live with it. The noise though... WOW! Any thoughts on why it's yelling at me? How about the weird metal tab?

The metal tab goes between the motor and the motor housing. If you take one end of the housing off, you'll see there are two slots where the tab fit, pointy side to the motor. It helps to tighten things up, and lessen vibration, which also just might help to quiet it down a bit.

MrsBoats,

Is there any way you can post a pic of this metal piece in place? I have both a 15-91 and a 201-2 and can't remember seeing such a little part. I haven't had the motor off of the 201 but did on the 15.

Joe

Oh *facepalm* you mean a potted motor. Sorry, I had just been looking at a picture of the motor that goes with the 3xx/4xx/5xx machines and had that stuck in my head, apparently. Sorry about adding to the confusion! *is embarrassed*

MrsBoats,

It's me that needs the "stupid sign". I just re read the first post and she did say 201-3. That's the regular motor machine. Duhhh

OK, now that I'm officially a dunce, lets get back the little stamped metal part. I've not seen one at all so just where would it go on these machines?

I'm thinking I should just go back to bed and hide for the rest of today.

Joe

No worries everyone!! The 201-whatever always catches me too. Why they couldn't have named them a little more intuitively is beyond me. Yes, it's "just" a motor change, and handwheel, and maintenance differences and... 202 would have been fine for me. :)

So, BAJ3-8 motors are the most plentiful motors I have. They're the ones in the motor kits of old (to "upgrade" your hand crank), on the 201-3, and I believe the 99s I have here, maybe even more. They're the ones that have the marrettes in the bottom of the motor instead of having to take it apart and replace wiring all the way back to the coils (like on the 15-91 potted motor, etc.) - this I like. It's easy to replace the wiring in these, I haven't had any of the cloth covered wire that was gooey or cracked yet, just the leads to the plug, 10 minute repair.

Mrs. Boats, I can believe it's in the vertical motors for sure!

I was watching this one with the brush cover off and was surprised at how much the armature moves back and forth. DH called it the worst "torque steer" he'd ever seen. Yeah, he's a car geek.

Imagine how much the vertical motors must pop around, up and down. I bet without that there's a "thump" getting on or off the pedal. :)

Now that you mention it, the machine cabinet had slant feet in it, and a few other things that didn't belong to the machine. It had obviously been kept in a barn or somewhere equally as grungy. I wonder if it suffered some customization at some point. I truly don't remember the part coming out. It was a "spare" at the end that I looked at and thought, where the heck did -that- come from? Like Joe, I've taken a few of these apart and have never seen one of them, but most of them I don't have to blow the strange dry oily grunge out with an air compressor either, so I'd wondered if I'd dislodged something that was usually "stuck" to the housing somewhere.

That exact same piece came out of my noisy 201k that I tried to fix. I had no idea where it went, I just saw it on the table after I took the motor apart to clean it. I wonder if that piece is the key to quieting the motor down?

Redsquirrel! I should have updated this post. When you split the 2 halves of the motor casing, you can see it nested between the 2 halves. There's a little groove on both sides it fits into. I think it's the top of the motor. And if memory serves, it sits like a tent, not a "V"

Wow. That's clear as mud. If you need, I can try to disassemble a motor to show you.

I'm not sure if it made it quieter or not though.

I recognised it immediately. Yes it wedges between the two stator halves. I imagine it would have an effect on the noise level, since without it I imagine the stator will vibrate inside the casing. It fell out of my 201 motor the first time I disassembled it.

Tammi,

I once bought a 66-16 with a busted motor. Shipping damage. I glued the motor housing back together and it runs, but it howls like crazy. Like your 201-3 does. When I repaired that motor I did not see a piece of metal like that. I'm wondering if it was lost in the debris of the packing material?

Next time you take one of these motors apart could you post a pic of where that piece goes?

Joe