bkay

Well, I was just saying last week that I might repair my T&S if the gears went. It's one I've had since it was new. Well, the handwheel gear went. It's an easy repair, so I think I'm going to fix it.

It's at school, so I have not taken it apart yet. It's raining, so I left there. It's obvious that the gear is not turning and the handwheel is.

It was making noise, so I took some 30 wt. oil and put a drop where Cari suggested. Later, it did something strange when one of the kids used it. There was thread tangled in the bobbin case. After I fixed that, it still wasn't sewing, so I took off the top again and saw the handwheel problem.

What I'm questioning is what else might be involved. The gear went on the inside, not the toothed side. I wonder why it broke on the inside. I understood that those gears generally don't die. Terry has the part, but it has been discontinued. I have several dead T&S machines I could rob of that part, if it's true that that part rarely fails. On the other hand, I may not be able to get that part later.

Any suggestions or insight?

bkay

WIChix

How much will you have to invest in a new gear? There's a tipping point. I'd be likely to rob first, since you have several dead machines and can at most only resurrect 2? I know they've been good machines for you.

Cari-in-Oly

I wouldn't put a used gear in it. It's as old as the one that failed so that one will fail too. A new one will last at least as long as the first one did.

Cari

Mickey2

I'm used to plastic gears lasting decades, but they are not like hardened steel, things can happen. Even steel can develop cracks years later, from something going wrong in the production. Since they talk so much of crumbling gears due to age, bad storage, climate, etc., I lean towards a new replacement. I know of someone who replaced the cam turning gear, and the rest of the machine were fine for years and years after, you can always experiment.

bkay

Thanks, Cari, I have an email into Terry to see if there is anything else I might need. Being in Samoa, it takes a while to exchange emails and receive product. He's always helpful, though.

WiChix, the gear itself is $21.90, so I'm guessing about $35.00 by the time I buy anything else required and pay freight.

Mickey, I've removed that cam gear. I had a bad machine and Joe M. needed a cam gear. It would be a bear to replace. I hope I don't have to go there.

Thanks again everyone. I'm going to do machine repair and diagnostics this weekend. My old 503 is acting up, too. I also have a controller repaired and read to reassemble. Of course, it's been on the bench for a while, so I'll have to look it up to see how to reassemble it. I've been sewing and playing with the kids instead of doing sewing machines.

bkay

bkay

Terry doesn't have any new ones and they don't make them anymore. He said that failure of that gear was rare and offered a used one. I'm going to look around to see if anyone has a new one, as I have old ones.

bkay

Cari-in-Oly

Terry is the go-to guy for these machines. If he says a used one is fine than I'd trust his word about it over mine lol.

Cari

Quilterman

700 series Touch and Sews are different than 600 series. A lot of parts are different. Make sure you take parts off
of the same series. 700 series machines usually hold up better.

If you have a 503, that is a much better machine, can't break it and it will last forever.

bkay

Actually, I have 2 503s. I just "fixed" one of them today. It seems it needed oil in the bobbin area. The other is fresh from an estate sale. I'm not sure what it will need, other than a good cleaning.

I have a 750 donor machine (thank you Leon). The bobbin gears are shot on it. However, my DH says he can't see anything wrong with the 778. I may have imagined the broken gear, but there is way too much play in it. I plan on moving it over to the bench with the good light and trying to figure out what it is doing or not doing. It was making a bunch of noise at school, and it looked like it was moving in the wrong place. But with all those little boogers running around, it's hard to concentrate. I hope I was wrong about the gear. However, there is something wrong with it. It's making too much noise not to need some kind of attention.

bkay