Champanier

I don't know enough to tell what external motor would work. I have 201s...but no 'spare' motors. There's a belt that comes off the 206 motor, but the 201-2s don't have a belt. I have a 66 with a motor and a belt. Would that work?

manicmike

She's a beauty Linda. You have a couple of choices with the motor voltage:
1. Get a transformer. Regardless of the power supply frequency it will then work the same as if it were in Germany.
2. Swap with a U.S. motor. and controller
3. Get it re-wound for 110V

Motor rewinds are far too expensive to be practical, and seeing as the knee lever is missing your best option will be to buy a motor and foot controller/power cord for a 306 or 319. Either should fit straight on. Actually just about any external motor, Singer or not, should be OK. I swap motors quite a lot and the only problem is mis-matched colours.

The controller for the knee lever won't work on 110V. If you remove it you'll see its rating will be for about 150-250V.

If you had the knee lever, you could have just bought a transformer but transformer + controller + cord + lever = $$$$

If it were me, I'd choose option 2. The cheapest way of getting all the bits is to buy a damaged machine that has a good motor, foot controller and wiring. Check the motor wiring and brushes, but melty or damaged wires are the only thing I'd avoid. Carbon brushes are very rarely worn out but if they are, they're about $6 a set and very easy to replace.

quilt938

awesome I'd have snatched it up too if I'd known it was German - ok in a weak moment I'd have snatched it regardless though I did pass up an as-is singer - forgot which model but it had that staple looking belt and was a 300 something - not the 319 though or 328..maybe 306. it was catching or something and I already knew my patience level extends as far as piddling with the tension knob :-( or a general cleaning - not troubleshooting yet

Champanier

Thanks very much, Mike - and everyone - for the clear and helpful info. I started out a couple of hours ago, screwdriver in hand, thinking I would take the motor, controller and knee lever from a 66 that I bought as part of a package deal (it's nice, but doesn't make my heart sing) and put it on the 206. The 66 needs a new belt, so I haven't actually tried it to be sure it works. It occured to me that establishing it's functional first would be a good plan.

Then I started to read Rain's blog about how to remove the motor (http://vssmb.blogspot.com/2011/12/ho...or-part-8.html) and saw that it's not just the motor that comes off, but a whole assembly, including the bobbin winder, (which is particularly clean and pretty on the 206) and became thoroughly daunted. Also, do I need to switch the terminal block from the 66, too?

So, because the 206 is beautiful and original and I don't want to break something I can't fix, I'm going to wait to try anything until after the holidays.

Here are the two motors.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]499867[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]499868[/ATTACH]