Rodney

Very nice Cari! Your aunt had a good eye. Your machine is cleaning up great so far.
Nice 301 too CD.
Rodney

ArchaicArcane

What is with those 301s and their poor molested tensioners? I've had 2 here missing parts. The only tensioners I've had in fact that were missing parts. THe rest are usually a broken spring or misassembled but no pieces gone.

The first time I saw your machine I thought it was "only" a thick cover of dirt and hoped to see it cleaned up! Thanks! That's even better than I thought too but I was fairly sure you'd have something to play with.

Cari-in-Oly

Nice CD. You know, it isn't logical but my black 301 is quieter than my tan one. The tan one has that typical whine to it but the black one doesn't, it sounds how it must have sounded when new.

Cari

Cari-in-Oly

Thanks Rodney I'm pleased so far. She never told me where she got it or how long she had it so I have no history but the thick dust tells me it was probably in the garage as long as she owned the house, 20 years.

Cari

Cari-in-Oly

Yeah, I was kinda tickled when I got that dirt off of it too. Now if it actually sews, and I think it will, I'll be really happy.

Cari

quilt938

I fiddled a little while with my Kenmore 48 - not a good fiddler - need to figure out where to put oil I think - it sparks a bit in the motor and person I got it from says it needs to be run it's been sitting too long and got dusty (keeping an eye on it though) but it's very noisy. also the bobbin didn't want to wind evenly so I guided it a bit with my finger but I've done that on other machines sometimes - have to know exactly how it fits back in 'cause that's a tight fit! and that sucker is heavy - I think it's heavier than some of these old black singers I have! even hinged in the cabinet it's a challenge. decided since I don't have a 1/4 inch foot yet that I'd work on string quilt blocks and some half square triangles using thangles so I sew on the lines - at least I think I sew on the lines... been a while since I'd used thangles! but need to fiddle with this machine some more though this probably technically falls under 'basic maintenance' not 'fiddling'

ThayerRags

I’ve been fiddling with a Singer 403A that is giving me fits. It’s got a noticeable “bind” in the smooth revolution movement when hand-turning the hand wheel for a stitch revolution. At one point of a full revolution, I get a bind that can be overcome when I continue turning the wheel, but it shouldn’t be there.

I pulled the motor out and turned the hand wheel a bunch of revolutions with just the tip of my finger against the end of the wheel. No binding at all, even with the O-cam in and the width set to 5 (wide). It feels completely free of any binding with the motor removed. Looking down at the fiber washer on the wheel while finger-spinning doesn’t indicate any irregularity in the rotation of the fiber washer teeth that would suggest an egg-shaped fiber gear.

As to the motor, with the motor out, spinning the gear by hand doesn’t give any indication of binding at all either. With the motor back in the machine and spinning the hand wheel by hand, I can see obvious action of the fiber gear safety spring operating when the point of binding occurs during the revolution. After removing the hand wheel from the machine, I popped the ring off of the hand wheel and removed the fiber washer. I can’t see anything wrong with the hand wheel nor the fiber gear or its safety spring. Everything is well lubricated.

With the motor back in and being operated by electricity, there is no sign or sound of binding at all, even when stopping and starting in various stages of the sewing cycle.

Next up, start swapping out hand wheel parts from another machine, and powering up the motor while not in contact with the fiber gear to check for a bent motor shaft.

CD in Oklahoma

Rodney

I think that's where I would look too CD. Sounds like it's either bent or there's some other sort of misalignment in the motor.
Rodney

ThayerRags

On the Singer 403A, I swapped motors and hand wheels with a Singer 401A parts machine that I have, and the “hitch in the get-a-long” is now in the parts machine. The 403A now spins freely. But, I still don’t know why there is a slight bind in the motor/wheel combination that was originally in the 403A. When I tried the 401A hand wheel with the 403A motor, it was difficult to get meshed up with the motor, and then was bound up completely, preventing the wheel from turning. I hadn’t known there was a difference in the gear sizes between different issues of motors.

The motors have different numbers on the end of the plastic motor housings. The 1959 403A motor had a parts number of PA9-8, while the 1957 401A parts machine had the number PA7-8. The change in parts may have included a change in the sizes of the metal pinion gears on the tip of the motor shafts. They looked like they were a little different size in diameter when I had them out and side-by-side. I don’t remember which one looked larger now. Maybe the fiber washers are a little different as well. I thought all fiber washers were the same, but maybe not. In swapping both motors and wheels out, I kept the pairings together.

CD in Oklahoma

miriam

good to know.

I had one one time that kept kind of binding up. It wasn't the motor like I thought. It was the area around the feed dogs needing a lot of TLC with fresh oil. I oiled and oiled. Finally I laid that machine on it's back and ran it while I oiled and suddenly it freed up.