Alyce,

Connecting the dots from the selector dial to the rear posts are any of the linkages, levers, fingers, etc physically preventing the collar from moving up and down the rear post? Sounds like your getting there and only the last bit of gum or blocked mechanical part to go. The 401 is worth the trouble.

Jon

Edit--Good Going

thanks Jon. I'm not giving up on it!!
PS. I grew up in Linden, NJ

I'm so glad you got it going!

Me too! I haven't tried anything more than moving it up and down - but now I know it is possible. What should I do with it while we are gone? Wipe off the solvent and leave it oiled?

That should do it - you can clean on it more later. How is the tension?

It sewed a straight stitch fine before I even started fooling with anything else. I ran it with the new oil and no problems that I'm aware of.

Greetings from the bottom end of NJ :)

I would be really careful with any of the solvents and heat. Most are fairly flammable.

Yeahhhhaahh!!! If the needlebar moves to the right a 1/4" and snaps back, it's good, and so is most of the swing mechanism including bight (the red lever). Now that the cam followers are freed up, really all you have left is cleanup and a good oil massage for the machine. :)

I gave the 401 today at my client's shop a quick work over. I found immediately that the motor was "Seized" solid. I dropped a half dozen drops of oil on top of the motor bearing, and just gently wiggled it back and forth as far as it wanted to go for a minute, no further. Then I gave everything a quick oiling, and by the time I got to the bottom, the machine was turning a little more. Literally, 5 minutes of marinating in the triflow, and it loosened up. I went back to the handwheel, and gave it a little turn, and it ground, but it turned. turned it a dozen or so times more then plugged it in. Ran it full out for 5 minutes, and as far as I'm concerned, it's fully resurrected. I told him the cleaning was up to him, since I was doing the rehab for free. :)

These are incredibly resilient and reliable machines if you give them just a little TLC. They're worth the elbow grease you sometimes have to put in them when you first get them because of it.


Jon, that's exactly what I was trying to cover for her in the video. :)
Hey, does that mean I can take it down now and do a re-edit?

thanks for your input, Tammi. Miriam suggested a rice sock which I did and I don't know if that helped, or the stuck just got tired of drinking solvent. I cleaned up as much of the solvent as I could, and doused it with tri flow which can sit on it til we get home - I think next Tuesday I will pay it some attention. I know it makes a straight stitch. I'm curious to see if the decorative stitches actually work. the video helped a lot to show us what was supposed to move and how. The needle bar works the way you describe and the needle moves from right to left when I move the red lever. So, I am remaining hopeful.

Will keep you all posted on my progress and thanks again to everyone who helped me.

Alyce, I think you will really like that machine once you get it working. Take some time and read in the manual about how those selectors work. When I got my first 401G it took me a lot longer than it took you to get it working (over a year) I used 3-in-1 oil on it and stuck it up worse. After I got that stuff off I still didn't have a manual so it took a while before I figured out all the features. Since that time I have worked on a lot of stuck 401 machines. I have read the manual and figured out how the stitch selectors work together. Then I realized a lot of the information is on the cover plate but the manual translated it.