Miriam, thanks a bunch. Here is where I am. I think I cleaned it - it didn't seem all that dirty. I oiled everything in the manual and lubed what the manual said to lube. The stitched are very nice. I used the hair dryer on the needle thingy and the dials. Now, the needle will zig to the left but even with the red lever all the way to the right, the needle won't move past center, even if I do it manually. the right set of the dial lever now works but not the left. Am I making progress? Do I need to take the dials off? And the cams? I didn't want to get into a huge rehab but now I am hoping I can straighten it out. I also found your old post with the service manual, but, I don't think I can attempt some of that on my own, at least not yet.

Wow...I WANT THAT MACHINE...wish it was near me, I would beat you to it!!!1

Still trying to get it "fully functional"

The zz slant machines have a pin the needle bar rides on - that will need lots of attention - the other pin it works off of is below the camstack and to the left - if you push on the needle you can see it. Those get caked up and the machine doesn't zig and zag.
Am I making progress? yes Do I need to take the dials off? NO And the cams? What about the cams?

Status report - I don't see the pins. I don't know exactly what I am looking for. I tried pushing on the needle but it doesn't move. I used the hair dryer on the shaft that makes the red thing move and wiggled the needle bar and now it moves a little more to the right. Still no progress on the button that makes the left stitch selector move. I have the top off and can see where it should move, and it all "looks good" to my novice eye, so don't know if just letting the oil soak in more will help.

First,... open that door on the left, that hides the needle bar. Push the needlebar to the right. Does it move? Does it spring back? Oil the dickens out of everything that looks like it's metal rubbing on metal. There are a LOT of places that should be oiled that they don't show in the manual. Ideally, you would have triflow here, but heat and oil will work too. If it doesn't push to the right, or doesn't spring back, then there's a serious need for oil there too. It's the "other end" of the zig zag mechanism. Now, follow that mechanism to the right, and see the "flippers" that move to control the zig zag. oil everything in there that moves top and bottom. Do not remove the cams. It's not necessary at this point. Now go to sleep. :) Check on it tomorrow. I will keep trying to find Joe's pictures.

Oh! And the "pins" are what the stitch selectors ride on. If you follow the stitch selector, you will see that they end in a sort of "collar" around a sort of pin that has horizontal slots in it. Oil the dickens out of both of them. :)

I think that is what I said, too only not as eloquently :o I looked for the pictures, too - I can post pics and someone maybe will draw some arrows or something.

My picture does not post - sorry. If you look through JMiller's profile - then go to recently started you should be able to find Joe's info on freeing up the 401 machines or maybe the 500 he had that was all gooey.

I searched through Joe's profile but he has it so cluttered up with started topics - a lot of it could have gone on the sewing machine shop sit a while place... It is way too hard to find anything - I'll do a different search and see if I can find anything.

Libk:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...g-t213995.html
otherwise that information is buried somewhere on QB