tate_elliott

I told a friend I'd look over her Kenmore which is doing something odd. When you sew a while in zigzag and then switch over to straight stitch, it continues zigzaging for about an inch or more, then straightens out.

I haven't worked on one of these before, any ideas what's wrong? I'm guessing there's a built-in cam stack and it isn't fully switching over when the selection knob is turned.

Any help will be appreciated. Oh, and does anyone have any tips for easily removing the plastic shell? I always feel like I'm going to snap off something inside because they don't separate without a struggle.

Tate

J Miller

Tate,

It sounds like a case of gummed up oil on the ZZ parts. I'd Tri-Flow the dickens out of it.

As for the plastic case, be very careful, remove all the screws, knobs and other obstructions, look for hidden screws and tabs, then carefully separate the halves. Yes, you can break the plastic pretty easily. I've never had a Kenmore plastic machine apart, but I did have one Singer apart. Just pay attention to the way it's assembled and don't force anything.

Joe

tate_elliott

Joe, somehow a lightbulb went off and I checked Yahoo for a Kenmore sewing group - success. I found a service manual for a similar machine and asked my question there. I got the shell off - there was one screw hidden deep inside where you can't see it - darn those sneaky Janome engineers!

There's so much inside this machine, it was hard to follow the path, but I found what I thought was the problem - a gunked up spring that wasn't moving freely. I introduced it to my friend Mr. Triflow and things cleared up. Don't know if it is a permanent solution, but it's working for now.

One thing this has little adventure showed me - even more reasons to love my Rocketeer!

Tate

J Miller

Isn't Tri-Flow great? Run the machine on wide ZZ for a while then reoil it so the T-F can flush out the old gummy oil.

As for the Rocketeers I have two of them. My wife want's to sell one. I think she can sell her 401a first.

Joe