Upper Bushing and Needle Bar Post Reassembly

Today I will show you how I returned the upper bushing for upright gear shaft and the needle bar post to their proper locations.  These were the last two mechanical parts to be removed from Ms. Rusty before she was cleaned and stripped many moons ago (click here for a flashback).
I started with the upper bushing for the upright gear shaft.  Notice that there is a mark at the top of the bushing that “points” toward the hole in the side of the bushing?  This hole will face toward the back of the machine when it is properly placed into position.  Also note the slightly flat side of the top of the bushing?  This will face the side where the set screw holds the bushing in place.

Once you have the bushing correctly oriented, place it over the upright gear shaft post hole (I made up that name) and push, or gently tap, it into place.  In my first attempt at this, I pushed the bushing down too far as shown in the photos below.  The big clue is that the bushing is showing below the “post”.

These next two photos show a more properly positioned bushing.  No (or not much) of the bushing showing below the post and the top of the hole in the side of the bushing showing above the post.  I believe the purpose of the hole in this bushing is to oil the upright gear shaft, so you need some access to this hole.

At this point you simply hold the bushing in place with the set screw

The next part is the needle bar post, which is shown below.  One key landmark on this part is a small hole on the bottom of the post.  It is important that this points back toward the harp of the machine, or towards the balance wheel, once it is in place.

The next two photos show the location where the needle post bar is inserted, and me pushing the post into position.

It is relatively easy to tell how far to push the needle bar post into the hole.  The bar post has two grooves – one at the very top of the post and the other near the top of the post.  The needle bar post is properly in place when the bottom of the top groove is just above the post hole, and the second groove can be seen in the set screw hole – see photo below.

Next time will be assembly of the HAS – Horizontal Arm Shaft. Woo hoo!!