Connecting Rods Reassembly–Part 1

First of all, let me apologize for the long delay between posts.  Between work, making 3 baby quilts, and a much needed vacation, I haven’t had much time for blogging.  The next month should be a little better so I’m going to try to post at least once every week for the next 4 weeks.  Now, back to Ms. Rusty.

The Singer 201 has two connecting rods –  one with an end cap and one that is forked.  This post will cover the forked connecting rod and the next post will cover the other rod. 

Below is a photo of the parts used to reassemble the forked connecting rod.  The rod itself (top), the feed regulator (bottom), the slide block (small rectangle), the hinge screw and the hinge screw washer. 

The first step was putting the slide block on the peg of the connecting rod.  The smooth side of the slide block should be facing out as shown in the photos below.

The next step was figuring out how the feed regulator attached to the forked connecting rod.  The slide block sits in the groove on the back of the feed regulator such that the connecting rod can slide back and forth when the motor is running – now I know why it is called a “slide” block!  The first photo below shows the slide block sitting in the groove and the second photo shows the feed regulator in position on the feed connecting rod.

After I had figured out how everything worked, I put the forked rod into place by inserting the rod through the bottom of the machine head with the slide block facing the balance wheel end of the machine. The fork end goes on cam on the horizontal arm shaft closest to the balance wheel end of the machine.

Next came putting on the feed regulator, which was a bit tricky since the fork rod isn’t actually connected to anything yet and is hanging loose.  While working through the stitch indicator plate opening, the groove of the feed regulator had to slide on to the slide block on the forked rod (see left photo below) while simultaneously lining up with the hole under the horizontal arm shaft, or just under the balance wheel if it were attached to the machine (see right photo below).  Then while holding/juggling all this, try to put in the screw and washer and tighten it with your screwdriver. HA! 

     

So to pull this off, I rigged up something to hold the fork rod still while I maneuvered the feed regulator into place.  Once the regulator is in position and the screw is started into the threads it was pretty easy, but getting to that point was frustrating and made me wish I had 4 arms! 

Another thing I should note is that it is important to put the washer on correctly.  The washer should have the convex side against the head of the screw, or in other words, the three prongs should be pressing against the machine head and look like a little table, not like a bowl. 

The photos below show everything put together correctly, or as correctly as I can determine at this time!

       

Next week (hopefully) I’ll cover the installation of the other connecting rod.