Horizontal Arm Shaft (HAS) Removal–Part 2

Last time we covered loosening and/or removal nearly all the parts necessary to remove the Horizontal Arm Shaft (or HAS for short).  Today, we’ll actually take that bugger out!

The last thing that needs to be removed is the screw in the stop motion flanged bushing (the metal part that pokes out that holds the motor and balance wheel).

Now it is necessary to use a rod of some sort to tap out the HAS.  The Adjusters Manual recommends a “brass rod of the proper diameter”.  I used a 7/16” wooden dowel.  The key is, you don’t want to use something really hard that can damage the HAS – you want the bar your tapping with to be softer than the steel of the HAS. 

Place the rod or dowel against the shaft end by the clamp stop motion bushing and HAS bearing.  In this next photo I am pointing to the HAS and the spot where I placed the dowel.

I used a hammer to gently tap the dowel which helped push the HAS slowly out through the front of the machine.  As the end moved past the HAS bearing, the bearing was easily removed from the machine.

Horizontal Arm Shaft (HAS) Removal–Part 1

The title of this entry is a tad misleading because several other parts need to be removed in this process just allow removal of the Horizontal Arm Shaft (or HAS for short).  These include: HAS bushing, HAS bevel gear, counter balanced feed cam, and feed lifting eccentric.  Basically, we are now removing most of the remaining guts from Ms. Rusty.

According to the Adjusters Manual, the following parts need to be removed just to begin this project.  Fortunately this has already been done in previous posts, but here is the list just in case you are starting from scratch:

• Remove face plate, arm side cover, and stitch indicator plate
• Removed needle bar & presser bar
• Remove the balance wheel and motor
• Remove singer light leads
• Remove feed connecting rod
• Remove feed forked connection & feed regulator

Now that we are ready to go, the first step in removing the HAS is to loosen or remove the 2 set screws on the bevel gear.  To do this, turn the shaft so the set screws can be accessed through the hole next to the arm side cover.

Hole in Arm Shaft: 

May need a flashlight to see the screw: 

Screwdriver through hole to removed screw from gear: 

Next, loosen or remove the set screw on the feed cam and feed lifting eccentric.

Most set screws look alike and are interchangeable.  However, the feed cam set screw is longer and has a more conical tip than the other 2 set screws that were removed from the gear.

It is important to make sure both the gear and the feed cam is free from the HAS.  In Ms. Rusty’s case, it took an application (or 2 or 3) of some break-away to get these free.  I also used a bit of force by holding onto the gear and then rotated the HAS using the to ensure it was loose.  This was repeated for the feed cam.  Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of this since I didn’t have a spare hand to take the picture and my hubby wasn’t around to help.

The next step is to turn the shaft so the set screw in the needle bar crank can be access through the hole in the back side of the arm.

Hole Screw

Loosen or remove the screw.  This is what it looks like: 

According to the Adjusters Manual, you should now be able to easily remove the needle bar connecting link (complete with stud) and thread take-up crank.  HA!  I assumed this part couldn’t be removed due to excess gunk and goo so I applied Break-Away liberally to every joint.  While that did its job, I decided to move to next step.

Loosen or remove the set screw visible through the hole above last screw removal (see photo below).  This releases the thread take-up lever link hinge stud (i.e., it retains the take-up lever assembly).

If the hinge stud is difficult to take out (in my case YES) it can be pushed out through the small hole in the right hand side of the machine arm.

Hole in right hand side of machine arm: 

Using metal bar to push out the hinge stud: 

Now that the hinge stud was removed, I went back to trying to remove the needle bar connecting link, but it still wouldn’t budge.  After close inspection, I discovered that there was yet another screw hidden by rust!  The photo below shows me removing that screw through an access hole.

At this point, it was easy to remove the  Thread Take-up Lever Assembly, and the Needle bar link, complete with stud (which subsequently fell out)  Here is a photo with each of the parts labeled.

This is a good place to stop and have an adult beverage (or a cookie – your choice), so my next post will cover the actual removal of the HAS.

Rotary Hook Drive Shaft Removal

I approached this part of the disassembly with some trepidation, but I’ve run out of all the easy stuff to do.  Before starting I read, and re-read, the Adjuster’s Manual hoping it would be of some help only to find out it was going to be more difficult than anticipated since Ms. Rusty’s gears don’t rotate, making it difficult to access the set screws in most places.
Here is a view of the underside of the Ms. Rusty: 
I removed the Rotating Hook Shaft Bevel Gear Cover on the by taking out 2 gear cover screws.  This cover is on the front end of the machine, on the left hand end of the drive shaft.

Then I removed the back cover (attached with 2 screws) exposing the back bevel gear.

I then loosened 2 set screws at each of the following points -
Front bevel gear -   
Drive shaft collar -  
and back gear hub -
At this point the drive shaft was ‘supposed’ to loose enough to be withdrawn.  Not so in my case So I proceeded to removed all the set screws and applied some lubricant to work into the joints and loosen things up.  While that was working, I moved on to work on the removal of the front gear hoping to make some progress there.
I took off the bevel gear front cover – here is a picture with one of the 2 screws removed:

Fortunately the front bevel gear was loosened up from the drive gear and I could rotate that enough to access both the set screws on the rotary hook bevel gear.  After those two set screws were removed I was able to pull off the rotary hook bevel gear.

This exposed the rotating hook shaft that I then removed from the top of the machine

Well, after lots and lots of lubrication, brake release, elbow grease, removal of the bushing set screws, and help from my husband, I was FINALLY able to break the rotating hook drive shaft free!  I first want to point out a few important ‘landmarks’ before pulling out the drive shaft.
Here is the underside with all the set screws removed 
Rear bushing flat area for set screw -
Divot at right end of rear bushing -
Set screw recess of front taper bushing -
Here are all the parts after removal from the sewing machine:  front bevel gear, front taper bushing, left drive shaft collar, right drive shaft collar, rear bushing, and the drive shaft with rear bevel gear still attached at the top.  Theoretically the rear bevel gear should come off the drive shaft, but even after overnight soaking in kerosene, it still will not come off.  At this point, I’ve stopped trying and have decided to leave it on.

I can’t really tell the difference between the left and right drive shaft collars, but here are pictures of the left and right hand sides of the them for future reference, just in case there is some difference that I can’t pick up at this time.

Here is a picture of the bottom of the machine after the rotary hook drive shaft and respective gears are removed.

I think the next step will be to remove the feed dog shafts.  At that point I should be done with the bottom of the machine and will have to tackle Ms. Rusty’s innards. Oh boy!