Connecting Rods Assembly–Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of the Connecting Rod Saga.  Fortunately, installation of the second connecting rod was much easier than the first one.  The photo below shows the connecting rod with the end cap connected and the screws attached. 

The end cap must be removed to put it onto the horizontal arm shaft.  At the top of the cap is an oil wick, which in Ms. Rusty’s case was all dried up and looked like a piece of lint stuck in the top hole.  I applied quite a bit of sewing machine oil to the wick to moisten it and “fluff” it up.  The photo below shows the cap as viewed from above so you can see the oil wick.

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. 

Reassembly of Thread Take-up Lever

Today’s post cover’s the reinstallation of the Thread Take-up Lever Assembly and the Needle Bar Link.  These parts attach to the end of the horizontal arm shaft that we installed in the previous post.  Fortunately, these are pretty easy to put back on.
The thread take up lever goes on first.  A key land mark on this piece is the flat edge on the post for the set screw.

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.

Other parts

This post covers all the other miscellaneous parts that I removed from Ms. Rusty prior to her Evapo-Rust treatment.

One of the parts I tried taking out was the arm shaft busing.  To do this it  is necessary to loosen or remove the set screw holding it in place.  The photo below shows the location of this screw.

Once this set screw is out you have to use a brass rod or wooden dowel to tap on the back of the bushing.  The Adjusters Manual states it’s important that you don’t want to concentrate all the force on just one area of the bushing.  After quite a while of trying to tap this busing out, and using copious amounts of Bread-Away, the bushing just wouldn’t come out.  So, rather than press my luck I decided to leave this bearing in place.

The next part on my list was the upper bushing for upright gear shaft (see photo below).

Like any of the other bushings on Ms. Rusty, it is held in place with a set screw.  This one can be viewed, and removed through the hole under the balance wheel.

Then it’s a simple matter of using a dowel through the top of the machine to tap the bushing out.

Mid removal:     After removal:  

The next two photos show the view from under machine after the bushing is removed.

These photos also show the lower bushing for upright gear shaft, but I didn’t have any luck trying to remove it from Ms. Rusty.  Another thing I tried doing was to separate the Ms. Rusty’s arm from her bed by removing the three large screws under the machine (see photo above).  Unfortunately, these seemed to be welded in place and I also had no luck removing this buggers.

The last piece that I removed from Ms. Rusty was the needle bar post.  The first step was to remove the set screw holding it in place.

This part required several applications of Break-Away, and tapping it out with a hammer and a wooden dowel, but I was eventually successful in getting it out.  I really wanted this part out since it had a lot of surface rust on it.  Here is a photo of the part after it was cleaned with kerosene and Evapo-rust and had a little sanding with fine grit sand paper to smooth the surface.

Next time – Ms. Rusty goes for a bath!

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.

Upright Arm Shaft Removal

Today’s post will cover the removal of the Upright Arm Shaft, or UAS as I am quite fond of acronyms.  The UAS has one gear at each end – the shaft lower bevel gear that helps drive the rotary hook gear, and the upper gear that connects with the gear on the horizontal arm shaft in the upper part of the arm.

Before taking off the UAS, there are several other parts that should be removed first, including: 

• Rotating hook driving shaft bevel gear back cover
• Arm Side Cover
• Stitch indicator plate
• Balance wheel

Since these parts were removed from Ms. Rusty in previous posts (along with many others), I’m ready to go!  Loosen or remove 2 set screws in lower bevel gear.  I’m pointing to one of these screws in the photo below.

Next, loosen or remove 2 set screws in Upright Arm Shaft (UAS) upper bevel gear.  The easiest way to access these screws is through the hole that the stitch length indicator plate normally covers.  I try to show the location of the gear and screws in the next two photos.

Removing the Connecting Rods–Part 2

Last time we took out the Feed Connecting Rod.  This time we’ll tackle the Feed Forked Connection rod and Feed Regulator.  Before removing this part several other pieces need to be removed first, including:  balance wheel, motor, arm side cover, stitch indicator, and “feed forked connection eccentric hinge screw”.  All of these have already been removed from Ms. Rusty so we’re ready to go!

Remove feed regulator hinge screw and friction washer, which is located on the right hand side of the machine, below the balance wheel post.

Location:     After removal:

Removing this screw detaches the feed regulator, and in my case, both the feed regulator and feed forked connector rod fell off the drive shaft for easy removal from under the machine.

Here are few photos of the left and right hand side of the feed regulator and feed forked connection rod (FR&FRC for short)

Close-up of Left Hand Side

Feed regulator removed from FRC:

His is what Ms. Rusty looks like without her connecting rods:

View from bottom of arm:

View from front through stitch regulator plate hole: 

Since these parts didn’t have any visible rust, I cleaned them using only kerosene

All Connecting rod parts before cleaning: 

After cleaning: 

Now these parts are ready for re-install after Ms. Rusty has her facelift

Removing the Connecting Rods–Part 1

Removing the connecting rods was the first step of many in removing the “guts” from Ms.Rusty.  I’ve been dreading this for quite for several reasons. 1) it will be hard to get inside the Ms. Rusty’s head to access all the screws and such; 2) this is one of those points of no return, and 3) I’m not sure I’ll ever get her back together again if I can even get her taken apart.  BUT – what have I got to loose, right??

There are two connecting rods – the Feed Connecting rod and the Feed Forked Connection & Feed Regulator.  This post covers the removal of the Feed Connecting rod.

There are several pieces that need to be taken off well before you try to remove the feed connecting rod.  Those parts include: balance wheel, arm side cover, and arm top cover.  If you’ve ben following this blog at all, you know that these parts, and several others, have already been removed from Ms. Rusty. 

Through the hole under the arm side cover you can see both rods.  The Feed Connecting rod is the rod towards the front of the machine, or on the right hand side in the photos below. At the top of the Feed Connecting rod are two screws that need to removed.

   

The only way to remove these two screws are through the holes at the top of the machine that are under the arm top cover (now you understand why that needed to be removed).  I attempted to show where these two screws are in the next two photos.