431G Locked Up While Servicing
Oh no!
I was checking the machine and oiling it up this morning in preparation for my sewing class this afternoon. When I went to apply the lubricant, the handwheel stopped wanting to turn. It would turn reluctantly, and I could see the two gears closest to the handwheel going, but there was so much resistance that often the stop motion would become engaged like I was about to wind a bobbin.
With the stop motion engaged, the handwheel turned freely, so it was clearly some other mechanism or gear that was preventing the wheel from turning than the ones closest to it. I thought maybe it just needed more oil or more lubricant to get going again.
While squirting generous amounts of oil (remember my instructor told me one drop goes a long way) seemed to be helping, I couldn't get the gears to turn to even come close to seeing if the gears were the problem. I did some quick cleaning while I was at it. I used cotton swabs to get any stray grease or stains off the body of the machine.
I also opened things I had never opened before in hopes of finding the cause of the problem.
I started getting very nervous thinking I may have broken it altogether. I started a Google search of fixing a "frozen" machine. I came across this blog. He basically said it needed "professional" help. I'm cranky at this point because the only "professional" help I know of nearby is The Sewing Studio, with whom I don't have a good history. I called them anyways, and the lady on the phone asked what kind of machine I had and if it was computerized or mechanical. Then she quoted a price of $79.99 and two weeks to fix it. I told her I'd think about, but I wasn't going to give up quite yet!
Good thing I didn't.
The more I kept tinkering with it, the more the parts seemed to want to move. They were just kind of twitching when I tried to turn the wheel, but they seemed to be twitching now than they were before.
I thought maybe the stitch selector was the problem. I had seen when investigating why pressing the pedal of my machine didn't always start the needle that sometimes the machine doesn't know which stitch you want it to do. I fixed that problem by turning the handwheel a little when trying to press the pedal, but I thought of that when the machine locked up. I thoroughly oiled the selector bars for the various stitches. While the selection process was the smoothest it has been since I've had it, it didn't fix it.
I started worrying that maybe using the generic grease the first time I serviced the machine messed up the machine since it has a much different consistency than the Singer branded lubricant. I even scraped off some orange-colored crusted grease (at first, I thought they were bug carcasses) from some of the metal pieces that made me worry the gears had sealed together with some crusted grease.
After about an hour of tinkering and cleaning and oiling and lubricating (getting very messy), I finally noticed the bobbin case seemed to be trying to move in its place. I didn't think it was supposed to move. The race below it is, but the bobbin case shouldn't.
That was the problem!
When I took the bobbin case out to oil the race, I didn't replace it properly. Remember the importance the manual put on aligning it properly? Guess this is why! I removed it again and then made sure to take extra care in putting it back together.
It worked!
Now my machine is dripping in oil (literally), so I'm not sure I want to take it to the library to finish my current project tonight. I don't want oil to drip all over it! In any case, at least now I know my machine isn't broken! Scared me silly!
I was checking the machine and oiling it up this morning in preparation for my sewing class this afternoon. When I went to apply the lubricant, the handwheel stopped wanting to turn. It would turn reluctantly, and I could see the two gears closest to the handwheel going, but there was so much resistance that often the stop motion would become engaged like I was about to wind a bobbin.
With the stop motion engaged, the handwheel turned freely, so it was clearly some other mechanism or gear that was preventing the wheel from turning than the ones closest to it. I thought maybe it just needed more oil or more lubricant to get going again.
While squirting generous amounts of oil (remember my instructor told me one drop goes a long way) seemed to be helping, I couldn't get the gears to turn to even come close to seeing if the gears were the problem. I did some quick cleaning while I was at it. I used cotton swabs to get any stray grease or stains off the body of the machine.
 |
| Bottom of the machine |
 |
| Disassembled stop motion wheel |
 |
| Removed handwheel |
Good thing I didn't.
The more I kept tinkering with it, the more the parts seemed to want to move. They were just kind of twitching when I tried to turn the wheel, but they seemed to be twitching now than they were before.
I thought maybe the stitch selector was the problem. I had seen when investigating why pressing the pedal of my machine didn't always start the needle that sometimes the machine doesn't know which stitch you want it to do. I fixed that problem by turning the handwheel a little when trying to press the pedal, but I thought of that when the machine locked up. I thoroughly oiled the selector bars for the various stitches. While the selection process was the smoothest it has been since I've had it, it didn't fix it.
I started worrying that maybe using the generic grease the first time I serviced the machine messed up the machine since it has a much different consistency than the Singer branded lubricant. I even scraped off some orange-colored crusted grease (at first, I thought they were bug carcasses) from some of the metal pieces that made me worry the gears had sealed together with some crusted grease.
After about an hour of tinkering and cleaning and oiling and lubricating (getting very messy), I finally noticed the bobbin case seemed to be trying to move in its place. I didn't think it was supposed to move. The race below it is, but the bobbin case shouldn't.
That was the problem!
When I took the bobbin case out to oil the race, I didn't replace it properly. Remember the importance the manual put on aligning it properly? Guess this is why! I removed it again and then made sure to take extra care in putting it back together.
It worked!
 |
| When in doubt, try everything! |
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