Class 15 clone (contd)

About a year ago I trekked over to Schoharie to get this machine.  I bought it because I love the cabinet.  Today I replaced the check spring in the tension assembly.  Despite my recent education and subsequent certification, I am such a NOVICE.  I did not take photos first.  I put the spring in upside down.  Then I forgot to put in the tension release pin .  I now have lots of experience in this task.  The following photos are not the best, but you get the idea.  I finally got it right after the fourth time.  It worked after the third time I put it together but the tension release pin fell out when I took the face plate off.  I had put the pin in backwards so it had no chance of staying put.  I can't quit my day job, yet.

If you can tell in this fuzzy photo, the pin has a head on it.  That needs to be placed so that the head is inside the tension assembly.  You can put it in from behind but it won't stay.

tension release pin and tension assembly

Someone obviously has been mucking around with this set screw.  Honestly, I am not responsible for the condition of that screw. Not with my wonderful Brownell hollow ground bits.

to remove the tension assembly from the face plate, loosen this set screw.

In order to dis-assemble this you have to push in on the numbered dial to release the pin in the knob.
Once you have released the pin you can remove the knob totally (lefty loosie).

Take the pieces off one by one and lay them out in the order that you removed them  I did  not do that when I took these photos.  I was on the fourth attempt to get it right.....

The pin goes into the center of the tension assembly with the head inside of the assembly

To remove the check spring you must loosen this set screw.  The center pin comes out and the check spring is freed up.  Then you merely replace it with a new one.  Be sure that you have some spring and that the base of the spring is positioned at the top of the cut out.  Then tighten the set screw to hold the spring in place. ( I guess the check spring has been replaced before, more evidence of screw damage)

Next place the tension discs on the post.  I had to "hone" these discs; they were a bit rusty.  I used some fine emery cloth to shine them up.  Then I put just a drop of Tri-Flow on them.

This is a lousy photo, sorry.  Here you can see (maybe)that this next piece, a washer with "studs" is positioned so that the "studs" point out.

That is so that the spring housing can sit securely against them.

The spring goes next:

And then the stop washer.  I thought the projection on the stop washer should face outward. WRONG.  It faces inward.

Place the numbered piece next with the zero just on top of the projection on the stop washer.  You can see a small "stop" inside the numbered piece; line that up with the stop washer projection.

Now you have to pinch all of this together, just as you did to loosen the knob, to replace the knob.  Once the knob is threaded you can fine tune the positioning of it and then put the whole assembly back into the face plate and adjust the tension.

The machine makes a fairly nice stitch.  I need to do some more maintenance.  The brushes look pretty good but one would not come out at all.  So I guess I had better gear up to take the motor apart.  I think, though, that I will tuck this machine back in its cabinet and work on the 201 motor.  For more on re-wiring those types of motors go to http://vssmb.blogspot.com/