Singer 301A long bed

Now, do you think I can get it back together? I did not remove the needle bar assembly.  I am not that brave.  I think it will have to do.  I will double check before I put it back together. FOR SURE.

This machine was horrible, as you can see.  Picture two I took after I cleaned it with Kerosene.  What a headache and I am sure my liver is pissed.

I left the machine next to the wood stove in the shop for a few days.  Yesterday after I finished with the 306 I needed some satisfying, mindless work.  Plus I really want to get this machine stitching because I have a free motion project I want to finish. 

I tried to avoid taking the presser bar mechanism apart.  But I just had to.  I could not get it clean enough without removing it.  So I set to that task. I loosened the set screw.  Here you can see how the gunk "flaked" away from the screw as I loosened it.

It took some more denatured alcohol and tri flow, but I was able to get the presser bar assembly apart.  The spring and it housing came off first.   Then I just had to keep squirting denatured alcohol in that area until it finally gave way.  There was no way I could get this clean while it was still installed in the machine.  I think I will have less trouble re-installing this one than I had with the 306's presser bar.  It looks as if there is more room in the 301.

I scrubbed and scrubbed this machine. I used a combination of Awesome LA cleaner and denatured alcohol.  The Awesome left a greasy film that the alcohol rinsed away.  I think I will keep rinsing with alcohol.  It certainly is clean now.

I also took the tension assembly apart and cleaned and dried all of those parts.   It is so much better now.  I still have to clean the outside around the tension assembly, though.  The tension stud was stuck pretty well in there.  I managed to wiggle it out.  Again, rinsing with alcohol and turning this back and forth. AFTER I loosened the set screw, of course.

This saga will continue.  The machine is a mess.