It stitches!

By ten this morning I had all the parts back in the 201-2 motor and was ready to attach it to the machine. I still had to make the connectors and since I cannot crimp I decided to make my own out of the ends of the wire.  More soldering.  I had not measured the motor lead wires so I had to figure out how long to make them.  I pulled the motor from the miscreant 201 and used them as the template.

I had bragged somewhere, maybe here, that I can pull a motor from a 201 in five minutes.  I was guessing.  I have never timed myself.  Today I did.  Three minutes.  Really.  From start to finish including re-attaching the terminal screw.  Of course, the motor has been off and on that machine many times in the past year.  Pulling the motor off of a 61 year old machine that hasn't been serviced in YEARS is another story.

So I got the motor and the machine running.  It is always a relief when everything works.   I decided that was enough.  Yeah right. 

I noticed that the tension release pin was not releasing the tension as it should.  More time and frustration dealing with that.  I had not wanted to take the presser bar off.  But it was so dirty and I had to figure out what was going on with the presser bar lifter.   I got everything clean and shiny and re set the presser bar height at "no more than 19/64ths of an inch above the needle plate..."  Really?  How the heck do you measure 19/64s? 

Well 19/64ths is a bit more than a fourth.  (3/64ths to be precise).  I borrowed an idea from Rain and measured the height of some playing cards.  When I got to 1/4 I added a couple more cards and called it good.  I bound them all together and use them under the presser foot when I am adjusting the presser bar height.  Works fine.

 Finally, after dinner, I tested the stitch on the Pittsburgh 201.  I was pretty surprised to see that it made a nearly perfect stitch right off the bat.  I had taken the tension adjusting spring COMPLETELY off of the bobbin case when I was cleaning it.  I tightened it back down all the way when I re-installed it and then backed it off a bit.  Nothing scientific there.  I set the top tension at 4 and it was just a bit tight.    Then I gave it all out power and it was just as slow as the miscreant.  I was BUMMED.  But as I held the controller down it started to speed up.  After a bit it was going fast enough.  I started sewing with it and just made row after row of stitches.  Then it made a clunk and slowed right down.  To almost nothing.  CRAP.  I took the hand wheel off and looked at the worm.  It was fine.  Nicely lubricated.  I put it back together and tried the motor with no load.  It was ok.  Then I put it out of bobbin winder mode and it was still ok.  Then I gave it full power for about three minutes and it kept gaining speed and gaining speed until it was hauling you know what.  And then I stitched with it.  At top speed.  And it stitches beautifully.

I tired some really tiny stitches.  I tried some regular stitches.  I am not unhappy. 

Now I have to figure out what the devil is wrong with the other 201.  But I am sewing tomorrow.  Promise.