A reader emailed me and asked for some photos of the cam area of the Kenmore158.1813. So I complied. One thing we must all remember when dealing with these older machines, they get gunked up. Rarely are there missing or broken parts. Most of the time the problem is dried oil. Heat and new oil or cleaning with denatured alcohol is the cure. I have had many a Kenmore not work and all that was needed was oil and heat. Or reading the manual. The problem: sometimes we don't have a manual.
So here are the photos. Hope that they help
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| Top of camstack without the cam |
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| Camstack with cam. Should read special stitch selector knob. |
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| Special stitch selector knob in white mode |
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| Break away photo of top of machine "hinged up" |
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| Cam follower in cam mode |
Thank you so much for posting these pictures! It turns out that my machine looks just like yours on the inside (surprise, surprise!), but yours is a bit cleaner. Nothing missing, nothing broken. I figured out what was going wrong when I was trying to use the cams; it turns out that the lower knob (is it called the stitch control?) is a little off. All the settings are slightly to the right, so in order to use my cams, I have to have the word CAM to the left instead of straight up and down. Did that make any sense at all? I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you getting back to me with these awesome pictures so quickly!
ReplyDeleteI had a machine like that one. I was able to adjust it so that the stitch selector knob was "plumb" but I don't think it matters as long as you can use the machine. Happy Stitching!
DeleteThanks a lot for posting this. A perfect example of how great the internet can be for servicing out-of-use things that need a little bit of love to be great again. Keep obsessing! You're appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I just bought this model and i'm still figuring out the ins and outs.
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