Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Feed Dog Drop

 My Kenmore 158.1940 has a feed dog drop. It doesn't work.   When I was in North Carolina, I tried to fiddle with it but ended up not fixing it AND altering the feed dog height in the process.  Luckily Alice had her machine along and I used it for a comparison and figured out what I had done.

When the feed dog drop works, the feed dogs are disengaged  by depressing the feed knob on the bed of the machine which  pulls rod "B" back which is attached to the bullet shaped gizmo "C"

OK  I hate it when anyone calls a machine part gizmo.  I am off to look up on Sears Parts Direct the proper names of these things.  http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/index.action  It is call a center. 

The Center does pull back from its housing when the feed knob is depressed.  BUT the feed dogs don't drop because the gizmo (I can't find the real part name on the parts chart.  You can try,  I can't figure it out) the Center fits into doesn't move.

So I tried to move it.  I loosened screw  A and that didn't do anything.  Well, that's not true.  Loosening screw A screwed up the feed dog height because it allows for just such an adjustment.  I readjusted screw A and raised the feed dog height and proceeded to make more hats. 

I like this machine.  It is back in the shop now awaiting appropriate feed dog attention.  I will get the feed dogs to drop.  It is just a matter of heat, Tri flow and cleaning.  Maybe this weekend I will do it.

5 comments:

  1. I have a Kenmore 158.1757 that had the same problem. I ended up using some pentrating spray from Liquid Wrench. Worked pretty good. Of course, I used a hair dryer on high as well. I was so happy when I finally freed it all up. I also put Tri Flo on the front and back of the bullet slide part. It made this machine functioning again! I really like this machine. It is a beast!

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    1. Yes! I plan to use some PB Blaster and the hair dryer.

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  2. i have a hillmans sewing machine and the feeddog has dropped and nothing i do seems to work

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    1. You could try applying oil and heat to the mechanism Trace back from the feed dog to find where it should adjust. Good luck.

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  3. AAHHHHHH! I'm trying to free up some feed dogs on a montgomery ward signature, and kinda hoped some penetrating oil would do the trick! Going to work on it NOW!

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