Adler Hand-Wheel Removal

[leftycasey]

Ok, I have a Ferdinand Bull that was built off of a Adler 205-64. I bought this used machine and discovered that the presser foot was not working properly (jump foot). In an earlier post, I was asking about adjusting the height of the walk and was given so much helpful information that I was able to fix the lift where it not operates correctly. The only problem I have left to fix is the timing on the presser foot lift. The foot begins to lift off of the leather before the needle begins to move the leather. Therefore, the foot is placed back down on the leather while the needle is still traveling backward with the leather. The presser foot is lifted by a bar connected to a groove in the hand-wheel.

I have looked for a place to adjust the bar but the two area connected (red arrows in the picture) are pinned and do not have a set screw. Therefore, I don't see how I can rotate the position of the rod. However, I thought that I could rotate the hand-wheel on the shaft and that would alter the timing of the presser foot rod. I removed the screw from the hand-wheel and noticed that there is a cutout for a key to prevent the wheel from turning on the shaft. I could not see the key in the groove but the wheel is real thick (55 lbs.) and it might just be to the back. I figured if the key was missing, then the wheel could slip over time and cause the timing to be off. My problem was that I could not remove the hand-wheel and did not want to bang on it with a rubber mallet. Is there a better way to remove or change the timing?

Thank you so much for the help. I would just take this machine to a sewing machine repair shop but do not live close to one and it is so heavy to move.