Singer 211U166 stitch length problem

[Atilla1]

Hi everyone. I bought a couple of days ago a singer 211U166 from a local upholsterer for 50 euros ( something like 48 usd i guess) including table and the clutch motor and some needles size of 120, 140 and 160.

At home I started to exemine my new toy. As it was straight from the workshop, it s doing quite nice stitches, 5 stitch per inch. But things startef to get interesting, when I wanted to shorten the stitch lenght. I do as it says in the manual, push the button on the machine bed, turn the wheel away from myself. Then I release the button. But instead of getting a shorter stitch length, the feeding mechanism completely messes up, inner foot moves weirdly, feeding the material forward instead of backwards even though no reverse stitching is on. I managed to put it back to max. stitch and everything is normal again. But I cant manage to shorted the stitch lenght. I wonder if its fixed to max. stitch somehow and cannot be adjusted?

[CowboyBob]

We recently had one of this in here that didn't have a flat spot on the shaft for the feed cam & when we adjusted the stitch length it would do what yours is doing.It's not too hard of a fix,mark the shaft were the screw is when it's sewing like it should then loosen the 2-screws in the cam & slide the cam  to the right & grind a v-shaped slot into the shaft.Move it back & tighten the screws.