29k3 rehab

[Moly]

Hi, I recently acquired a singer 29k3 in a questionable state of maintenance. The machine make stitches but initially the tension seemed off. The foot lifter lever was worn enough that the top tensioner wouldn’t release anymore which I fixed by adding a washer under the tension collet. I played around with the bobbin tension as well and also tried adjusting the take up as the screw was seized in the outermost position. While the tension appears to be better the machine now skips around 10% of stitches and the top thread “jumps” around when the needle pulls it up from the bobbin well like there too much slack there.

Unfortunately, I am unsure if the troubles I’m having are caused by worn out gears or bad adjustment which makes troubleshooting quite difficult. The bobbin case holder in the machine for example turns a couple of mm left and right just by pushing it lightly. The needle plate hole is also frayed.

I’d be eternally grateful for any input on how to determine the source of this malfunction.

[Constabulary]

I cannot imagine the foot lift lever is worn so far down. Post pictures and / or a video (upload to YT and post a link here) please. Maybe you have wrong tension discs installed which put the "release cup" to high. I had this with an Adler 30. The added washer may be the problem as well. There should just be a thin felt or leather washer under the tension discs of approx 1mm-1.5mm thickness.

worn gears and racks are a problem with these century old machines. You cannot adjust the hook timing as they have no timing eccentric like the later 29K models.

Edited March 9 by Constabulary

[shoepatcher]

I have new levers C.

glenn

[mittagessen]

Sorry for the delayed response, it took a couple of days to take the pictures and I lost my account info. I realize now it isn't the foot lift lever wear as such that is the most likely problem, but see for yourself.

In the middle position the foot lift selector causes the tensioner release arm to not move enough upwards to actually release the tension disks even with a rubber gasket on the release cup. 

When it is moved all the way to the left (in fact further than the notch on the spring) and with the gasket I can get it to release. 

But in this position the top tension is still out of whack. My hypothesis is that the excessive foot lift for my 3-4mm leather I'm using for testing pulls up the bottom thread too much. In fact, I've obtained the most consistent results so far by reducing foot lift as much as possible, keeping the tensioner permanently "closed" although even then the tension is uneven every couple of stitches (left two):

There wasn't a washer beneath the tension disks initially but we've managed to put one under there today. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to have changed anything at all.

Lastly, I've got to admit I'm using 29x3 needles instead of the 29x4 intended for leather work as they are difficult to obtain around here. While I assume this to be not ideal, it wouldn't really cause these kinds of issues, right?