singer 211g question

[phoenixx]

HI, this is a first post for me , although I have been reading the forum for sometime and it has been a great help, so thanks. As one of my interests  is WW 2 military  stuff I repair a lot of old leather equipment  , but also make new parts when needed .I have now got a Singer 211G358 sewing machine, I know it's not a walking foot but as it will mostly be used on thinner leather and canvas, it seems to cope with this well. I have gone through the machine using a lot of advice from here but I am having problems with the stitch length/ reverse. This is a large bobbing machine and it it supposed to have a 10mm maximum stitch length, but It will not adjust to this size, also when it is sewing the reverse lever it moving up and down about 3/16 is this normal? I forget to say following more advice from here I've fitted a servo motor. Any help with this annoying problem most appreciated thanks Pete.

[Uwe]

The reverse lever should not be bouncing up and down as you sew. It's often an indication that something involved in the feed mechanism is hitting a limit and something else compensates for it. I'd recommend spending some quality time with the Singer 211G Service Manual and comparing the suggested adjustments to your machine's. Sometimes a less-than-max stitch length is due to the feed dog starting to move backwards before the needle pierces the material (or starts to move forward before the needle exits the material.) Removing the material and turning the machine over by hand will allow you to see what's going on/wrong and make corrections.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Uwe

[phoenixx]

Thanks for replying Uwe, I've spent many hours with the Manual! Although the machine is in fairly good condition with minimal wear, at some stage an owner has attempted to "adjust " it, I can tell where because of the ill fitting screwdrivers resulting in dmaged screw heads, this is certainly true of the reverse and the feed dog mechanism. I spent virtually the whole day yesterday with the machine on it's side and using a piece of paper to measure the number of holes. Now I am sure that the reverse lever should not move I will start over and try to sort out the mess of the previous adjustments.