Singer 245-3 Change stitch length

[iknowit101]

Hi Guys,

                 I hope someone can shed some light on this problem, I am trying to change the stitch length on my machine a Singer 245-3, this old machine is new to me and I am just trying to learn to use it, besides helping my mother and my grand mother with her machines when they got stuck, I have little to no experience with industrial machines but this one I couldn't pass the opportunity of getting it, so here I am stuck on trying to change the length of the stitch. Somehow I made the stitch very long and now I cannot change it back, seems like is stuck there. When I press down the plunger it drops down but the balance wheel does not move at all in any direction. See Pag 16 on the attached PDF manual 

Any takers? any help will be greatly appreciated!

          

Singer 245-3 Manual.pdf

[Northmount]

@Wizcrafts Hi, could you take a look at the post above?

Tom

[Constabulary]

Not knowing this machine in particular but most likely the stitch length adjuster mechanism is gummed with old oil. I had similar issues on my Singer 132K6 and a Singer 111. Heating he mechanism with a heat gun and oiling it could solve the problem.

Just a guess

Edited June 23, 2018 by Constabulary

[iknowit101]

Thanks for your reply, I think that you are right on the money, I was checking other forums  and someone suggested the same thing and that I should try to forcibly get it to rotate, this guy has a Youtube channel and he knows this machines so I took his advice and ran with it,this is what I did:

-Took the belt off and had someone else press the plunger while I was trying to get the wheel to move but no luck this way

-Once the belt was off, i had more leverage to apply some brute force but nothing so I put a bunch of rags under the machine to catch the lubricant and applied lots of DW40 to see if that help and let it soak overnight

-Next day, belt still off and with day light I noticed a hole in the balance wheel that I am trying to get loose, so I found me a long bolt just big enough to stick in in that whole and a rag to wrap the bolt, got me a leather glove to turn the bolt and I was able to get the wheel loose!

It took me some researching and some imagination but I got it, I kind of figure that that was the issue because this machine is old, probably 1938 so the grease has been there for a while and most likely not in use so, do the math . . 

after this, I cleaned all the excess WD40 an oil and I am tinkering with it. 

I think is worth mentioning that this old Singer Machines have "Greasers" inside them so when people let them sitting around for years without use, the grease gets hard and becomes like glue  or cement inside them.

Hope this helps some other people looking for answers to this.