I haven't been keeping up on this blog the way I would like, I retired from my paying job on 31 December and with the holidays and preparing for retirement, my schedule has been squishy and some things have fallen by the wayside. days are now spent at the quilt shop, trying to come up with ideas to bring it up to at least the break-even point so my entire retirement check doesn't go to Northcott and Moda.
Last week, a lady dropped off a Singer Futura 900 that another repair shop said could not be fixed. The warning bells should have gone off at that point, but I thought I would take a look at it to confirm the other shop's opinion or fix it and look like a hero.
Machines this modern are beyond my comfort zone, but the lady is a long-time friend. My first challenge was removing the top cover. I found the screws in the lid, but after they were removed, the lid wouldn't come off and I couldn't figure out how to get the end cover off. A trip to the T and T repair website (http://www.tandtrepair.com/index.html) netted me an instruction sheet telling how to remove all the covers and I was able to open the machine up.
It didn't take long to find the problem - the plastic balance wheel had cracked and the crack was so large that one of the teeth on the toothed motor belt was riding on the lobe of the pulley, This raised the belt far enough to bind against the frame. So now, I am on the search for a Futura balance wheel.
When I find one, I still have another challenge. To remove the balance wheel, the instruction sheet says to remove the phillips screw that holds on the balance wheel - I have spun that thing around a dozen times and see no screw or other means of fastening the balance wheel to the shaft. I guess I will work on that issue if I find a replacement balance wheel.