Pfaff 262 sewing machine - Unhacking a hack
When new old stuff reminds you of old old stuff.
Click here for more posts on the Pfaff 262.
What with all the stuff I’ve been doing with old Pfaff sewing machines lately, I’ve spent a lot of time searching for spare parts and just anything in general related to old Pfaff sewing machines. While trawling through Amazon and looking for new bobbins for old sewing machines, I came across someone selling motor couplers for the Pfaff 262 sewing machine. Oh, wow! I hadn’t thought about it in years, but my wife’s Pfaff 262 actually needs a new coupler.
My wife has had her Pfaff 262 for probably more than fifteen years - I’m not sure really when we got it. I do remember that not long after we got it (and I got it running again by massive application of clean sewing machine oil,) it quit running. The motor coupler broke. I couldn’t find a replacement back then, so I made one out of a piece of beech wood.
The motor coupler on Amazon wasn’t terribly expensive, so I ordered one. It got here pretty quick, but it has taken me nearly four months to get around to replacing it.
| Wooden piece hiding in a metal sewing machine |
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The red arrow points to the wooden motor coupler.
The Pfaff 262 motor is hidden underneath the machine.
| Pfaff 262 motor |
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To get the motor out, you first have to remove this bolt:
| Tension bolt |
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Normally, you’d loosen the red marked bolt, then move the motor up or down to adjust the belt tension. To get the motor out, you have to take the bolt all the way out.
| Tension swivel |
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This axle allows the motor to pivot for the tension adjustment. You have to remove the red marked e-clip then push the axle out of its hole.
With the axle removed, the motor comes out:
| Motor |
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The motor is free, but it is still attached to the power cable. Don’t drop the motor - it might damage the power connection.
You next have to remove the coupler housing from the motor.
| Coupler housing screws |
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The motor coupler itself is stuck to the motor shaft. The shaft has a pin through the end that goes in the slot in the motor coupler. There’s a shaft just like it inside the housing that leads on to the toothed sprocket for the drive belt.
| Hack |
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Pop the new coupler back on, and reassemble the machine just like you took it apart.
| Unhack |
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I had to scrape the insides of the slots a little bit. They were too tight to fit the pins. If the pins don’t go all the way in the slots, then the belt won’t line up with the sprocket - that’ll destroy the belt (and probably the sprocket) in pretty short order.
Adjust the tension on the belt. If it is too loose, the pins in the belt won’t be forced into the teeth of the sprocket. If it is too tight, the machine will be hard to turn by hand with the balance wheel.
| Hand made wooden coupler |
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I don’t own a lathe or any other fancy tools. At the time I made the wooden coupler, I didn’t even own a drill press.
Once I got the wooden piece out of the 262, I remembered how I made it.
I cut a short piece of a thick wooden rod that I had in the scrap box. I drilled a hole through it with my electric hand drill - the hole isn’t quite at right angles to the ends of the dowl.
Since the diameter of the dowl was too large, I put a bolt through the wooden coupler with a nut to hold it tight then clamped the bolt in my hand drill. I clamped the drill in a vise, then used the drill together with a wood chisel to “turn” the coupler down to a diameter small enough to go in the coupler housing.
I cut the slots in the coupler with a hacksaw.
It isn’t pretty, but it held up for fifteen years - we’ll see how the “real deal” holds up. I’ve kept my little wooden piece just in case the Pfaff original part breaks again some Sunday afternoon. It’s in the accessories box in the Pfaff 262 cabinet.