Kenmore Dual belt pulley System

 

Kenmore 1914 dual belt pulley system also uses an idler pulley allow a slimmer machine body, and the motor be forward, without belts rubbing on machine frame. Earlier models had a flared out side, so an idler pulley was not needed.

Many Kenmore Sewing machines use a dual belt system with a pulley in between, to help maintain strength for punching the needle through fabric, regardless of your sewing speed.

This pulley is a self adjusting floating pulley system, upper belt goes from the handwheel to the outer pulley wheel, the lower belt goes from the inner pulley, down to the motor pulley, you adjust the tightness of both pulleys, by loosening the 13mm nut on the motor mount, and sliding it lower, to tighten belts, slide it up, to loosen belts, or change belts.

13 mm bolt holds Kenmore motor on motor mount, it can be adjusted easily, using a 13 mm ratchet or wrench, to loosen this nut, and slide the motor down, to tighten belts, or slide up, to loosen, or remove belts.

Loosening, or tightening belts, by sliding motor up, or down, after loosening this bolt with 13mm ratchet or wrench, for best leverage.

Cleaning and oiling pulley bearing screw is an important part of machine maintenance. If your machine has a high pitched squeal, dry sticky oil on this screw bearing, is often the cause.

Loosening the belts, is the first step in cleaning the dual belt pulley screw bearing. 

Now, you can remove the belt pulley screw bearing. It has a small nut on the back of the self adjusting belt pulley mount, which may just fall in the bottom of the machine, as you unscrew the bearing.

Dry sticky old yellow oil, shows why machine squealed, and was slow.

Cleaning the dry sticky oil out of the inside of the dual belt pulley, with a Qtip dipped in rubbing alcohol, then oil this area

Qtip or paint brush dipped in rubbing alcohol, removes old sticky oil.  Notice I left the C clip, and red friction washer in place, so I didn't lose them.

When reassembling the belt pulley, remember to reattach the tiny nut on the back of the pulley (inside of machine). 

REMEMBER TO OIL THE SMOOTH BEARING SURFACE of belt pulley screw. Usually, one or two drops of oil is enough. If your model has the idler pulley (like 1914), remember to clean and oil it, too, especially if your machine squeals.

DO NOT GET OIL ON BELTS, or the part of the pulley the belt rides on.

1802 spring loaded self adjusting dual belt pulley, the only adjustment required, is the motor mount bolt positioner.

1753 has packrat nest, hiding behind the spring loaded floating self adjusting belt pulley, a good reason to check inside machine, before running a "new to you" vintage, or antique sewing machine.  Removing the belts made it easierto access the mess, to clean it out. Notice the pulley bearing screw has already been removed.

BELT CHANGING TIP- If you are replacing the belts, you will have to remove the handwheel, but since there are so many different versions of handwheels, and clutch systems, I am not including that here. 

I have shown how to remove the handwheels on some machines, in different blog posts, so use the search feature for your model number, and check those posts to see if I included that information there.

I'm sorry I don't have photos of everything I've fixed, over the years, but originally, my focus was on saving machines, before realizing people needed photos, videos, and tutorials, to help them save machines, too, so I try to take more photos and videos.