So I got an old Sears-Kenmore Model 1400 sewing machine off craigslist a while back and had two questions. Recently, I've run into a problem where one of the pieces inside sometimes doesn't want to "catch" on the motor moving it:
The dark grey disc just below the large rotating piece with grooves doesn't want to catch on said large spinning motor. Usually, if I just give the knob directly connected to the grey disc a few turns to help it along, it begins to catch again. But it's an annoyance I'd like to fix.
My second problem is that even when I'm absolutely sure it's on the right setting, the machine doesn't want to do zig-zag stitches. All it does is offset the needle from the center, and then just does a normal straight stitch that's not centered. I see other people online having this same problem with no solution, unfortunately.