Revived and oiled sewing machine: DIY how I did

My sewing machine "Brother" was bedridden, for a human to describe it, for the past few days...

Had few symptoms, you know, recently.
The balance wheel was getting harder and harder.
Stitches were not even, sometimes it made misses.

Thankfully, no parts fell off. It's all in tact so far.

But when I turned it on, it could be on but I felt there was something seriously wrong. Worst of all was I didn't do anything till its last stage.

So anyway, time had come to fix.

First thing I did was to spray lubricant to inner mechanism through a small gap, thought easy and simple, blindly, just hoping for it to work.

source
Okay, NEVER SPRAY THIS TYPE OF LUBRICANT TO SEWING MACHINE PEOPLE!!!

Yes, I was such an idiot, it was no no. This type of lubricant hardens or clog the mechanism and wheels more over fast movement and heat! ......I read this information after I sprayed, and started searching how to service sewing machine...

So I totally made my Brother immobilized 😅.

This is my sewing machine, by company named "Brother ", now it became like my real brother, I had to help it get back to health!

By the way, my sister in law is a tailor, and I have seen her calling service person many times a year with her Singer sewing machine bought here in Malaysia. I'm sure she does loads of work but seems too frequent. I don't have any grudges over Singer but my Brother was bought in Japan, brought it from there over 15 years ago and never needed any servicing!!

So if I could, possible to use it more, I would be happy to continue my relationship with it😁!

source
I unscrewed all the screws I layed my eyes on, but the cover didn't come off. I checked if anyone else did servicing on their own with same model. Luckily I found an image of inner hooks location, I had to push in screw drivers and scissors to dislocate it. I also unscrewed the bobbin area.

But that big round stitch selector didn't come off and blocking it. I pulled it hard but I was afraid that parts might break. I searched in Japanese and English all over internet on how to remove it, nothing.

I almost gave up!
For the last time, I pull that selector and observed on the inner structure to study it. I searched any dissection drawing or some thing to let me understand its stucture on the net, again, there wasn't any, so I thought of looking it through its narrow gap. Even took few photos. And I noticed there was a small hole at the core.

Maybe this could be it? I stuck bamboo stick from kitchen. I did this few times, but didn't work.

Than...okay long story short, I eventually had it off by small screw driver. I was right to pock intop that hole, it dislocated the hook, glad I didn't force it.

Here finally it's front cover was off!!!

Look at all the.... dust!!
My son's watercolor brush came in extremely handy for this.

There were electric cables that were still attached to the fron cover. I had no knowledge of those cables so didn't disturbed them.

After the dusting, finally, yes, truly finally, and hoping for a hope, to apply oil.

This tiny bottle was my savior!
This is the one suitable for sewing machine.
I luckily able to found and purchased at stationary shop near my place. For only few bucks but effect was priceless! Come to think of it, my sons used to apply on their bear ring of their skateboards.... hmmmm.....

With application of the oil on all the mechanisms, it moved once more!! A bliss......

Wiped the dirt, putting them back together, it took me almost 2 hours for the entire operation, and I must have looked like a bear in the zoo, going round and round😂

I must say that could do better next time!
Anyhow, all that matter is that it became as good as new and I am happy😊

The photos here in this post are taken by me, @naomipangolin. First time to share