Another customer asked me about lubricating the motor on her 301. She wanted to know if this can be done by the owner of the machine or does it need a service tech to do it. Here's my reply:
Greasing a 301 motor is very easy, or not at all. I am not sure of the year, I suspect it was around about 1960 at the time Singer changed to the white colored Featherweight motors, Singer went to a different bearing within the motor. The year is kind of academic and my trying to guess the year is probably just trying to show off. At any rate, somewhere about 1960 Singer incorporated a Porolite Bronze bearing (bushings) that does not require grease. The machines prior to that did. With the poor records keeping of Singer during those years it's a little like nailing Jello to a tree to find the exact year of your 301 according to the serial numbers, but the really important thing is "does your motor require grease?" Which is kind of what you asked and I've just wasted a bunch of our time saying nothing to help you....
Remove the drip pan from the bottom of your 301. Lay it over on its back on a towel or padding of some sort. The motor is right there in the back corner, kinda big and obvious. Look at the bottom of the motor. By bottom I mean bottom in relation to the machine, not in relation to the room around you.
On the bottom of the earlier 301 motors, sticking out the side of the motors bottom will be a chrome tube about an inch long and a quarter of an inch around. Pointing down, again in relation to the machine not the shoes you are wearing, will be a hole. Like the Featherweight, grease should be forced into that hole by pressing the Singer lubricant tube's nozzle against the hole firmly and squeezing the tube firmly for five seconds. It is impossible to determine how much grease you have put into the grease tube but only so much can go in and in five seconds you will have had enough squeeze time to know you have put in enough.
So, if you have a grease tube sticking out the side of the motor's base, grease it. If not, at least you can dust the thumb screw that holds your rip pan on. Please use Singer Lubricant.
