Ariannaquilts

I'm back have checked the needle bar as you suggested sewnsewsue that appears to be fine, I measured it and it is at the same point on the ruler as yours. I have looked underneath the machine (under the drip pan) and see nothing that could be the reason why the hand wheel doesn't turn. I thought by taking a couple of days off that I could come back and find the problem but once again I am hitting a stone wall. However, when I checked underneath I did find that the place where the 2 sets of gears intersect that is not turning which I guess makes sense? I don't know, I did take Steve's advice and breathed in and breathed out. I even had a guild meeting last night thinking I could maybe get some help from some of the members but nothing. Oddly the one lady didn't know what I was talking about when I said I was having trouble with my 301?? Now to begin again and see what else you all suggest this time that I might not have already tried. Again thank you all so much for your patience with me and trying to help I really do appreciate it and will appreciate it even more when we fix the problem whatever that might be.

miriam

EW the hand wheel is no longer turning? Does the motor turn if you loosen the clutch and turn the wheel? Some times the motors freeze up if the machine has set for a few decades. You might try pulling the motor and see if the hand wheel turns the machine. There are gears on the bottom that can get a thread or dried up oils and then refuse to turn. There is no shame in hauling the machine to someone to repair. Not everybody wants to or is equipped to work on a machine. There seems to be a lot going on. I wish I could reach through the computer screen and help you fix it. How about a hug anyway.

Ariannaquilts

Thanks Miriam I feel like I need one about now. It's so strange that you said you wished you could reach through the computer screen and help me fix it, I was thinking the exact thing how great it would be if someone did do that. One of the ladies from my guild offered to help me but then when I told her what I had already done and that it was recommended that I take the drip pan off and check under there she said "oh no, that's more than I can do". It was nice that she offered though. Now I have to try to find someone to check it for me since the last time I took a couple of my machines in to be serviced the person did something to my Janome that it did not want to work well after that. I tried to make him fix it but he said it was working when it left his shop and that I probably did something to it so that it didn't work. I will never go to any of his places again!! BTW Miriam did you miss my post when I said that the hand wheel was frozen? That's when I was told to take the bobbin case off and do all of that but to no avail, as soon as I put the face plate on the hand wheel won't turn although it turns freely while the plate is not on???

miriam

However, when I checked underneath I did find that the place where the 2 sets of gears intersect that is not turning which I guess makes sense? Do not force those gears to turn - ask me how I know.
Face plate - goes on the side of the machine above the needle bar - when you open it you see things moving up and down and the spring thing for the presser foot - right? If the machine turns when the face plate is off those gears are NOT the problem unless they are not turning when the face plate is off. When the face plate is off is the take up lever moving up and down? Is it bent and hitting on something when the face plate is on?
I did take Steve's advice and breathed in and breathed out. Keep breathing.
or
Do you mean the needle plate that has a hole in it for the needle to go through? Tammi's explanation should be correct for that.
Can you explain what is going on now? I'm confused.

miriam

This sounds very very logically your problem.

Ariannaquilts

Sorry Miriam I am referring to the throat plate, when I replaced it the hand wheel stopped turning. It moves freely until I replace that. I checked the underside and saw absolutely no thread, nothing that could possibly be causing it to stop moving. I had the opportunity to have 2 301's side by side this weekend (mine and one that sewed) just as someone said they had done, but I still can see no difference except that mine is beautiful and the other is not so pretty. I have taken some pictures and will attempt to upload them, they are the best I could do with the lighting so perhaps you won't be able to see anything to help me but we will give it a try. I am so happy for the other people that have posted problems on here with their 221 and resolved their issues but so sad for me, I want to be a happy camper that can say "it's fixed thanks for your help" but unfortunately not yet. Geez now I can't find anywhere that tells me how to do an attachment. I haven't done that on here in a long while. Will post as soon as I figure out how.

miriam

If you are having a problem when you put the needle plate on you need to make absolutely sure the little finger in the thingy that holds the bobbin case is in the slot in the plate. You can see the picture of how the little finger goes on window number 15 just below the picture of the bobbin case with the wrong size bobbin.

miriam

Ignore the bobbin stuff for now. Do you see the little finger at the top of the thing that holds the bobbin case? This finger has to lock in just like in the pictures. If it is not in the right position the machine won't work right.

OOPS it looks like the pictures did not forward to here. YOu can click on the little box next to Joe where it quotes and it should take you back to window 15 so you can look at the pictures and compare the under side with your machine. Make sure that little finger is in place.

Ariannaquilts

I did that when I put the bobbin case back together I made sure that the position finger is in the right place just as instructed to do in the tutorial that Arcane gave me to follow. However as soon as I put the throat plate back on and try to turn the handwheel that's when we go back to nothing. I didn't know how to attach pics to this thread so I wound up starting a new thread I thought that I had included a picture of that area but I now see that I didn't. I don't want to continue starting threads to add pics so you can see what I am talking about but I did include a picture of the bottom without the drip pan cover on.

NapaJohn

Are the feed dogs hitting the throat plate? If they are out of alignment is the only thing that comes to mind that would cause it to act as you describe, unless there is another obstruction somewhere.

Can you drop the feed dogs and see if it will run?