cricket_iscute

Are you starting the hand wheel by hand at the start of a seam? Try that.

If you can't disengage the clutch to wind a bobbin, take the appropriate screwdriver and loosen that very small screw in the hand wheel area just a tad, maybe a quarter turn. That screw has to be somewhat loose to let you disengage the clutch. Turn left to loosen. Take great care not to lose that screw!

Do only one thing at a time. If that didn't do the trick, then put it back to where it originally was and try the next thing.

I agree that the belt may not be adjusted correctly.

oldsewnsew

and sometimes that 3 lobe lock washer is installed backwards or the screw is being tightened overtop of 1 of the lobes or there is a wad of threads under the handwheel or the moon is in the wrong phase or the stars are not alignrd or...do you have any knowledgeable quilter friends who can take a looky look?

cabbagepatchkid

I highly recommend Dave Macallum's book, The Featherweight 221 and I. His instructions for maintaining your own FW and the wonderful illustrations make it worth every penny. He also has a DVD set but the book is a wonderful start. If you go to his website you will see that he has a blog that explains some common issues and then tells you how to fix them.
There isn't much that can go wrong with them that can't be easily fixed at home. Good luck!