Originally Posted by Julie1
I was putting my 401a into its new home (cabinet), when it tumbled out of my hands and fell over backwards to the carpeted floor. The only thing I can tell is not working is the back dial stack. This may be due to operator error as much as the fall. Is this something I can open the machine up and check out or do I need to take it to my local repair man? What do you think? Do I dare turn it on before checking it out?
You can turn it on and you can gently try moving the stack. If you get it to move set it up for just disks.
I have one someone either dropped or hit with a hammer. I've been trying to fix it for a while. Every once in a while I pull it apart and try to re-assemble. I think mine has a bent shaft. The donor machine I have is a 500 and they do not interchange. If nothing else you would need a service manual. Looking back, I would take it to a repair shop if I had plenty of money. It may cost more than you can buy another 401 to get it fixed. What I did with mine was to set it up to just do disks and then use it just with disks. You have to take the disk out to straight stitch though. To set it on special, you can manually move the readers by unscrewing pieces (and that is hard) and set them in the disk only position or have it done. Those stitch selectors are delicate aren't they. A repair shop could do that - hard to tell what they would charge to do it. Then you would have to have disks even just to zig zag. Maybe you will be blessed that it still works.