nanabd

Hi! I hope someone can help me or post a link to a video. My Brother SQ9185 machine is apparently out of time/alignment. It makes a terrible noise when I try to drop the needle and the handwheel won't turn at all. I was sewing fleece and I guess I went a little faster than I should have. I checked for tangled thread and bunched up fabric and there was no problem. From what little I could find on the internet, it seems that I knocked it out of time/alignment. I'm not sure of the proper term. Does anyone have an idea of what I could do to fix it myself? Even a video would be great. I've already searched YouTube and couldn't find a close match to my machine. I hate to take it into the serviceman because it'll end up costing as much as a new machine. I'd appreciate any help I can get. Thanks!!

CookieZenmilk

did u try another bobbin?

Ginger's Mom

I have this machine. Since it's computerized have you tried turning it off then turning it back on again? I would also do what Cookie said, try another bobbin and take out the bobbin case and see if there are any nicks or dents on it. If so, you might need a new bobbin case. Also, take off the needle plate and see if there's any tiny hidden fleece particles trapped. That's about all I can think of right now.

NanaCsews2

Along with changing the bobbin, cleaning lint out from thread cutter if you have one, change the needle too. Turn the machine off, back on, and re-thread your machine. With fleece, its surprising how much lint goes 'upwards' into the needle area and traps around the thread mechanisms. When I sew fleece, I cover my needle plate area, and blow air going downward at the top of the machine. I have even had to thread the machine with a thicker thread and kept guiding the thread through. Little tufts of fleece would come out with the thread. That happened only one time and thankfully my machine works great.

Jennifer23

Did you have to rethread the upper thread? I've seen machines where the upper thread got caught in the hinge of the thread takeup lever, with the results you state. It's not hard to fix, except for figuring out how to get the case off to get at it.

Prism99

The inability to turn the handwheel is not necessarily an indication of a timing problem. Typically with a timing problem the machine will run but won't make any stitches. An alignment problem would be when the feed dogs are not aligned so the fabric does not feed evenly under the foot. Again, the machine would be running.

What you are describing sounds more like some kind of jamming of the mechanism. The noise when you try to drop the needle is telling you that something is preventing that needle from going down. Does this happen even when the bobbin is removed and the machine is unthreaded?

Your machine has a drop-in bobbin, right? This video provides pretty good information on how to adjust timing; however, again you will note that he is able to move the needle up and down with the handwheel. The fact that you cannot do that indicates a different problem than timing.

quiltedsunshine

Someone brought one of these into the shop on Saturday. I thought I'd just fix one timing setting and she could go home and sew. When I got it open, it had 3 timing settings that were off. The problem with these machines is that we can re-set the timing, but it doesn't take much to throw it off again. She bought it from the local want ads for $10. I told her to throw it away and get a metal Kenmore (with a front-loading bobbin) from the thrift store for $10 - $15 and she'd be ahead of the game.

One timing setting you can do yourself, is the needle/hook distance. Put the needle in the far left position and turn the handwheel until the tip of the hook is just behind the needle. (The tip of the hook should meet the top of the eye of the needle, which is another timing setting.) If the needle is touching the hook or has a big gap between the needle and the hook, it needs to be adjusted. There should only be enough space between the needle and hook, for 1 thread. Take the screw out of the back of the machine, right behind the needle area. Then remove the front/end cover. There's a screw on the front of the needle bar. If you twist it one way, it moves the needle closer to the hook. If you turn it the other way, it moves the needle farther away from the hook.

If it's another timing setting, it gets more complicated. The feed dogs have to be level with the needle plate as the needle enters the needle plate hole. Then you can decide if the needle bar can go up or down, or if the hook needs to be sped-up or slowed-down.

melissajfw

Can you post the video please? I am having the same issue with my brother sq9185

dorismae904

I have had three of these machines. The first one, after four years of service, the feed dogs stopped working and I wasn't going to pay $160.00 to have it fixed when I only paid $200.00 for it. I liked the machine so much, I bought another one. That one worked beautifully until once again the feed dogs went out on this one. No hints that it was working badly, just stopped. While I was on the internet, I found the same machine, factory refurbished, for $171.00 and ordered that one. It is working beautifully. Why did I keep buying this machine when the first two failed me? I liked the machine, it sews well and it was a reasonable price. I did have my eye on the janome 6600 but that costs a lot more.