mcfay

Mine all of a sudden hung up. I was sewing quilt blocks and had just finished a seam and started another one. I was chaining them off. It stopped and made a side step. I had to hand wheel the needle backup. I was about half way through a bobbin so I'd been using off it for a while. Had not had to re thread the needle. Had not sewn over a pin, (I do not use pins when I piecing). There was a tiny piece of ling came out when I pulled the fabric away. I took off the throat plate, cleaned it really well.

When I try sewing it does the same thing. I can hand wheel it and the hook is picking up the top thread buy is not dropping it for the next stitch. There will be two loops on the hook, if I continue there will then be three loops on the hook. That is when it then hangs up. It never completes the stitch.

miriam

I know just about nothing about Pfaff machines. Have you tried different needle and thread and new bobbin - well just take it all off and redo it. Look at your thread path to be sure everything is flowing smoothly - some times thread will do it's own thing and stuff happens.

mcfay

Yes to all the above. I changed, needle, thread, bobbin. Put the drop of oil on the bobbin race like the manual said. I was thinking it jumped time, but would the hook even pick up the top thread if it had jumped time. It runs great when it is not threaded.

mcfay

By the way, don't know if it makes any difference but it's a front loading bobbin. I have no idea how to get the hook and race out.

quiltedsunshine

It's a front loading rotary hook. First, you need to remove the needle plate and see if there's thread wrapped around the hook, and remove it if there is. The needle plate just pops off, no screws. Or, the "finger" that holds the race in place has moved out of position. I'll try to attach a picture. The red arrow points to the "finger," and the blue arrow points to the bracket that holds it in place. I don't have a Pfaff picture, so this is a Bernina, but they are the same concept. You'd loosen the screw on the bracket, put it back in place, which isn't all the way tight. It's more like barely holding it in place. Then re-tighten the screw. It might be something you'd rather have your repair tech do. But here's a picture...

mcfay

Thank you, tomorrow I will go out and check it out. I hope that is all that's wrong.

coopah

I have the Pfaff Tiptronic 2030, but have never had this problem. If you have a good tech, I'd leave the problem to them. The Tiptronics were made for piecing and are workhorses. Sorry you're having this problem and hope it gets solved soon.

ArchaicArcane

Typically not, no. It's easy to check timing to rule it out. We've been discussing timing in this thread: http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...ml#post7097563

I don't think your Pfaff has a timing line on the needle bar anywhere though does it? That makes it a little harder to check. Make sure your needle is set to the center position and put it on straight stitch. The Pfaff service manual for that machine says that you check it at this point:1 inch = 25.4 mm so that check is done at 0.0866" or just a little more than 1/12". This is a little less friendly than the Singer machines and wanders into feeler gauge territory. You should be able to sort of eyeball it though to get an idea.

If it's to the left or to the right, the timing is wrong and needs to be checked. I ran into this problem with a Bernina and for the life of me I can't recall what the cause was but the take up lever was also a problem on that machine too.

mcfay

When this weather clears up I'll try to get a picture of bobbin and how the thread stays on the hook. Right now it's been raining all day here and suppose to freeze tonight and sleet tomorrow. My sewing studio is in a separate building so It will probably be a couple days.

I checked it this morning and it doesn't look just like the picture Quiltedsunshine posted. Made a little different at the top.

blueheavenfla

I have a Pfaff 2170 and had this same thing happen just 2 days ago. I did all the usual with the thread path, rethreading (in spite of the fact that it had just been sewing fine and started the problem mid seam). I had just, the evening before when I finished sewing, given it a thorough cleaning out so I didn't think it was a lint problem. Just to be sure, I checked and there was no visible lint. BUT just to be sure I took my brand new tiny stiff brush and pushed it in everywhere it would fit and pulled out one tiny bit of fiber that had either escaped my brush (the tiny ones like we used to use on the spouts of our percolators many years ago) the night before or had somehow entered the bobbin area while I was sewing (with a different color thread) that morning. I know my level of frustration and can certainly imagine yours. I hope you are as lucky as I was and have just the right brush/tool to get any nasty lint that may be causing your problem. You can do it; just keep trying. Get up and walk away for a few minutes if you need to but go back when you feel calm again and it may just magically get fixed with your next try.