401 acting up
 

My everyday machine is a 401. It hesitates enough that I have to turn the hand wheel to get it started. At first I thought it was a dull needle. I changed it, but it didn't help. I was quilting with a walking foot.

Also, while I was quilting (in the middle of a seam, not at the beginning), I got a huge thread nest. I pulled it out and untwisted it and it was 40" of the top thread. It hasn't happened again.

This is the 401 that I've totally gone through. I cleaned and oiled and cleaned and oiled it about 10 times before I got everything moving smoothly. I have not rebuilt this controller, though.

I've oiled and greased it and I will change the needle.

Any ideas or suggestions?

bkay

I don't know your machine but check the bobbin. Make sure it is wound tight and even. I had major problems only to discover the bobbin was mushy.

Hopefully, others will have more suggestions for you.

It could be the needle should be turned around or at least checked to see if it is in right. My industrial today wouldn't sew with the needle put in correctly, so I turned it another way and away it went sewing okay.

Can't help you, but I surely love mine--only 62 years old and is still my go-to machine.

If you have another controller foot, you could swap and try. I have a 301 and just swap to test. Sound like some thread might be jammed up in the hook area. Did you take all that apart and check for thread fragments? Could it be a bobbin that has gone bad (dropped)?

Look at the bobbin case it sometimes gets a bit of fuzz or thread underneath and causes a problem like that. My 401A had a problem like that and I found a small piece of lent jammed into it underneath where I had not looked in a very long time. When I cleaned it and put it back it worked like new.