Needle is being broken by the hook
 

Got a nice old singer stylist 457. Great machine only does straight and zig zag stitching but it works great for my quilts because of the big throat. Anyway it's been put away for awhile and I was trying to set it up the other day and when I was trying to get the bottom thread up the needle kept striking the hook and eventually broke. Any suggestions?

How hard is it to adjust the timing?

If it worked fine before, my guess is the needle isn't in right. Sitting won't throw the timing out.

Cari

Put a new needle in and take the needle plate off and watch the action of the needle and the hook. That will give you an idea of what it is.

Timing so rarely gets off..... Yet timing is blamed for everything. Some of those Singers have a belt around the bobbin area and some have plastic gears. Those should be checked. Your hook should now be checked for burrs since the needle was hitting it until it broke. Check your manual for correct needle insertion. Check inside your needle clamp for lint and other gunk. Check for lint in the bobbin area. It may be a good idea to have the machine fully serviced.

Thanks all, I'm probably going to take it in to get serviced. It's a great old machine, very powerful which is great when I do the quilting and binding.

The Singer 457 has a plastic gear on top and a timing belt in the bottom. Spin the hand wheel (without a needle in) and check to see if the hook is spinning around the bobbin. You can remove the bottom to check to timing belt, and the top to see if the plastic gear has failed. A google search of "Singer 457" will turn up 'Becca's crazy project' where she describes replacing the gear on this machine. (most likely the problem)