Diana Howels Posted February 23, 2015 Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 I have a Millie which has just stopped dead on me. After a great deal of investigation I found that the bottom shaft will no move at all. I removed the gearbox cover to find the grease had migrated away from the gears leaving an air pocket. It is likely that this has been the case for some time. With this in mind I tend to suspect that the gearbox has seized, unless anyone has another idea. I have tried to rotate the shaft to get at the screws for the hook but it just wont move and Im loath at the moment to force it. Would appreciate it if anyone has instructions on how to remove the gearbox would also like an exploded diagram of the parts for the bottom shaft so I can get a picture in my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbm Posted February 23, 2015 Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 Diana, I'm assuming that you've already placed a call to APQS Service? They can help you figure this out. I've replaced gears in the gearbox but have never seen one actually "seize up." And the design of your gearbox will change, depending on the age of your machine. Before you disassemble the gear box, remove the side cover on your head, just to check that the flywheel isn't bound up with thread - that will also appear to "seize up" the mechanisms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diana Howels Posted February 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 Yes called service several times but everyone tied up on other calls. The flywheel was the first thing we checked. Every part of the drive system had a slight movement within the give of the drive belt. The bottom shaft however didnt move at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbm Posted February 23, 2015 Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 Send them an email as well (service@apqs.com) marked "High Priority." Sometimes they can jump on emails in between phone calls. Good luck!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diana Howels Posted February 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 Have done that also. Will just have to be patient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffq-lar Posted February 23, 2015 Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 I'm tentatively posting about a similar problem I had last year, but I imagine this is too simple to be your fix. My machine was throwing an extra stitch after stopping, occasionally, and I trapped the needle when I moved the head before the stitch was done. I couldn't move the flywheel at all. I removed the needle and the flywheel still was solid. No blown fuse and no way to force the flywheel. Before I hollered for Dennis, I used both sets of fingertips and gently pulled the hopping foot up. It easily rose to the top of the stroke and everything worked after that. No change in timing or needle depth and she worked fine. I've never seen this before on the forum and figured it was a fluke. But it was an easy fix. As I said---probably not your problem and I hope you get relief soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diana Howels Posted February 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2015 Its always worth a look. I am just about to email Amy direct to see if I get an answer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diana Howels Posted February 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2015 Having had several very helpful emails from Amy, I found a tiny piece of needle jammed between the two rotating parts of the hook mechanism. I did this by removing the hook retaining clip to see if both parts would rotate. Unfortunately this didnt cure the problem as the main shaft still would not rotate. with a little effort I got it to move and found that that bottom gear in the gearbox had stripped a couple of teeth and these were jamming between the two gears. I am now awaiting parts and replacement instructions from Amy. Big problem now is to tell Di that the quilt has to come off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimerickson Posted February 25, 2015 Report Share Posted February 25, 2015 Diana: You should have told us about breaking a needle. It wouldn't have solved your problem, but we might have been able to give you some helpful direction in your search for the cause. Whenever your have a problem and come here looking for advise, give as much detail about what lead up to the issue. Often time someone here can solve your problem, and speed up your return to quilting. I'm sorry your machine is broken. I hope you get it repaired soon so you can get back to stitching. Good luck. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbm Posted February 25, 2015 Report Share Posted February 25, 2015 Diana, last fall I helped a customer replace a gear in her gear box. Be sure that Amy knows the vintage of your machine - it will affect the gear replacement process. And if you run into any kind of hitch (and you can't reach Amy or Dawn), feel free to give me a call. One more word of advice on replacing a gear: remove ALL the gearbox grease before deciding you're done and repacking it - either that or make very sure that you have all broken pieces from the gear. A little piece of gear tooth can hide in the smallest amount of gearbox grease, jamming the gears all over again...... don't ask me how I know. Congrats on tracking down your problem! That's a good skill to have! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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