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[sroot3485]

My amaya big red has recently started to stop or stall as it is sewing on needles 1-4. It feeds but you can see it stop on about every turn. Before I start tearing it down is there someone who has experienced this and can give me a clue where to start. I've tested all other needles and there doesn't appear to be any others doing this. Thanks in advance.

[Just Sew It]

My tech told me the needles on my big red are in packs of four, so 1 thru 4 would be the first pack, Perhaps you will only have to deal with them. Someone will come in and tell you if replacing a pack involves adjusting all needles.

[Rod or Sharon]

The needlecase is comprised of 4 separate 4 packs.Each 4 pack has an upper and lower bushing for each needlebar. If debris or lack of lubrication builds up or causes damage then excessive drag may cause a problem. If screws are overtightened on the face of the needlecase, it immediately squeezes the needlepacks and binds the needlebars in the bushings, causes drag and excessive wear. These partictular screws are torqued to 8 inch pounds of pressure, which is not very much.

But, it may not be in the needlebars or bushings. It may be thread buildup from thread wrapped around gearing in the threadfeed drive system. It may be a sign of a Z axis motor getting weak or a combination of all three.

Think of all the needles being in a perfect straight line and a centerline running through them. Because of tooling tolerances the needles will wander along both sides of this centerline. This is how the "closest needle" is derived from, which is what the hook timing is timed to. If the needlecase is more than 6 thousands of an inch off the center line, it is considered to be defective. For instance, if a needle is found to be .003" off on one side and another to be .004" off on the other side of the centerline, then the needlecase is considered to be defective. This equates to too large of a gap between the face of the rotary hook point and the back of the needle which would cause the hook to miss picking up the top thread.

The first place to start is check the hook timing. Make sure the needles are not bent and hanging up on the hook point. Check for thread buildup. Do a FULL lubrication sequence on the machine. Check the main threadfeed drive gear for cracks around the hub. My gut feeling is this may be a more serious condition then you really want it to be and that dreaded tech call may be a wise move to find out just what the "root" cause is.

Let us know what you find...

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer

[sroot3485]

Thanks all, it was a cracked thread feed drive gear. All fixed and running again. Thanks to all who helped.