The Upholstery Forum

Yesterday working with my Pfaff 145 (H3-6/01) I stumbled into an issue when the presser foot got stuck in the up position. The lever on the backside suddenly went from functional to being all loose, and having no impact on the presser foot while flipping it up and down. It feels like something "jumped out of its place" or a screw somehow got unscrewed, disengaging the presser foot function. Is there someone with an experience on this matter? Is there some sort of an instructional youtube clip or a online PDF out there to help me solve my problem?

Oh my, I have a thread going with this exact issue! I have an industrial Juki that is doing just this - here’s the link viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4136&p=12102#p12102
Apparently it was to do with the oil not circulating, don’t know if this is relevant in your case, but the remedy ( hopefully!) is in the link.

What was going on when this happened? Were you sewing and raised the lever and it wont come down? Was it being transported and found this to be the case when it reached the destination? And is it the model with or without the big leaf spring on the top of the machine?

I dont know that much about repairing machines, I typically take them in to get serviced if I have a problem.

- First try seeing if the feet will come down by placing a screw driver on the top of the feet and bumping the screw handle downward. We just had someone on The Upholstery Forum with this problem and that solved it! As @Rachel sugested check that out here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4136
If that works I would suggest heavily lubing all the moving parts in that area to avoid it getting stuck again. Make sure you lube your machine regularly.

- Check to make sure that the knee lift is not bound up in some way holding the foot in the upright position.

- Another guess is that the cam on the foot lift lever is worn or broken. Here is a parts manual for your machine: http://hensewfiles.com/PDFs/Pfaff%20145.pdf
Check out page 15. Look at those parts on your machine to see if anything is broken, badly worn, or missing.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.

Rachel wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:29 pm Oh my, I have a thread going with this exact issue! I have an industrial Juki that is doing just this - here’s the link viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4136&p=12102#p12102
Apparently it was to do with the oil not circulating, don’t know if this is relevant in your case, but the remedy ( hopefully!) is in the link.

Wow, thanks for reaching out Rachel! I will try the screwdriver trick, and if that solves my problem I will be more thorough with oiling all parts in the future. I'm really thankful that you answered my question!

Adam12 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:36 pm What was going on when this happened? Were you sewing and raised the lever and it wont come down? Was it being transported and found this to be the case when it reached the destination? And is it the model with or without the big leaf spring on the top of the machine?

Hi Adam! Exaktly, I was sewing and raised the lever, and then it wouldn't come down. And from that moment, the lever on the backside's been all loose. I'm not sure exactly what a big leaf spring is, but I'll include a picture of the machine here in my reply, and maybe you'll be able to tell if that's the case or not!

John wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 5:20 pm I dont know that much about repairing machines, I typically take them in to get serviced if I have a problem.

- First try seeing if the feet will come down by placing a screw driver on the top of the feet and bumping the screw handle downward. We just had someone on The Upholstery Forum with this problem and that solved it! As @Rachel sugested check that out here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4136
If that works I would suggest heavily lubing all the moving parts in that area to avoid it getting stuck again. Make sure you lube your machine regularly.

- Check to make sure that the knee lift is not bound up in some way holding the foot in the upright position.

- Another guess is that the cam on the foot lift lever is worn or broken. Here is a parts manual for your machine: http://hensewfiles.com/PDFs/Pfaff%20145.pdf
Check out page 15. Look at those parts on your machine to see if anything is broken, badly worn, or missing.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.

Thank you John for taking the time to write me this! I truly appreciate it! I will check all the things mentioned. Also a huge thank you for the course. I bought the all-in-one course bundle two weeks ago and the coverage is breathtaking! /Pontus

Your very welcome @Pontusgillgren We have a really great community here and we all learn from each other to collectively raise our upholstery knowledge. I learn new things from others on this forum all the time. Keep us posted on what you figure out with your machine.

That bar on top is the leaf spring i referenced, its for foot pressure rather than having a coil spring around the presser bar. Measure the height from needle plate to bottom of the foot, should be 11mm, if its more i bet its just in a bind. Reference @John's diagram and try tapping it down.

@Adam12 @John @Rachel
Thank you for your help, the problem is now solved! The issue seemed to be related to lack of oil in the machine!

Love the easy fixes! Thanks for the update

That's awesome! Glad to hear you got it fixed.

These pfaffs love oil. They don’t have a bushing where the pressure foot bar goes into the casting so they tent to “hang up” in that area. Even when correctly lubed they can feel sticky. Just keep it clean and lubricated.