Repairing Sewing Machine Foot Pedal

In this section, we try to share our finding on how to repair your own foot pedal, but before you follow our step please make sure that your inner foot pedal looks similar like our pedal (see picture 1). This is from Sewing Machine Janome L-395F, pedal series YC-50 (220-250V, input 125W)

Picture 1

I bought this sewing machine around July 2017, and I never take it to service or reparation store. Because so far (luckily) all the problem I found were still minor issue and can be fixed by learning from internet. Of course I do the machine maintenance like cleaning the machine and keep oiling the machine regularly. But after 4 years, I found out that my pedal was not as responsive as it should be, and this problem surely slowdown my productivity. I already fixed the issue and I thought this worth to be shared with other sewist, because it can save some penny and can be fixed at home with simple tools.

Tools & Preparation
  • Prepare the tools: screwdriver (slotted & phillips type), flat nose pliers or wrench (in my case no.7) and a sandpaper.
  • Make sure you UNPLUG the machine from electricity
Step By Step
1. Open your foot pedal case by loosen the screw using phillips screwdriver
2. Open it using slotted screwdriver
3. You will see the motor, inside of the foot pedal
4. Loosen these two screw with phillips screwdriver, thus you will be able to lift the motor from the case freely
5. Then loosen these two nut from its bolt. You can use flat nose wrench for this part.
6. Remove safely and put these nut in a safe place.
7. Now you have only the motor, loosen a little bit the grey screw first, no need to remove it completely
8. Once you loosen the grey one, you will see the metal plate on the backside of the motor can be moved to the other direction
9. Clean the trace of oxide on the metal plate using a sandpaper
10. Once you are done with metal plate, back to the other side and clean this graphite lid (like a button) from trace of oxide too
11. Now see the gold bolt-nut and loosen it a little bit, no need to remove it too.
12. You will see inside the ceramic case which is consist of many graphite as rheostat, take them out carefully as they are fragile
13. Now you will see all the graphite chip, including the graphite lid. Try selecting the chip and throw out the broken chip, and keep the good one
14. Also clean the good one from soot on each surface, this soot prevent the normal passage of electricity which causing the foot pedal not responsive as it should be
15. Carefully return the graphite lid and the chip back to ceramic case, and fasten each bolt and nut to their original position
16. Now you just have to return each bolt-nut and screw back to their original place. And congratulations, I hope this troubleshooting works fine for you too.
Tips
Picture 2

About graphite cleaning with sandpaper

Although this step can clean the graphite from trace of oxide or soot, this action also scrape its surface and resulting in shorter lid (see Picture 2).

Either replace the lid or add more graphite chip

If you see this, don’t worry, you can choose to buy new graphite lid or add more graphite chip into ceramic case. One lid cost $0.066, while 1 pack chip (46-48 pcs) only $0.31.

8
Picture 3
On top picture (before), you can see that the graphite lid did not touch the metal plate. While on bottom picture (after) the metal plate can safely landed on both lid and screw on ceramic case
Tutorial Video

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