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Trying to help out a friend. Machine acquired from original (now deceased owner) and appears in great shape, very clean. New owners not trained well, mostly homeowner experience but pretty handy. It came with the original clutch motor and they did a perfect job installing a servo. Couldn't handle the clutch speed, although they did get it to sew a few practice seams, then jammed it up and couldn't get it to work again. They called me. The safety clutch was engaged, but the shaft going from clutch to hook is chewed up like someone struggled with getting it re-engaged and used a pipe wrench on it. First clue. Timing check - when the needle rise was 1.75mm the hook point was an inch past the needle. Something moved it way off. Not sure my friends wanted to tell me what all they had done. Timed by opening the gear box and following timing directions, making sure gears meshed properly. The grease in the box was hardly used. Thought I tightened all the screws adequately. Had to move the needle bar to line up the scarf and eye with the hook point, again after 1.75 mm rise. Needle to hook distance was good. It wanted to stitch, but constant looping on the back. The case opener was not set properly and the upper thread didn't have smooth flow coming around the hook, thus putting a couple extra tugs on the needle thread - adjusted that. Tensions adjusted well, stitches looked good. Feeling triumphant, went to backstitch using the reverse lever and under power. Bang!!! Immediately broke a needle on first motion. The safety clutch kicked out, needle bar moved, reset the clutch and found the timing way off, as bad as before. All this work was in the friends' shop. We agreed to take it to my shop where I can work and focus. I love visiting with them and we BS too much, and I try too hard to educate them while I'm working! Have not and will not work on it until I have it at my place. A few thoughts: I've watched all the Uwe Grosse videos and have read most of the threads on here I can chase down, but still feel like I need A to Z timing advice in sequence. The needle breaking when trying to reverse, when all seemed well really bothers me. This was just on two layers of denim. My upholstery friend with a nearly identical Chandler hits reverse for backstitching while in motion all the time. Just don't know what happened, I did not check the needle guard yet or earlier in the process. Could the needle have hit that - like when going forward it is too snug to the needle, so when reversing it the needle strikes? Maybe. We are using new 134 needles. I wish I knew the story on the pipe wrench marks on the main shaft, but won't ever know. Previous owner was making horse blankets and pads. The needle bar seems to get out of adjustment too easily, even with the screws pretty tight. Thinking about roughening up the tips of those screws for a little better grip. Really wondering what is loose and allowing timing to change - is the safety clutch supposed to do it's job before anything else gets damaged? Is it adjustable? There are a number of large allen-headed screws on the clutch pieces left and right - but this is where the manuals I have and web videos fall short. I'm certain that I got the gearbox set screws tightened properly when I did adjust the timing before. Even so, when the timing changed is that what slipped. Right now, if I go to correct the timing that is where I would do it again. I got the clutch re-engaged with hand power only. Are there alignment marks and can it be engaged 180 degrees out of whack? Is there a wrong way to re-engage? What have I left out or not paid attention to? Thanks everyone. I'm a little desperate here. Friends think I'm an expert, but that may be changing........