Pfaff 545 bobbin winder wheel stuck

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1 hour ago, fibersport said:

You figured it out.  Actually I believe one of the manuals covers the exact issue, the solution is to spread the two parts apart with a screwdriver.  You don't want to spread them too much or they could break, however once you spread them and the bobbin holds tight, you should be good for years.  Have you been able to find an owners manual?  They can be found on-line with a little searching.  I have also found that downloading the manuals for the 1245 are beneficial, especially when trying to set timing and such.  

I have collected a few manuals, as well as the parts lists of the 145 and 545. This particular issue is not mentioned as far as I can tell. Good tip to try the 1245 manual as well!

Next issue: missing parts. The spring and tension disks on the tension assembly were missing (see below). I've now snatched the spring and tension disks from the bobbin winder and installed those onto the tension assembly. It works, but I'll still have to order the correct parts, I think. At least I can sew in the meantime I'll probably end up ordering a whole new tension assembly (part number 91-009 328-91), I don't think I can find the individual missing bits.

After winding my first bobbin I've now also sewed my first stitches, which didn't look bad at all! Unfortunately the machine has a 2850rpm clutch motor, and it runs off at a million miles per hour with the lightest tap on the pedal. I'm getting a servo later this week, hoping that slows it down a bit!

[fibersport]

You can get complete tension assemblies for around $10 US and up on ebay.  The servo motor will help but put a 40 or 45mm pulley on the motor to really make a difference.  I also built a speed reducer for mine which helped slow down the start up speed even more. The post is titled  Questions re: DIY box style speed reducer 1 2 .My speed reducer design is on the second page.  It still isn't as slow as i want it but I think it's a limitation of my servo motor.  I sent you a private message regading the manuals.

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Just installed the servo, it came with a 75mm installed but also with a 50mm pulley. Of course I immediately swapped in the 50mm . Here's a test on the slowest speed, I'm very happy with how slow it is!