Crafting

Toyota K747 Knitting Machine Instruction and Service Manuals

When I partially dismantled my K747 knitting machine I wasn’t able to clean it out much because I couldn’t get it completely opened up. I was thrilled to find a copy of the Service Manual as a free PDF, and can’t wait until I have a spare weekend to get in there are de-gunk it.

When I first got the machine, I had no idea what model it was. Thankfully the folks at Newton Knits did, and were able to guide me to the right replacement sponge bar and needles, as well as a copy of the instruction manual.

I’ve noticed that there are a ton of people selling PDFs of the scanned manuals, for a king’s ransom. One on eBay was $15 plus $4 shipping for a CD with the PDF on it. Mind you this is a PDF that the seller didn’t even author, they just scanned the book. Someone else holds the copyright.

I was able to find the instruction manual for the lace carriage as a free PDF, which led me to copies of the service manual and instruction manual for the machine itself. I’m making them available here for anyone who so desires them, free of charge.

Toyota K747 Instruction Manual
Toyota K747 Service Manual
Toyota K747 Lace Carriage Manual

If you have a different machine you need a manual for, check out this link. They list a huge number of free knitting machine manuals, many direct from the manufacturers.

30 thoughts on “Toyota K747 Knitting Machine Instruction and Service Manuals”

  1. I have removed all needles from knitting machine and got a new sponge bar. Cannot get needles back into A position so have tried to remove housing to see where theneedles go. Can’t get top off, have something holding it, instruction show to remove cap, where is this cap? Thanks

    1. Hi Carlene,
      Is yours a 747? There are a couple sneaky screws, in particular one hiding under the pattern selector dials. You’ve got to pop off the cover to expose them. I don’t have mine nearby right now, but if you look at the diagram posted above it shows where a number of the cap screws are.

  2. Thank you for sharing your manuals! I’ve added them to the Toyota Group’s Resource Library. Our yahoo group gets all kinds of questions on this particular model of Toyota machine and these manuals will help them out immensely.

  3. Thank you so much for posting this!! i saw on Ebay as well the .pdfs for sale when i was looking for replacement punchcards. Not good form like your website 🙂

  4. Thank you for sharing the manuals. Especially the service manual is so helpful for maintaining my beloved knitting dinosaur.

    @Debbie: I own a manual with patterns for the Toyota K747 but I´m not sure about the copyright. Is it allowed to copy the pattern book and share it here for download?

    1. Technically the manuals are still copyright to Toyota, but I haven’t gotten the impression they care (particularly if you’re not selling the manual). My policy has been to offer old manuals like these freely and if the copyright holder asks me to take it down I will.

    1. Do you have a photo of the machine? I don’t know of any machines by that model number (not that I’m an expert), but a photo might make it easier to find.

  5. Oh, so happy to find the manual on line for the K747, thanks. I was given this new back in the 80’s, never opened it, but now selling many unused items, so glad to have the manual.

  6. Do you know how to find parts for the K747? We bought a knitting machine at a thrift store but it is missing the main carriage.

    1. Finding a part like the carriage will take some hunting, since they don’t often crop up separate from the machine.

      You can set up eBay to alert you whenever new items come up for a certain search (e.g. Toyota 747), instructions can be found here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/searches-follow.html

      There is a Machine Knitting sale/swap forum on Ravelry, you can put an ISO (in search of) ad there to see if anyone has a spare they’d part with (some dealers also frequent that board).

      Lastly, call around to some of the few remaining dealers, most of whom work with used equipment too. I’ve dealt with Newton’s Yarn Country in CA and they were very helpful.

      Good luck!

  7. I have Toyota 901 knitting machine with ribber plus simulknit plus.a lot of assessors that I would like to sell. Do you buy these and where are you located? Please contact me by email.

  8. I used to use a knitting machine many years ago, been looking for one for a while now and by the grace of god i now have one, Toyota k747, i thought once i set it up it would all come flooding back, how wrong was i, i have no idea how to thread it up, the manual was great for setting the actual machine up but i cant make head or tail of the threading instructions, CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP

  9. Uargh, I have the same machine. I changed the sponge on the sponge bar and can’t get the damn thing back. There must be some trick to that, the manual doesn’t help. If you have experience on this type of a quirk, plz let me know. Best, Hanna

    1. Sometimes the sponge bar likes to get jammed on a needle. Wiggle the needles near where the end of the bar is inside the machine, that usually works for me.

      1. Oh, thanks for your reply! 🙂
        It’s not the needles. There’s an obstruction of some sort in the channel where the sponge bar should go. They look like a lids of some sort, positioned 25cm from the edges. The sponge bar does go through as is because of the obstacles – it does when it’s lifted a little from above. However if forced, the sponge bar will be too high and needles won’t glide where the lid is.

        I wonder if there’s a screw or setting of some sort somewhere I’m missing out. I guess I’d better open up the machine next to find out what’s up. 🙁

  10. My mother used to sell the toyota k747 and we have found 2 never used machines. Any idea who might be interested in these machines? She had many enjoyable hours knitting to her heart’s content.

  11. Hi, I have a Toyota k747, and I can’t get my card to knit. I’ve got it so that it does the first row, then no needles get selected. Any ideas? Thanks

  12. This looks suspiciously like my friend’s Singer S747 which she purchased in South Africa in the early sixties. The gorgeous colour matches, and the instruction books look identical save for the Singer/Toyota labels!

    Any chance you have (or can find) the instructions for the Ribber 450?

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  14. Hi, I picked up a machine recently that came with a stack of punch cards, happy to scan them for you if you’re still looking!

    1. Hi Rhi,

      That’s very generous of you, I’m sure lots of us would love to have copies of the punch cards if you’re still offering? 🙏🤗

      Claudia x

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