Needle bar question (not starting at first) help please

I have a Brother BAS 416a which is in many ways built like a tajima of that year. I realize they're not the same but I figure more people are knowledgeable about Taj. Anyway...This problem happened the other day and now seems to be the way the machine is running instead of a little quirk. Here's what's happening:

When you press thread cutting it all looks like it should except the needle doesn't move up and down. When you start the design or after a cut it used to go up and down after the first revolution for 3-4 times before the machine got up to speed. Now it doesn't start until full speed. It's hard to see the little notch thing that slips in and out since the needle bars and case is in the way. I just thought I'd check here before calling my guy. Has anyone had this happen before? It sews fine after getting started but misses the first 5 stitches or so. Which really sucks because I had just gotten it sewing good once again and now something completely different happens.

Thanks for checking out to see what the problem was. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Location: 
United States

Well after a few hours digging on it I think it's the jump solenoid that's sticking. This makes sense because I had something that had a lot of jumps in it. I'm hoping it's not the actual solenoid but just sticking a little. My little slider part isn't the tightest so maybe it's sliding down and into jump mode. Not sure why there's even a switch there that I can move, but I'm sure there's a reason.

drdoct wrote:
Well after a few hours digging on it I think it's the jump solenoid that's sticking. This makes sense because I had something that had a lot of jumps in it. I'm hoping it's not the actual solenoid but just sticking a little. My little slider part isn't the tightest so maybe it's sliding down and into jump mode. Not sure why there's even a switch there that I can move, but I'm sure there's a reason.

It could also be needle heights need adjusting as bushings wear down, sometimes they start ripping off when they're really old.