Singer Futura 4000n -needle postition?

My needle hits the front of the face place. Most of the time it just makes a tinging sound. It sometimes gets stuck on the face plate and then the machine makes awful noises like the gears are trying to break. I don't have a repair shop within an hour from where I live. How can I get the needle back in place? And the machine can no longer sew through layered material. Is it possible that the gears did lose some teeth?

Terri K
November 2008