Originally Posted by oldtnquiltinglady

Miriam, I love your "favorite quote" Never let a sewing machine know you are in a hurry, and have used it a time or two myself lately when carrying on a conversation in my sewing room......just a note in passing here. And to get back to the subject at hand, fix the 401, and if you have the money to spend, tell DH you want the new one for Christmas, and then let us know next year sometime which one you like better.

Originally Posted by miriam

I agree. But, why write it all out every time someone comes up with a mere tension problem. It is all in that wonderful manual that everyone has posted a million times on here. The manual has gone over the various types of tension - once you have taken a few a part and put it back together it can nearly be done in your sleep.. What is scary, most repair men are TRAINED to just REPLACE the tension with a brand new one rather than clean, properly reassemble and adjust your old tension. I just had one yesterday - I betcha someone got rid of a machine because someone spooned the disks when they reassembled the tension. The instructions putting a tension back together are sometimes in the owner's manual. Not as good as that repair manual but I managed it when I was about 18. I wish I had known where the tension spring was suppose to position.