I have another clone that I am needing to get the tension fixed. It came with out a tension. I tried to cobble something together out of spare parts. I'm wondering how that little pin in the center of the tension really goes, inside the mess and out the back or in the back through the tension. Which end of the pin goes out? Which end goes in? Doesn't the little pin hit the take up lever and activate the tension. Mine doesn't move at all. So I keep taking it apart and putting it together a different way. I haven't done the math yet but there must really be a lot of combinations how that thing could go. One day it will work. I got the machine to work with a different nose plate though - so I know it is something I'm not getting right. Usually I can put a tension together no problem - specially if I see it come apart, lay the pieces out in some kind of order and re-assemble in the same order. Getting the tension spring in right can be a trick and that pin going right - I do know you have to have one. That was one areal where the manual assumes I know more than I do. A lot of it is fiddling with it until it works.