I think I'm gonna cry.
. I was bragging on my new to me Kenmore yesterday and then suddenly the stitching went wonky. It started birds nesting under the needle plate, making horrid thread jams within three stitches too. All this when just moments before it was sewing beautifully.
The only thing that happened between sewing beautifully and the tensions going nuts was I dropped the feed dogs like the manual said to show my wife how you set it up for FMQ'ing. Before, beautiful. After, horrid.
Now, I've examined the parts that control the feed dogs. There is nothing to get out of time. There is a cam that controls the movement of feed dogs that is disengaged to drop the dogs. This cam turns on a shaft with a grove in it. That shaft is driven by the top shaft via a metal chain. Nothing to get out of adjustment.
Before the top tension was set at "4" ± and it was doing great. Now I have to run it up to almost 6 to get it to sew decent going forward. However if I sew in reverse, the top tension just disappears.
The bottom tension was nonexistent when I got the machine. I could put the bobbin in it's case and with it threaded pick up the thread and it would pull right out. No tension at all. I tightened it up to where it will just pick up the bobbin case.
We've checked everything. Taken everything that can be taken apart, apart. No junk, no loose threads, no broken pieces, no burrs I can feel or see.
Unlike most machines the hook is a captive part. It cannot be removed. Oh, it's a rotary hook too.
We tilted the machine back on it's hinges and with it threaded and with material under the foot I turned the hand wheel. It picked up the bobbin just fine. But within three stitches it had a thread jam. What we saw was the thread hanging up in the spring that cushions the bobbin case and prevents it from moving too far to the left. This was with the tension at "4". Once past "5" it would pull the thread past this spring and no thread jams.
But to sew under power it has to be set between 5 and 6.
I'm stumped. If it had been this way from the start that would have been one thing. But to change suddenly something had to happen. And I can't find it.
One of our wonderful ladies posted a big thread or a link to one about tension problems. That link is on my dead computer. Could someone post it again? Along with any ideas or places to read up on weird happenings.
Thanks. I think I'm gonna
.
Joe