Originally Posted by
Cari-in-Oly
Yeah, I guess I am a little cowardly about tensions but I'm getting over it. I've been lucky in that most of my machines haven't had any serious issues. I do have one clone that has a tension issue I haven't been able to resolve. It's the Brother half of my Twins.(Look alike Brother and Morse) My plan is to swap tensions and get rid of the Morse. Problem solved!
Cari
hhhmmmmm what is it not doing? Is it one with a post or one with the little plate?
I have found if the tension pin sticks the tension doesn't work very well and no amount of adjusting will make the stupid tension work. If the pin is not the right length you might have a few problems, too. A little bit of dried up oil or rust can make drag on the thread, too. If a tension has one stupid little part put in the wrong direction or in the wrong order it isn't going to work. If you have a little plate with the place the pin hits check the direction it goes. If you pull up on the foot lever and nothing moves it might be in backwards. Then again if you have the little cup type it only goes one way. I did see one with the prong kind of thing that the pin hits in wrong. That doesn't work very well either.
I have had more problems with the kind with a dial than the ones that didn't have a dial. Maybe that is why some times I see a machine with only the bottom part of the dial. It is so much easier to adjust the tension with out the stupid dial...