Yeah....I make sure the thread is goes into the bobbin in a lower case d. I took the tension mechanism apart, cleaned it and put it back - - my tension bar(?) is not horizontal but canted a little but I understand that doesn't matter except for aesthetics. That was my next do-over; however, taking it apart and doing it again! I may need to remove the tension bar from the body of the machine & give it a good cleaning. I checked timing and it "looks" ok but (what do I know LOL). The needle bar may need to be lengthened slightly as the bottom line on the needle bar just barely is visible when doing the timing test.