Originally Posted by
Irishrose2
I thought there was a sticky on tensions, but I'm not finding it. I need to take the tension off my 301 and I wanted some guidance. Problem - the tension is set on 0 and it's still too tight. This is my FMQ machine and there is king size quilt wanting its services. My son put a new spring on it a year ago and it was okay then.
When you replaced the spring did you take apart the assembly and clean thoroughly?
I know there is a youtube by Archaic Arcane on the tension assembly, but can't find it now. I did find a thread here about having tension problems -
Singer 301 frustration As Joe Miller indicated that the insides of the assembly could be varnished over and would need to be cleaned.
If you download the manual at
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_mach...ine-manual.pdf the tension part begins on page 11. It is possible the tension got bumped and knocked out of whack. If you look at the bottom of page 12 (which is page 24 of that manual) you can read how to reset it.
Since you said nothing moves when you raise and lower the presser bar, I'm thinking that it needs a complete disassembly and cleaned thouroughly. Although it says that you don't need to remove the stud "O" to disassemble the thread tension, I think that you may need to. There is a pin in there that needs to move freely, which if it is dirty and gunked up, it will need to be cleaned.
I hope this helps.
Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.