I have no help or wanted to tell you I understand this is stressful. So I am thinking good thoughts for you.

Once many many years ago my mother almost killed me for pulling out this little piece of red stuff from down inside her black singer. Turns out it belonged there, it had taken me hours on Christmas Eve night to finally get it out of her machine. Now I know better, on old machines I check the owners manual before removing anything I am not familiar with.

Kat

Mine has a wick like that too. I've almost pulled it out but gave up, and then read that it's supposed to be there.

My machine is a janome and the oil wick goes into the center of the bobbin case. I regularily take the wick out ,oil the machine and put the wick back with a tweezer

Thanks for the tip. I will try something with the needle.

Thanks so much deb!

Janomes have that oil wick and the manual does not even mention it. Stuff it back in there if you can and add a drop of oil. Your bobbin case gets noisy and will even jump out of place if this oil wick dries out. My machine was terribly noisy and the bobbin case rattled and banged and my dealer kept telling me it was operator error. I kept trying to force my machine to stitch and finally put the needle right through the bobbin case. I finally found out about this troublesome wick hole from another Janome 6500 owner. I now just add a drop of oil when I thoroughly clean my machine or if it sounds noisy. Why isn't this information in the operator's manual????

Thanks for all your help everyone. It was indeed a wick. I did manage to get it back in and everything seems OK, except for that thumping sound. I'm going to try changing the needle or see if it slipped down as debcavan suggested. I read my manual front to back when I first got the machine and several sections more than once. I don't remember ever seeing anything about a wick under the bobbin case. I am completely amazed. I'm gonna read it again to make sure there isn't any other surprises. Thanks again for all your help everyone. I knew I could get answers here, you all are great!

Thanks Shelbie, I did get the wick back in and I'll drop some oil on it before I try sewing again. It seems to be working OK but I do still have that thumping sound. I read my manual front to back when I first got the machine and I don't remember seeing anything about that wick. Thanks for the suggestion.

I didn't know about the needle dropping a bit as a cause of problems! Now I'll know I need to check that. Thanks,BellaBoo!