I went to quilting class yesterday and had lots of trouble with loose tension problems. How do you take the viking machine apart -the gray part that goes across where the feed dogs are off? I think it needs a real good cleaning.

I will be grateful for any suggestions.

Did you mean just the plate ,or are you talking about the whole Machine???

I took the bobbin out and the gray piece, the bobbin holder and the plate. Now I need to be able to get back under where the feed dogs are.

you probably should just use a brush and vaccum now, if you use a cheap kids paintbrush you can reach just about everything and vaccum it out, that way you don't have to worry about not remembering how to put things back together

thats what I do too.

Viking also has a web site that you can go to that shows you how to clean your machine. Just remember DO NOT TRY TO BLOW OUT any thread or lint. You get unwanted moisture in there.
My Designer 1 is real easy to take apart and clean then put back together.

on the back of the feed plate (don't know real word--that silver piece that covers the feed dogs) is a little notch. Put the slot from your slotted screwdriver in there, after you've removed the bobbin cover, bobbin and grey piece. Push it, tilting upwards and it lifts off. You'll be able to see lots of fuzz/lint/gunk. brush it out thoroughly then put everything back in reverse order. the silver cover first,then the bobbin thingy (I have a great vocab,huh?) then the grey thing and finally the bobbin. I try to do this routine after every project and more often if I'm sewing flannel or machine quilting something. It's pretty easy once you know how.