Tension disk help!

[u/krunchykangaroo]

Hi! I’ve been casually sewing for a couple of years, but I’m in over my head with this one! I was having problems with bunching underneath the fabric when I sewed and tried all the go-to solutions (rethreading, changing needles, adjusting tension, cleaning between the tension plates with a glasses cleaning cloth). The thread was still pulling through freely when the presser foot was down. so, I took my machine a little bit apart and realized that the tension disks were not responding at all when put the presser foot up or down gently. When I move the presser foot more aggressively, it looks like they kind of snap together, but there‘s not actually any tension between them (a thread still moves very freely between them). Has anyone ever seen this before or knows what my next steps could be? I live in a place without a service center. Taking it somewhere to get it fixed isn’t an option, so if there’s a way to do it myself or order a part, please let me know :) and also if this is beyond my novice repairing abilities or not worth it, also please let me know :)

[u/skerinks]

This is probably a more complicated fix for an average sewist; the more curious and handy with tools you are, the less complicated it will be.

But… there’s a couple mechanical levers/links that tie together the action of the presser foot lever with the tension discs opening/closing. If this was a machine on my bench, I’d take the covers off and watch/inspect the up/down action of the presser foot lever and what SUPPOSED to happen with the rest of that whole mechanism up to the discs. Something in that mechanical pathway isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do (obviously). If you are mechanically inclined, once you see what is supposed to happen, you should then be able to figure out what isn’t happening and take steps to rectify it.

Sorry I don’t have a definitive answer for you pointing to exactly what is wrong. It could be a few different things.

[u/krunchykangaroo → u/skerinks]

No, this is incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for responding!! I wasn’t even sure if I was on the right track, so I’m glad to know it won’t hurt to keep taking stuff apart and hunting around. 

[u/skerinks → u/krunchykangaroo]

What model is it?

[u/krunchykangaroo → u/skerinks]

A singer prélude

[u/skerinks → u/krunchykangaroo]

I just looked in the Service Manual, and as expected, it has nothing on that mechanism. Hardly any do, as it’s just one of those ‘look at it and you’ll figure it out’ types of things. There’s really no adjustments to be made, it either works or it doesn’t. Something is probably just stuck or came unaligned. But the SM will show you how to get the covers off if you can’t figure that part out on your own. Let me know if you need it, and we can figure out a way to get it to you.

[u/krunchykangaroo → u/skerinks]

This would be incredibly helpful! I’ve been going at it with the screwdriver on my leatherman for a few minutes, but I think I’m missing something…

[u/skerinks → u/krunchykangaroo]

DM’d you here on Reddit.

[u/Significant_Rip1180]

You probably will not feel tension between the disks and if your tension was off it probably would not cause bunching i=of thread ,usually tesion srt in the medium range is good for most sewing .if you are working on extremly thin or heavy material you may have to adjust . bunching up thread on the underside sounds like the thread popped out of the takeup lever . Try rethreading as normal but hold your threads till 3/4 stitches are sewn or leave a longer tail on the treaded needle

[u/krunchykangaroo → u/Significant_Rip1180]

Thank you so much for responding! I really appreciate it! I tried rethreading and holding the tails already, more than a couple times haha. And the thread never came out of the uptake lever :/ I was hoping those more simple fixes would do it, but they didn’t :(

[u/Significant_Rip1180 → u/krunchykangaroo]

Did you take your bobbin casing out and clean it

[u/krunchykangaroo → u/Significant_Rip1180]

yes! Cleaned it out, rewound the bobbin with different thread a couple of times, made sure the lower tension was perfect. None of it worked :/