miriam

Tammi, I agree.
I'm betting Igor's dishwasher, garbage disposer, washing machine, vehicle engine, etc are all in the same sad shape....
The education system is partly to blame, too. Did Igor ever learn to read? Did Igor learn to follow directions? Did Igor learn to research what he needs to know? My daughter said the school her kids go to is issuing computers to the kids. Parents can not access anything ever... No home paper work - all done on mysterious computers. No wonder there is a growing culture of Igor's... BUT at least Igor got off is butt and tried. Poor Igor.

cabbagepatchkid

Perfect timing for this thread! I have spent several weeks trying to figure out the problem with the tensioner of a pretty little Riccar model 15.

The owner of the machine (she's 99 years old!) said that the tensioner fell out of the machine and when she tried to put it back together it just wouldn't work right.

I could get it working, stitch wise, but if I tried to adjust the knob, at all, the whole thing fell apart!

I had another 15 clone, that I haven't worked on yet so I took that tensioner apart to compare with the Riccar. It seems that a little piece was missing...maybe it was lost when it fell out and the owner didn't see it because it's tiny.

I scoured the internet but could find no help on reassembling a clone/15 tensioner.

I gave in and ordered a replacement tensioner. Hopefully that works because the owner would love to get her machine back.

I'm going to try to post a picture (not sure if I can do it from my iPhone) showing the little piece that I think went missing. I've never seen that particular part on any other machine that I've worked on.

Anyway, I'm glad to read about other people's experiences with the clone machines.

Well, I guess I can't add a pic from my phone but will see if I can get it into my computer.

cabbagepatchkid

Well, hopefully I was successful in resizing and posting my photo of the tensioner that I spoke of in the above post.

Miriam offered her help but I'm not sure if I was able to successfully sent the pic to her. My computer skills are rusty because I use my iPhone for everything, lately.

Pay no attention to the shape that the spring is in...lol. It was like that when I got the machine.

The part with the arrow pointing to it is the part that was in my extra tensioner but was missing in the Riccar. It goes on right after the 2 discs and the tabs, in that extra piece, fit into the cutout of the "minus/plus" indicator and keeps everything from moving around....I guess.

I have received my newly purchased replacement tensioner but haven't had a chance to fiddle with it, yet but will post my results as soon as I do.

ArchaicArcane

I would say one thing I'd do is see if there are any wear marks on the tensioner you're fighting with to see if there seems to be a piece missing. Often, you can tell what direction or what order things go in by those marks.

miriam

I'm confused. Can you shoot a pic of the tension with the missing piece? Some of them DON'T have that piece. Some have some other piece. Please shoot a pic. If you got a new tension you still have to make it work.

miriam

The little part the arrow is pointing at is just a little stop for the pin. The other tension may have some other type of part but the function would be to stop the pin/release the tension.
If anything, I would replace the check spring on the one in the picture.

miriam

The tension parts can vary a lot here is a pic of one different from yours:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]535440[/ATTACH]

cabbagepatchkid

Yes, I will do that later on this afternoon. I'm 99.9% sure that it's the same as the one that I pictured except for that additional piece.

That would make sense that it is a stop for the pin. Now that I think of it that little 'stop' bar is usually on the "plus/minus' indicator and I just assumed it was to help keep everything straight.

I am going to disassemble the new tensioner (very carefully) to see how it all goes together, before I put it in the machine. I learn something new each time I have a problem with one of these old beauties .

I was of the generation of Home Ec kids who were told to NEVER touch the tension knob. I understand, now, why the teachers didn't want them fooled with but it took 40+ years for me to get over the fear of touching it!!

miriam

I was told never to touch it either.
When I was first married, 45 years ago, I had a FW and the tension was awful so I took it apart and used the owners manual to tell me how to get it back together then get it adjusted. All the info was in the FW manual. There isn't all that much info on these clones. I'm betting all your parts really are there. You can not compare one clone tension to another. Shoot a pic and Tammi or I will try to tell you how it should go.

cabbagepatchkid

Here is a picture of all three tensioners.

--The Brandt is a clone that I picked up at the thrift shop...is has an extra little part not seen in the Riccar but everything else between the two are the same.

--The Riccar is the one that I'm fixing but originally the tensioner had fallen apart, at the owner's house, and possibly all of the parts were not found

--The 3rd tensioner is the 'new' one that I ordered online

Tonight I'm going to try to get everything working. The owner of the Riccar is 99 yrs old and is hoping to get her machine back soon so that she can sew her pants. I hope that I'm still sewing at 99 yrs old!