Viking down - help

[Ratdog]

Have sewed a couple hundred feet of seams without issue beyond my poor stitching.

My brother in law is on the machine 5 minutes sewing a tablecloth and beep beep beep...can't sew more than 30 secs without the alarm.

Manual says upper thread feed.

Have threaded and re-threaded to no avail.
Changed the needle.
If I stitch without an upper thread, no beeping.
And of course I have a bunch sewing to get done pronto asapo before a trip next week.

Interweb said, hit it with 80psi of compressed air right in the gizzard.

Help...

[Ratdog]

Little spool symbol is blinking.

[Ratdog]

Near as I can tell, thread tension at 0 a disaster, 9 it seems to work ok, 4, which is what I have been using and it beeps like crazy after a couple inches.

Currently testing on 1.6oz fabric.

[Ramblinrev]

0 tension equals disaster. You have that correct. Have you changed the thread? If yes... it is possible the machine does not like the new thread. If no, then I would suggest a good cleaning of the thread path and particularly the tension system plates. Another possibility to try, as stupid as it seems, unplug the machine from the wall outlet. If possible remove the power cord from the machine head. Let it sit for an hour or so. Plug everything back in and restart the machine. Sometimes you have to remove the power cord from electronics to do a full and complete reboot. Try it. the worst that can happen is it won't make a difference.

[momtaxi]

Not sure but this is my usual trouble shooting...

1) turn off machine, unplug, wait a second and restart. I have a viking and sometimes she gets a little confused and needs a kick up the pants.
2) clean tension disks by using a medium weight low lint fabric and floss it back and forth between the disks
3) remove bobbin, case and stitch plate, clean any gunk
4) examine thread. Try a different spool and a more stable 'easy' fabric. Set settings to medium... medium fabric, medium tension, regular thread, regular foot pressure. Has anyone messed with anything like bobbin tension? Are you flossing the thread through the tension disks? Is the bobbin thread loaded properly? Is the bobbin fairly full? When almost empty it can be a pain.
5) put in a new needle, check the point with your finger for burrs. Sometimes new needles are faulty. Is it appropriate for the weight and type of fabric. Ditto stitch plate.
6) is thread horizontal or vertical? Try flipping thread over, thread is twisted a certain direction Z vs S and sometimes spools off better in one direction. If it is horizontal try vertical.
7) are you sewing off from a scrap or are you holding the threads for the first few stitches?

[momtaxi]

haha Rev, you and I were typing the same things at the same time, only my husband came and asked about oldest son's college packing in the middle of mine.

[momtaxi]

4.0 is a really long stitch length..

[Ramblinrev]

4.0 is a really long stitch length..

I think OP was saying a 4 tension setting, not stitch length. I could be wrong tho.

[momtaxi]

I think that is what the display is showing though...?

[Ratdog]

Thank you all very much.

The 4.0 stitch length was for the test fabric.

I'll run a shorter stitch length if you think it would make a difference.

Will follow suggestions and report back.