So I'm getting very frustrated by this machine,   It was completely flakey when it came to doing zigzag and I figured the timing was off a bit so I decided to re-time it to see if that helps.  Now I'm in a situation where the hook picks up the top thread reliably with the throat plate off I can watch it picking up the top thread but I put the throat plate on and try to sew and get nothing.   Take the plate off and try again and can see the hook is picking up correctly, I reverified the need