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     Steve_s Tinkerer Username: Steve_s Post Number: 58 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
If the take-up spool moved when you turned the sprocket spindle, then the gear above it must be free. It is not too easy to turn from above. I was pushing it with a screwdriver - I'm not sure you could turn it with a needle. There is not a lot of clearance between the teeth, but it would take something bigger than a bit of grit to jam them. I am learning and relearning quite a bit as this thread progresses! I have just discovered that it is possible to remove the wind/cocking mechanism from the body complete. I'm not suggesting you do it, because if you have to do any dismantling, it will be easier with the thing still in place, but I can say that it does look rather unlikely that the gears themselves could be the cause of a jam, unless they were very badly damaged, and that there are no screws in the mechanism itself that could be the source of your loose one. BUT I have found one thing that looks like a very good source of both a jam-up and a loose screw. The mechanism is held to the body at 3 points. At top right it is held by the pivot-post for the frame-counter levers. At bottom right it is held by a screw which you can see quite easily. At top left it is held by another screw which you can only see with "lever C" in its clockwise (cocked) position. Interestingly, this last one was quite loose on my camera (suggesting it may have a tendency to work loose), and when I took it out, it freed from its thread, but would not come out of its hole all the way because "lever B" was blocking it. In this position it was extremely easy to get the screw jammed under "lever B", which caused a solid lock-up of the mechanism, and it was very hard to free the screw. It only has a normal thickness head, but otherwise looks a good prospect. See if either of the screws is missing. If this was the cause of the original fault the question would be - why is it still not working, now the screw is free? A couple of other things to look at: When you lifted the wind spindle, the pawl below which turns the mechanism will have moved inward. When you pushed the spindle or lever back down, the pawl will not have engaged properly with its slots unless you lifted it a little as you did so. While messing with the wind/cocking mechanism off the camera, I kept getting things out of sync or jammed up. I found that I could get back to the "start" position if I lifted the little pawl to the right of the wind spindle (about 4 o'clock), which engages with the gear wheel at the top of the take-up spool, and turned the take-up spool spindle anti-clockwise as far as it would go (as viewed from above) ie. against the ratchet, opposite to the normal direction of film take-up. I'm still hoping you can find the cause of the fault before you have to do any more dismantling, because I am afraid that if you take it apart first there may not be anything obviously wrong! |