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Author Message   Reiner Tinkerer Username: Reiner Post Number: 92 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A Votes: 0 Posted on Friday, January 01, 2010 - 01:29 am:    I have dismantled my junker Vivitar 35 ES to reach the focussing lever screws but it was a lengthy and nasty procedure. To unscrew the focussing lever it was necessary to separate the shutter and lens group from the focussing thread. Otherwise it was not possible to reach the screw heads. I can not imagine any way to do that without taking the base plate off the camera body since there is a mechanical link to close the aperture which had to be unscrewed from the backside. Of cause several wires for the camera electric had to be unsoldered. This was the procedure for the Vivitar 35 ES but I assume there is no difference for the Konica Auto S3 since they are very likely. For my broken fokussing lever I found a different solution. I still had the 2 pieces of the broken lever. By the help of a magnet I have been able to move the rattling and moving lever screws of the Auto S3 towards the screw holes and with a needle, tweezers and some shaking I got the screws peeking out of the fokussing ring in their original position. With a bit of super glue I glued the lever parts together and to the screws. The lever was still a bit wobbly. I fortified the glueing with a bit of epoxy and that was it. The lever is now at place again, it is fix, not wobbly and useable. I assume it is nearly as strong as before which is not much however. Only few traces of epoxy glue are visible where the lever touches the ring. One side effect: when reassambling the lens and shutter unit of the Vivitar to it's focussing unit I discovered the reason for the notoriously wobbly lenses of many Minolta HiMatic 7sII, Konica Auto S3, Vivitar 35 ES and Revue 400 SE. The lens and shutter unit is screwed against the focussing unit with a ring nut. The flange for this ring nut is screwed to the lens/shutter unit by 3 tiny screws which are not secured by a glue and which become loose over the years. This is a VERY WEAK design detail of these otherwise fine siblings.