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Adolf Klemenz
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 08:01 am: | 
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I recently bought a Hi-Matic 7SII on a flea-market. This camera was in a desolate state, but for EUR 4 I couldn't resist and thought it to be a good chance to practice camera repair.
I cleaned and dismantled the camera, and amazingly I couldn't detect any severe problems inside - Minolta seems to have done a great job!
The major problem was a sticky shutter, which was caused by the self-timer: the self-timer mechanism was engaged but got stuck, hence the shutter was blocked. After removing the self-timer mechanism, the shutter was free and all speeds seem to work properly.
Now I want to fix the self-timer. There is no visible dirt or broken gears. The timer starts, but gets stuck after one or two seconds. Looking into the mechanism from the side, I can see a small "banana-shaped" spring attached to one of the gear wheels. If I slightly depress that spring, the self-timer resumes operation and finishes correctly.
I did not dare to take the self-timer further apart. Has anybody ever done this, or other recommendations or ideas to fix this problem?
Many thanks!
-- Adolf |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 08:06 am: |
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Taking apart the self timer gears is not very difficult. Just make sure to unhook the main spring BEFORE you start. Basically there are two plates with holes where the shafts of the gears sit in.
However, pretty often just a good washing of the assembly with lighter fluid fixes the problem.
I never had problems with this type of self timer (located outside the shutter assembly). At least it is possible to use the camera even if the self timer is jammed. I once found a Revue400SE (very similar to 7SII) where someone had tried to push back the lever so hard that some gears sprang out of their location. |
Adolf Klemenz
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 04:29 pm: |
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Hi Winfried,
many thanks for your advice and encouragement! (I am always afraid some tiny things will jump at me when disassembling such a device and I will never be able to put it back together again ;))
After disassembling, I found a spring (seems it acts as some kind of ratchet) bend quite heavily and blocking one of the gearwheels. Maybe, as you described, someone has tried to push back the selftimer lever really vigourously.
After bending this spring back to its normal shape the timer works fine again.
Thanks once more! There are a few other problems to be solved (e.g. rangefinder vertically misaligned) but I think it's best to start a new thread on these problems later.
-- Adolf |
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