Fujica AX-3 top removal and servicing

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Author Message   Gary Kitchen Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) Posted on Friday, June 09, 2006 - 09:57 pm:        I've got a Fujica AX-3 and several lenses a friend gave me. Something just behind the viewfinder eyepiece glass has come loose, like a piece of metal frame with pointed ends at the top side. I would like to remove the camera top to get inside and re-attach the piece. I got as far as removing the screws from the front of the prism, ring nut beneath the rewind lever, but I don't know how to remove the film advance lever. I tried prying upward between the black cap top with a razor knife blade, to no avail. Is the cap screwed down over the advance lever? Is it lefthand threaded, or normal righthand threaded? Once the top is off, how will I re-attach the "frame" mentioned earlier? Finally, the camera's foam seals are shot and need re-doing. Mechanically everything works well, light meter is good, just been sitting a LONG time it appears. Lenses, a 50 1.9 and 135 2.8, and 2x teleconverter, all original, are spotless. Shame to let it go to waste. BTW, if I remember, the Fujica bayonet looks the same as a Pentax K mount, are they interchangeable?   Stuart Willis Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 07:29 pm:        The cap over the film advance lever unscrews with a rubber tool. It is NOT left hand threaded. The shutter dial stays with the top-plate and requires no disassembly. Top-plate removes easily. To remove the eyepiece one must first lift the hard pcb around the rewind-knob crank hub. This because the AX-3 features a blind to block light ingress through VF in time exposures. The blind is integral with the VF assembly. Its activating lever emerges underside the aforementioned hard pcb. Therefore the pcb must be lifted enough to facilitate withdrawal. And there is a danger here. The wiper assemblies for ASA and ON/Off and Self-Timer operation are on top of the pcb and held down on the rewind crank boss by a black plastic ring. This is quite a delicate component. It has little lugs in its bore - and these snap into a groove in the boss. Break this ring - and "no camera"! The floating leaf as obstructing the VF is a mask affixed to the prism rear by two small blobs of contact adhesive. The mask is to protect the prism face against abrasion when the VF blind is operated. Hope this helps