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Jonathan
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 16, 2005 - 08:30 pm: | 
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I've got a k1000 with a mirror return problem.
I've taken off the top, bottom & front and flushed out the mirror box mechanism with lighter fluid. It looked pretty gooey. I think someone spilled something in it because of the goo and because of slight corrosion around where the joins up.
When I got it the mirror wouldn't return at all. Now it returns on 1/1000, and occasionally on 1/500. The shutter speeds themselves seem ok.
Do you think the problem is in the mirror box mechanism, or weak closing curtain? Any advice on what to do next?
Cheers,
Jonathan |
rick
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 16, 2005 - 09:13 pm: |
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It could be either, or a combination of a slow closing curtain and a sticky latch that requires a little more force than it should.
K1000's also have a rather weak spring on the latch that trips the mirror to rise, and sometimes a bump will raise the mirror when you haven't released the shutter; I've had to work on 2 or 3 with that problem, just within my own family. |
Jonathan
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2005 - 09:36 am: |
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Hi Rick,
The mirror seems to rise at the right time, so no problem there (yet). It just stays up most of the time.
I flushed it (mirror box mech. mostly) out again with loads of naptha this time, and while the works were still damp, the mirror behaved normally. When it dried out I was back to the same situation I mentioned above.
How should the mirror behave when the mirror box is "running dry?" Is oil there to prevent wear or to let it function properly? Slathering with oil is probably a bad idea, so any tips on how much and where?
Thanks,
Jonathan |
rick
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2005 - 01:15 pm: |
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Hi Jonathan:
I don't know if you'll find it here or not, but if you remove the baseplate you'll find a fairly large, L-shaped lever just next to the tripod socked opposite the battery box. At the rear of this lever is a gear with a pin on it, and at the front is a spring-loaded arm. The closing shutter curtain rotates the gear, at the end of its travel the pin on the gear strikes the bent end of the lever, and this makes the front end of the lever slide out of the way of the spring-loaded arm and allows it to travel rarward.
Friction at this last point can hang the system up. Apply some white lithium grease or equivalent to the front end of the L-shaped lever and also make sure that the mating surfaces in this location are nice and smooth. This will reduce the amount of force that the closing curtain has to exert on the gear to trip the mirror return. |
Jonathan
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005 - 09:14 am: |
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Hi Rick:
Thanks for the help and suggestions. I watched the L-shaped lever and related parts on the bottom and eventually figured out the problem: the mirror return gear wasn't moving far enough to bring down the mirror.
I took off the L-shaped lever and reinstalled the offending gear a couple of teeth along. Everything seems fine now, but I wonder how it got out of synch in the first place.
Cant wait to get it together again & try it out!
Jonathan |
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