Olympus Pen FT Repair Tips
by Henry Taber

My original plan was to do a short article on reviving the FT I bought last summer. But thinking back...No way! The one I bought, although near perfect cosmetically, had numerous things wrong. And added to the fact that FT’s are not that easy to work on, the short article would turn into a book. And I don’t have the time or energy to write a book.

So in lieu of that book, I’ll give a few pointers:

1.) Left-handed screws: There are 4 that I encountered.

2.) The center button on the self-timer lever is a right-handed screw. Use a very good pair of pliers to loosen this button/screw to avoid marring the finish. Mine was very tight. Beneath this button is a left-hand slotted screw.

3.) If the wind lever is jammed the top cover cannot be removed. Remove the bottom cover and locate the gear around the rewind release/double exposure button. Remove the two screws and the "C" shaped retainer plate, then the gear should easily come out. The wind lever should move freely now giving access to the screw under the thumb area of the wind lever.

4.) The FT is a single stroking wind lever, unlike the F that is a double stroking. However getting it to single stroke after reassembling isn’t all that easy. All the multiplicity of gears must be lined up just right. Two of the major alignments and the two that fouled me up the worse, are the rewind release gear and the mirror release gear.

For the mirror release gear: During installation of the mirror box housing into the body, position the cam follower that rides on the cam on the back of the mirror release gear to where the follower just falls down into the pocket after cocking the mirror. Even one tooth off will give a winding problem.

For the rewind release gear: With the shutter clockwork in the released position, rotate the release tab (the blade that the rewind release button fits over) fully counterclockwise while positioning the gear also fully counterclockwise making sure that the meshing gear in the shutter clockwork is also fully counterclockwise. There should be zero backlash. Again, even one tooth off is too much.