Getting back to the Autocord - the stiff/stuck aperture control lever and the non-functioning pc socket.
My first effort is to get at the aperture control mechanism to clean and lube it - the presumption (or hope) being that it's simply solidified old grease in there that's jamming things up.
I peeled off the front leatherette and removed the four screws to remove what Minolta calls the 'front cover set'.
Nothing amiss here; everything turns freely. The lower toothed ring has the external aperture lever extending from it, and is meshed with the upper ring, whose sole purpose appears to be to support the turning f-stop display. Elegant setup. The lower ring engages the actual aperture control lever on the shutter assembly - shown in the photo below at the very center.
The business end of the lever enters adjacent the rear side of the whole shutter assembly. It certainly doesn't appear that one could do any cleaning or lubing without taking things much further apart. The repair manual that I have says that the next step in disassembly - to get any further than above - is to go in from the back and "take out the light shield barrel, shutter nut, and shutter and also disconnect the soldered portions". Looking in the back of the camera revealed that I'd need a spanner or two to get in there. I could see that the light shield had two opposed grooves for engaging a spanner, as did a retaining ring immediately adjacent the shield and surrounding the lens.
Well, not having the funds to spend at Micro-tools (eventually, but for now I'll have to make do), I decided to make what I needed. At first I thought to make simple spanners out of brass or aluminum flat bar. Not finding any appropriate stock at the few places I looked, and not having time to go to the Metals Supermarket, I looked through what I had kicking around downstairs. I found a small piece of brass - about 1/2" x 3/16" x 5". I could make a piece with some tips, but would have to have some kind of shaft. Then I noticed some #2 Robertson (square) screw bits that had been rounded off from use, but were still kicking around (I subscribe to the "you never know when something will come in handy" principle). Hmmmm.. maybe I could attach a spanner tip to the bit shaft, and then use a bit-driver as a handle. It worked, and it actually didn't take too too long to make each one, once I figured out what to do. I measured the camera innards with a divider and a dial caliper.
These bits had a hardened tip and a much softer shaft; an 18T bimetal hacksaw blade - and a few good files - worked fine.
Please ignore that nasty silver-soldering job. But it worked.
First up was removing the Light Shield. The spanner worked fine - but it turns out the thing isn't even threaded. Oh well.
Now removing the light shield revealed the ring (the one with the tool marks from the previous owner's efforts) that I was *supposed* to remove. That's why there are three spanner bits. I had made one for the ring around the rear lens - which I don't need (for now).
Everything came apart as advertised.
This is the backside of the shutter/lens assembly. The aperture control lever is that thing at about the 7:30 position - contiguous with that plate that extends about 280 degrees or more.
So, where to now? There still no obvious cleaning/lubing access without digging further into the works. I'm certainly up for that, but will pick the collective brains here first before I proceed. Can anyone point me to a good resource (with pics?) for this Citizen shutter?
Any dire warnings? ;-)
thanks,
Bill
