Zorki 6 CLA or... Once more into the Abyss

sig said:
When I broke this spring on my zorki 5 I ended up with bending the end of the spring that broke (close to 90 degrees), and super gluing it to a hole in the body (I believe there used to be a screw there). Since the spring was shorter than it was supposed to be I used 1 of the 3 screw holes in the lever for the spring and put the screw in the former spring hole.....
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Nice trick, sig!
 
TVphotog said:
Hey Guys, sorry I have been so lax in checking this forum lately. The cat is not going anywhere! Well, if you can afford the food bill, I am sure the wife might be convinced to let him go... He is about twice the size now that he is in the photographs!!! He is still just as 'helpful' though he tends to take up the entire workspace😀 I have not taken the zorki 6 apart in ages. I actually feel lucky in that none of my FSU have needed any work of late. Of course, I have just jinxed myself and now all my FSUs will crash😛 I will play with the Z6 tonight and post some pics of the spring. I do have to say that your spring in question looks nothing like any of the springs I have found in my Z6s. Yours looks more like some enterprising camera repair guy made one with whatever he had available.
I want to say that when I put it back together, I set the spring in its catch on the gear and then threaded the advance lever on. I then used the advance lever to wind the spring to the correct tension. Once that was set, I then screwed the lever onto the camera. This was the easiest way to do it. It is nearly impossible to wind the spring and hold the tension while setting the advance lever onto the body. I will get some pics up tonight to show how I put it back together. I will even show the cat!
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Thank you. I also suspect that *##**! spring: it's very different than the spring of another Z6 i've opened.

Regards from my helper to yours 😎
He's a little bit annoyed by this Zorki thing... only Leicas in his bag!
 

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Okay, first things first, I had internet connection problems last night and I could not get my post to show. I was stuck all day shooting a school board meeting... (theres six point five hours I will never get back) So here is the post I promised last night.

First, all must bow to the magnificience of the mighty Zeus(or so he believes)
STA72061.jpg


Those are standard 12 inch tiles for a size reference.

Now onto the Zorkis. I am going to guess(never assume) that everybody knows how I got the Z6 to this point. You can see the tail of the spring poking out on the right side of the frame.
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Here is the spring after removing the lever and the chrome ring above it. Notice how thin mine is in comparison to the one shown.
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Now comes how I reassemble it. First, the advance lever has a claw that fits into the ratchet wheel. Mine is tensioned with a very small wire spring. My spring is bent and it takes a bit of work to get the claw in the proper postion and not loose the tensioning spring. I then work the catch of the advance spring in its proper location on the lever and then slide the lever into its proper postion. Thus using the lever to tension the advance spring. You can see the 'claw' I was referring to earlier in this shot. It is by the U-shaped cut out in advance lever.
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Then I slide the chrome ring down and turn it to slide the catch of the spring up into the hole in the chrome ring. This takes a bit of pratice and a third hand sometimes. Usually, I use a small flat bladed screwdriver to help ease the spring up into postion. Then just screw the chrome ring back down.
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Hopefully, this helps a bit with the issue you are having. I would suggest that you contact one of the known repair guys to see if they have the proper spring. Yours looks like somebody broke the spring and replaced it with whatever they had available at the time. If Yuri, Oleg or whoever doesn't have a proper spring, check with some of the reputable Ebay guys like Alex-photo or others.
 
Hello, I need to resurrect this thread, as I am having problems with my Zorki 6. I only wanted to do a bit of vertical alignment but it went horribly wrong and the whole RF system is now completely off. I stupidly messed with all three controls for vertical and horizontal alignment and now I have no idea on how to get back to a solid start. The RF window seems to be adjusting the vertical but only if it is not screwed in to tight, but then the infinity focus is all wrong. Do I need to open the top of the camera, because that didn't work either (frame counter ring refuses to unscrew). Is there a way to get to fix this in baby steps and very simple English, please, or else I will have to accept that my little camera will be forever retiring.
Many thanks.
 
Gregoris said:
Hello, I need to resurrect this thread, as I am having problems with my Zorki 6. I only wanted to do a bit of vertical alignment but it went horribly wrong and the whole RF system is now completely off. I stupidly messed with all three controls for vertical and horizontal alignment and now I have no idea on how to get back to a solid start. The RF window seems to be adjusting the vertical but only if it is not screwed in to tight, but then the infinity focus is all wrong. Do I need to open the top of the camera, because that didn't work either (frame counter ring refuses to unscrew). Is there a way to get to fix this in baby steps and very simple English, please, or else I will have to accept that my little camera will be forever retiring.
Many thanks.
Click to expand...

You'd be better off following the "How to adjust your RF" thread. You don't need to take the top off to adjust it. If the window is rotated to adjust vertical, you must make sure that only the inner part moves, otherwise the outer part will unscrew, which I think is what's happening. Once you have vertical correct, adjust the infinity with the adjuster screw concealed behind the nameplate screw, then close-up by adjusting the pie-shaped RF sensor. You'll need to keep adjusting both ends of horizontal to fine-tune it, because each one affects the other. See the other thread.
 
Wow this is a great thread I went into doing my RF alignment then hit trouble with the spring on the advance lever too. I’m not sure why, but whenever I tension the spring it causes my leaver to sit “on the p*ss” and the return is exceptionally slow and doesn’t actually make it home.

Any advice on this ? I’m at my whits end I sat up till midnight trying to sort it then woke up at 02:00 with it on my mind. When things go wrong they weigh heavily !
 
Mark240590 said:
Wow this is a great thread I went into doing my RF alignment then hit trouble with the spring on the advance lever too. I’m not sure why, but whenever I tension the spring it causes my leaver to sit “on the p*ss” and the return is exceptionally slow and doesn’t actually make it home.

Any advice on this ? I’m at my whits end I sat up till midnight trying to sort it then woke up at 02:00 with it on my mind. When things go wrong they weigh heavily !
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I know it is almost one year after the question but... have you checked that the spring is kept in place on the inner side by the silver screw below the winding lever?
 
And I am here too to resurrect the thread: I recently bought a Zorki 6 which seems in good working conditions.
The only problem (of course there is a problem!) is that the rangefinder is not well aligned vertically, and the rotating lens in the rf window cannot fully compensate for the misalignment.
Any suggestion on what to do? Is there a way to realign it directly on the rangefinder mechanism and then fine tune by turning the "alignment lens"?
Thank you 🙂
 
I'll answer myself 🙂 yep there are two screws that can alter the vertical alignment directly on the rangefinder mechanism, but they are veeeery tiny!
 
nice indications how to open the Zorki6 up ... bit can't seem to get by the left handed screwing counter dial (well the ring inbetween the counter and the actual shutter knob) ... it seems to be very well tightened down? any suggestions on what tooling can be used to safely remove this ring ?
 
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