M6 film advance troubles

[Steve B]

Well, I guess I'm going to send it out anyway but I thought I'd see what info I could glean from some of you guys.
I've had my M6 for a little over a year and in the last few months the film advance has been jamming. I'll be part way through a roll and the advance lever will bind up. I can rewind and remove the roll and everything seems to work fine. But when I put the roll, or another roll, back in the camera it may work fine and it may jam up after a few exposures. It generally jams about half way through the advance lever travel and is stiff enough that I know something is wrong and I would likely break something if I forced it, so I haven't.
On a possibly related side note: The rewind has always been stiffer, especially at the end of the roll, than I had expected when I bought the camera. Certainly not as fluid as my F3 and stiff enough that I have occasionally wished for a longer rewind lever. I wish I had the opportunity to compare this to another M camera to see if it was normal.
I bought the camera from KEH and have just checked out their quick repair quote online. $145. I imagine they'll want to look at the camera before making a final quote though. Anybody have any thoughts on the best place to send it? I'm new to the Leica world. I don't mind paying to have it repaired well but mainly am bummed that I'll have to do without it for awhile. Thanks to all for any thoughts, advice, sympathy, etc. Cheers,,,,,

 

[BillBingham2]

Drop a line to Don at DAG or Sherry at Golden Touch, they are the best. There is a forum for repairs somewhere here, I've not looked or it so I can not say that it really is here.

I've use Don on several lens and been VERY HAPPY. He is slower than some, but one of the top five folks in the world. I have not used Sherry, but everyone who does loves her. She is the best in the world on M5s and like Don, one of the top five in the world. They may cost more, but the quality is second to none. Roland used a new guy and loved him a few months back. I live in Chicago and Don is right up the road from me out side of Madison WI.

I've had an M6 from about two months after they started shipping and never experienced that problem with it.

You might open up the bottom and look in with a flash light. You might have part of an old roll left on the take-up side and it's too full. If it unwound you might not see it. Have you changed from using 24 exp rolls to 36? this might be the reason. Did you get back full rolls every time you've developed?

Kind of sounds like she could use a good CLAing.

B2 (;->

 

[ZeissFan]

Could is possibly be a problem with the A-R lever not releasing correctly?

 

[Steve B]

Thanks B2. I've used Sherry once before. She overhauled a summicron for me and the service and communication were pretty confidence inspiring.
I just looked carefully into the interior and can see nothing amiss. It all looks clean and pristine.
I've always used 36 exp rolls and they have always been fully exposed except when I jammed at 25 and just put in a new roll.
Is your rewind just a little stiff at the end of the rewind or is it pretty smooth the whole way?

ZiessFan: It seems like the A/R lever not releasing properly/completely could cause the stiff rewind problem but I'm not sure if its related to my advance bind up. The roll always starts out advancing properly but occasionally binds up around exp number 5 to 10, but this morning it happened at 25. I just took out the roll and loaded a new one and its been advancing well although I'm only up to exp. 22 so far.

Everything else on the camera seems to operate beautifully but since its new to me and I do like to go on long trips I'll send it off for a complete CLA. I might have to tough it out till after my next trip in a couple of weeks though. It works 99% of the time and I really want to take it along.

 

[ZeissFan]

What I would do is get a junker roll of film.

I would load the camera and move the A-R lever several times and see if I could repeat the failure.

If you can repeat a failure, then you can pass that information along to the repair person.

 

[colyn]

One thing you might try before sending it out is to remove the wheel (roller) on the base plate and try a throw away roll of film to see if it works better.

If so clean the shaft and the inside of the wheel and lightly grease it before replacing.

 

[charlesfoto]

I had the same problem, sent it to Sherry. It's a washer of some sort in the winding mechanism that comes loose...easy fix, she knows exactly what the problem is when described to her. I can't remember the cost for repair, but it wasn't expensive, and the turnaround was extremely fast...less than a week.

 

[nobbylon]

i have an m6ttl that also feels like you have to put a lot of effort into rewinding. It's definately harder to do than my m6, which is silky smooth and gets progressively tighter toward the end of a roll but is still much easier than the ttl. I would just send it in and get a full CLA which is what I'm going to have done on both mine and then they will hopefully both be good for next 10 years!

 

[Steve B]

Thanks everybody, I'm interested to hear that its an easy fix and that some bodies seem to rewind more smoothly and easily than others. I've loaded up a "junker" roll and can't seem to duplicate the error and playing with the A/R lever during advance doesn't seem to worsen the advance function. If I trigger the rewind lever it resumes its advance position as soon as I touch the advance lever. And of course right now everything seems to be working well. Its only happened 5 or 6 times in the few dozen rolls I've run since buying it about 14 months ago. So I think I'll use the camera through my next trip in 10 days and send it off to Sherry for a CLA as soon as I get back. I'm sure she'll put it to rights and it'll last me well into my dotage, or until I can afford an M12, whichever comes first.

 

[colinh]

As Charles said, it's a loose washer in the rewind assembly. It's been described on a Leica FAQ (have to find out which one ... 🙂. You can even fix it yourself if necessary, but sending it in to one of those famed repair people would of course be better.

Hah! Found it in Andrew Nemeth's FAQ. He links to Kyle Cassidy, a cool dude!

http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leicaslacker/rewind.html



colin

 

[Steve B]

Thanks Colin, for a second there I was tempted to give it a go myself. But then I took out the camera, realized I didn't see, or know, how to remove the advance lever and decided that I'd feel a whole lot better if I sent it off to Sherry to do the whole job on. And then just know that everything was going to continue working for a few more years. Thanks,,,,,,Kyle's site is pretty funny, too.