advance lever is a drag, Leica CL

[De_Corday]

New-to-me CL, and I'm tickled pink, but the advance lever is all weird. It advances fine, but drags on return, needing to be assisted back to standoff. I think the washer stack might be out of order... What's the proper order and orientation of the washers under the advance lever? And should I add a spot of lubrication if nothing else works?

 

[Dan Daniel]

If you loosen the top piece on the wind lever a touch, does it spring back smoother?

 

[De_Corday]

Yes, but not until it's loose enough that there's vertical play in the lever

 

[Dan Daniel]

I was just wondering if the spring was still good and if it is the washers' positions and maybe numbers.

I haven't been inside a CL for some time and don't have one around, so I can't tell you the proper assembly. I can say that I've seen very little if any lube used in the lever in a variety of cameras, so I'm not certain that is the right approach.

There's the repair forum here, where you might stumble into someone with the answers.

 

[Sparrow]

... a good clean first, and then maybe a bit of graphite from a soft pencil ... I've seen a diagram of it online somewhere, I thought I had it bookmarked but I can't find it now

 

[De_Corday]

A good clean and some light graphite help, but the lever still won't snap back home. I'm thinking there's got to be a part that's in the wrong order.

 

[VictorM.]

Here's the parts from mine, in the order they were removed:

 

[VictorM.]

Disassembly, after removing first screw:

 

[VictorM.]

Next three:

 

[VictorM.]

And everything has a very light coating of grease.

 

[Sparrow]

.. is there a felt washer in there?

I recall taking one apart, I remember thinking it was a bit like the m2 ... with the m2 it gets more 'snappy' as it ages though, the spring washer seemed to cause the damping and the felt washer located the lever, there must be an expert on the board somewhere.

 

[De_Corday]

Thank you all. everything was in the right place, but I was also greasing the helicals on an Industar so I threw a very small amount of grease on the advance... it makes it all the way back now, though slowly. I think it might improve as I keep using it (I couldn't help myself and I loaded it today, so I can't just work the grease in by working the lever.) I'll post here in a day or so, see if the improvement continues.

 

[De_Corday]

No go, gang. on and off gummy vs quick. It's gotta be a worn out part in the stack somewhere.