Canon LTM Canonet QL17 GIII repair - broken off rewind

[lost eden]

I lent my mint GIII to a friend & he broke off the rewind knob :bang: Everything else seems to work, but I can't really tell until I get it open. Apologies for the bad cameraphone pic.



I want to try to repair it myself if possible & only charge him for the parts & any tools I might need. I've dismantled & serviced FED & Zorki cameras, so I'm happy to attempt the repairs as long as they aren't too involved. Failing that, I'll investigate sending it somewhere for repairs. Failing that, I'll buy a new one & bill him for it.

So my question is this - how easy will this be to repair? I will need to buy a new rewind knob & associated assembly, maybe by buying another broken GIII & cannibalizing it for parts. But the first problem is getting the door open - how can I do this without the rewind knob? Can I insert something very fine into the side of the body where the latch is & lift it up to open it?

Any & all help appreciated...

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I would not try to pry it from the side. Try using a screw driver on the hole left by the rewind knob to lift the shaft, or a pair of expansion pliers. I checked the parts bin for GIII knobs- no luck.

 

[Brian Legge]

If you take off the top, it should be easy to pop the back.

I this I have a parts Canonet GIII at home. Let me know what you news once you figure it out.

 

[rjbuzzclick]

If you already have experience working on rangefinders, this should be easy. Remove the screw collar around the shutter button and take the film advance lever off. Then remove the 2-4 screws that you can see around the top cover (don't remember exactly how many there are), and the top will lift off. There might be a wire connected to the hotshoe but I don't remember for sure. From there you should be able get at the door release mechanism, or at the very least, grab the top of the broken shaft with a pair of pliers and pull up on it. After the film is removed, the broken shaft should just push into the film compartment (might be a retaining spring on it). Get the same part from another camera and put it back in. The rewind crank just screws into the top of this shaft.

 

[lost eden]

Are there any guides/photos for removing the top? The most advanced camera I've ever (successfully) removed the top from is a FED-2 so I don't want to take the top off of this Canonet only to cause more damage!

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Look Here:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90468&highlight=canonet

 

[lost eden]

Thanks for the link, I've managed to open the camera & remove the film now. It was actually a lot easier to remove the top than a FED-2 because there are far fewer bits to remove before the plate lifts off.

The good news is it looks as though nothing is actually broken inside & all I need to do is get a new rewind knob & screw it on (assuming I can get all of the glue out of the thread after the friend tried to glue the original one back on).

I this I have a parts Canonet GIII at home. Let me know what you news once you figure it out.

Do you happen to have the rewind knob? Also, where are you located? I'm in the UK but I figure international shipping wouldn't be expensive for such a small & light part anyway?

 

[Brian Legge]

Sorry, lost track of this thread. PM sent.

 

[Frontman]

You might have trouble getting out the broken off part of the rewind knob inside the rewind shaft. You can remove the shaft easily if the top cover is off, simply pull out the little spring clip (it looks like a small hair clip) at the top of the shaft, the shaft will then fall into the film chamber. If you can't get the broken off bit out, you'll have to replace the shaft as well.

 

[kuzano]

One location for a parts GIII

One location for a parts GIII

Go to www.shopgoodwill.com. This is an auction site for Goodwill stores across the US.

There are usually 2 or 3 Canon QL17s and/or GIII's on the site, at any point in time, if you do a search for Canon.

Because it's Goodwill the auctions are rather misinformed with bad pictures, but usually can find a GIII and quite often a good working example. At the very least you can find one with the parts you need, plus more.

I suspect unless you have some nice tools, the simplest thing to do is replace the shaft in the camera and screw the rewind knob into the new part from above. Snug it down by putting a screwdriver in the cogs that turn the film in the canister and cinche the knob down with the lever or screwdriver from the top.

Prices are usually lower than one expects on the Shop Goodwill auction site. Good source for Canon RF models and Olympus RF and XA/XA2 models. But knowledgeable people are starting to find the site.

No reserves and the sellers are Goodwill stores. That's who you buy from... the individual stores. Be prepared for some pretty iffy auctions re pictures and descriptions. But, I have made some sweet buys there, undetermined until you open the package.