Early m3 #708k back to life!!!

Monochrom

Monochrom

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Hi people!

Yesterday arrived a leica m3 serial number 708xxx for repairing!

This beaut is one of the very first made during 1954, waht a thrill to fix it.

The grandson jammed 30 years ago and now it will have a new begining...really not only jammed it but cracked one of the gears inside...thus jammed.

check the picture beside the m3 script on the top plate rests the dead brass gear. And the already installed the "new" one...

11213092023_d99f4c7997_z.jpg


The best coincidence is that another early m3 arrived a few days ago for repainting it!!!

🙂
 
😀 yep i guess the grandson now almost 40 knows what the advance lever is for!!!

Since the older gear is brass and the new one is steel the advance is a little rough...i´ll have to do some sftening before sending back to the world!
 
Over time I did two repairs of Double Stroke M3's myself, both with a stuck advance and both had teeth on the same gear stripped.

Replacing is the easy bit, then you need to accurately tighten the spring washer on top for the first stroke to 'stand' so the second stroke can complete cocking the shutter. In my first camera that spring washer was missing and it took me forever to figure out how this was supposed to work. But I did... 😎


If you're running a repair business for Leica, pls make sure you have your address data listed in the thread on Leica repairs, in the Leica M forum!? More skilled repairmen/women are always welcome to keep those beauties purring😉
 
This is so heartening. I have an M3 very near yours in SN that had the most unfortunate treatment a camera can have -- it was dropped into the ocean on an Oregon beach. And that was just the beginning. After the dunk into sandy salt water, the owner then directly placed the camera in a box without any cleaning or due attention -- for several years! I pulled it from a pile headed for the trash bin.

I couldn't "write off" this camera, even though it was quite damaged from salt water, sand grit and neglect. So, I've been slowly bringing this poor camera back from the brink. Luckily, brass does not corrode like steel, so the mechanism is mostly intact. Many of the steel wire springs have rusted and failed (crumbled) but I've been able to make new ones for the most part. Don and DAG Camera Repair has luckily been able to provide me with a "new" drum roller and a gear or two. Its been slow going but I intend to resurrect this camera. We're over half way there. I'll be sure to show it off when I finally finish it. I haven't yet tackled the rangefinder, but I suspect I'm going to have problems with deterioration of the framelines, possibly the beamsplitter too, but my initial inspection showed it to be in surprisingly good shape. I won't know until I dig in.

Anyway, thanks for the inspiration. I need it. (and your M3 looks much happier) 🙂
 
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