Help! Contax ll shutter crate jam

[Highway 61]

I'm trying to fix two Contax IIs right now, and so far it's been an absolute nightmare 🙁

It shouldn't. This is not a camera difficult to service provided that you don't get the two shutter curtains out of sync.

The point is : working on a Contax II is very, very, very time consuming. You cannot fix or service it within a few hours. Once this accepted, things can run fine.

Having some Kiev spares at hand can be a good thing (beamsplitter prism, rangefinder swinging element, screws).

 

[Kevcaster]

Yes I concur with Highway 61, not totally difficult just requires time and patience.
I found it useful to treat the rangefinder and focusing train as one project and the shutter as another. These two units are independent of each other, for example. After the top is casting removed all the rangefinder and focus parts are to the front of the camera and can be cleaned and adjusted with the shutter in place: http://elekm.net/zeiss-ikon/repair/clean.html
After that, if the shutter has to come out for the various gear trains to be cleaned and lubricated then this can be tackled fairly easily. Once the shutter is out you may as well remove the self timer for soak cleaning.
If it is just a question of viewfinder cleaning and shutter ribbons then both these are easily accessible without removing the shutter and without removing the focusing helical.
Good luck

 

[nhchen]

I gave up trying before I went too far but as far as I could tell, the Contax I is not 'modular' (not really the right word but you'll get my drift). In other words you seem to need to pull almost everything you come across apart as you go in deeper. I don't think the shutter can be removed as a unit.

Ok I managed to figure out what my contax I. It was actually easier to resync the gears in it than in a contax II, and replacing the shutter ribbons was a similar process as a contax II as well. The hardest part for me was putting the film winding/speed selecting knob back together in the right orientation.

Here it is on the right hand side beside my other contax I. Not the most pristine copy, but at least it works now 🙂



regards,
nathan