Help needed - Canon 7 shutter speed dial

[npeters]

Perhaps you might be willing to help me with a small problem with my Canon 7 rangefinder. A year or two ago I had to remove the top cap to refit the white plastic viewfinder illumination window that my 5 year old daughter managed to displace while reaching for the camera when I was photographing her. After the minor fix, everything seemed to be OK, however I now find that the 1 - 1/30 second speeds are not operating properly (although the 1/60 to 1/1000 second speeds work well.), which I am guessing might be related to the top cover removal. The Canon 7 service document available on the web notes the following fixes for this problem

Adjustment of slow shutter (l - l/30)
Loosen Screw S1207 and make the adjustment by turning Eccentric Collar C2497 to right or left.
By removing the Shutter Speed Dial this adjustment can be performed with two small screwdrivers without taking off the Top Cover.
[
All well and good, however I find that I can’t actually remove the shutter speed dial. There are 2 surviving grub screws of the original 3 holding the dial in place (1 long, 1 short) however removing these seems to do nothing – the speed dial still turns and adjusts the speeds, i.e. it is still effectively fixed even having removed the screws...

The parts I am referring to are shown as C 2466 (dial), C 2601 (long grub screw), C 3818 (2 only short grub screws) sitting above the ASA speed dial C 9326 in the Canon 7 PDF available at Pentax Forums.

I am beginning to wonder if the missing grub screw has migrated into the inside of the dial mechanism, jamming it in place, as I notice that these screws don’t seem to want to stay in place, or maybe it’s something else. Have any of you come across this before? Do you have any suggestions that might allow me to remove the dial to make the eccentric collar adjustment? [/

Any help you can give me would be most appreciated.

Many thanks, Norman Peters, Canberra

 

[relistan]

I haven't actually taken apart the top of the camera (only the bottom part), but are you sure you got the screws loosened enough? Also, I found that the tolerances on the Canon 7 are incredibly tight (very high quality manufacturing), but that means that it is sometimes simply that the friction fit of the pieces is holding them together. Don't pull too hard, but if you're certain the grub screws are loose, give it a good tug and it might come loose.

For the record, though, my 7 (not working) has the same problem with the slow speeds and all the grub screws are still present, so I doubt that's your problem.

Hope that helps...
Karl

 

[John Shriver]

There are three set-screws on the Canon 7 shutter speed dial. You have to move the ASA dial to both extremes of the speed range to expose the last screw. You only want to loosen them, not remove them. Indeed, if you back out the two shorter ones too far, you won't be able to run the ASA dial from one extreme to the other. The third is longer, and goes in the slot in the ASA dial, to prevent you from turning it a whole turn. (Gets the gears out of sync.)

Also, take note of the relation of ASA dial, shutter speed dial, and the f-stops by the meter pointer. You have to get the gear on the ASA dial properly timed to the f-stop dial when reassembling.