Help with Zorki 4 disassembly

[kcobain1992]

Hi, I'm a new member here. I wanted a Zorki 4 for some time, and recently I bought a non-working 1958 model, with the tabbed Jupiter 8, planning to repair them. Then I realized that the body could not be repaired, because of crumbling shutter cloth, with holes in it, through which one can see.
I had to buy another Zorki 4 body for spares, from 1971, and interchange the shutter crates between the two.
Following the CLA sticky thread, I was able to get to the point where I disassembled everything, but now I have no clue whatsoever as to how to reassemble the camera correctly :bang:
Can somebody please explain to me how are the parts supposed to go together in order to make the shutter work? I'm talking especially about the pieces in the pictures, that I had to remove in order to get to the shutter crate.
The pieces that I don't know how to put back:

The top plate with the pieces removed:

And the (old) shutter crate:

 

[tunalegs]

This probably sounds overly obvious, but I would imagine you put it together in the reverse order of the directions for taking it apart. Is there a particular problem you're encountering when trying to get pieces to fit together?

It also appears you've taken way more of the camera apart than is necessary for a swap of shutter crates.

 

[Landshark]

That's how we(I) learn.

It's pretty common to replace curtains on these. I believe they're available from a number of folks.

At this point it may be just as easy to replace yours with new rather than taking a gamble on an unknown camera.

 

[kcobain1992]

Ok, thanks for the replies.
Can you please point me to some materials explaining how is the shutter mechanism supposed to work?

 

[KnipsOmat]

Can you please point me to some materials explaining how is the shutter mechanism supposed to work?

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-131.html
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-58.html

Cheers,
Andreas

 

[kcobain1992]

Ok, now I have a rather basic understanding of what's going on, but things are still not lining up in my thinking.
So there are two curtains, each of which is pulled in the cocked position by its roller, and in the uncocked position by two strips of curtain, attached to the opposite curtain.
The big roller belongs to the closing curtain, and the small roller belongs to the opening curtain. Shutter speed selection basically means controlling the closing curtain, so it makes sense that its roller to be connected to the shutter speed dial.
The things that I don't understand are the following:
1. As far as I can see, the mechanisms for controlling the first and the second curtain are different. The closing curtain is controlled by the big roller, which has two notches in the top (not pictured here), but which I assume are linked to the brass thing in the top cover. The opening curtain is controlled by the film rewind thing, through a set of cogwheels. What exactly synchronizes them, and how can I put it back together like it's supposed to be?
2. Should the curtain end (the metal stick that's connected to the roller and the two strips) be 100% vertical?
3. At the moment, the curtains of the working shutter are wavy and there doesn't appear to be much tension in them pulling in either direction. At which point in reassembly should I care about this?

And here are some pictures of my stuff:

 

[newspaperguy]

Buy another ZORKI; they're cheap.

Either use it til it feels comfortable,

or utilize it as a real-life guide to putting the first one back together.

I don't want to sound harsh, but you are beyond the point where mere words will help you.

As someone a lot smarter than I am suggested,

"When you find yourself trapped in a deep hole... STOP DIGGING."

 

[batterytypehah!]

I would tend to agree with Rick (and I'm sure he meant to write Zorki not Kiev), it probably makes more sense at this point to start over and put this one into the parts bin.

If you're not ready to give up, more power to you, and maybe you're not aware of the Zorki Survival Site yet. Poke around, there's a lot of stuff there that is only accessible page by page.

 

[KnipsOmat]

Ok, now I have a rather basic understanding of what's going on, but things are still not lining up in my thinking.
So there are two curtains, each of which is pulled in the cocked position by its roller, and in the uncocked position by two strips of curtain, attached to the opposite curtain.
The big roller belongs to the closing curtain, and the small roller belongs to the opening curtain. Shutter speed selection basically means controlling the closing curtain, so it makes sense that its roller to be connected to the shutter speed dial.

From reading this, I don't believe you have really understood how the shutter works. The ribbons are not attached to the opposite curtain.

Both curtains are attached to the big drum on one end and to one of the small spring rollers on the other.

First curtain is glued directly to its small spring roller and its ribbons are glued to the outside part of the big drum.

Second curtain is glued directly to inner part of big drum and its ribbons are glued to its small spring roller.

The ribbons of the second curtain run around the ends of the small spring roller of the first curtain. There should be moving parts at either end of the first curtain's spring roller. The first curtain spring roller is not just one piece.

The ribbons of the first and second curtains are somewhat entwined. See http://anachronology.mangenerated.com/blog/?p=77 pic. 91.

The metal strips on the ends of the shutter curtains should be perpendicular and they must be parallel. Non-parallel metal strips will result in different width of the slot travelling across the film gate which will give you an uneven exposure from top to bottom of the frame.

Both curtains are tensioned by their respective small spring roller (the left-threaded nuts at the bottom of the crate which are secured with small screws must be losened and then you can turn the spindle to cock the springs).

And no, it ain't easy to get everything back together 🙁