Kiev 4 hotshoe question

[ABrosig]

Just got my new (to me, obviously) Kiev 4. It came with the Helios 103 53 f1.8, the Jupiter 12 and an aux. viewfinder. Anyway, I tried to mount the viewfinder (black plastic/bakalite?, no adjustments, labeled 3.5 cm) and it wouldn't go in at first. I took some fine sandpaper and tried to slim down the foot on the viewfinder and was able to get it to mount, but it got stuck. It would move side to side, but I couldn't manage to work it back out of the shoe. Long story short (too late, I know) the foot on the finder cracked and now there's a piece of the foot stuck in the shoe on the camera! Am I missing something? There looked to be a flat spring/pressure plate on one side of the shoe. Is there a catch I'm missing? My downloaded manual doesn't mention anything about that.

Help!

 

[pakeha]

probably got stuck on the retain spring on the right hand side of the mount.The spring loses its shape over time and the veiwfinder got stuck on the way out.Bit of 2 pot glue and a pair of fine long nose pliers should see it fixed.

 

[ABrosig]

Got it working again. I was able to salvage the corner which broke off the foot, superglue it on and then filed the foot down until it now slips easily and securely into the shoe on top of the camera.