Kodak Retina II Pre-war film rewind problem.

[Sid836]

I have acquired a wonderful pre-war Kodak Retina II that has a problem with the rewind knob. When pressing the switch on the side of the camera to rewind the film, turning the knob does not rewind the film back into the canister. It seems as if the fork under it moves freely completely disengaged from the knob.
Do you know if this can be repaired? Are there any photos showing how it should be (missing some spring perhaps)?
It is not anything major as I could do this in a changing bag, but it would be great if I could change a roll as with every other camera.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

A J-shaped blade-spring should be held in place between the rewind knob and the core/fork part with the same screw that keeps the rewind knob attached to the core. If that spring is missing or installed incorrectly the rewind knob will not engage with the core/fork for rewinding and just spin freely.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[Sid836]

Is this visible as I pull the rewind knob up? Is it between the lower end of the knob and over the fork?

 

[Mr_Flibble]

When you pull up the rewind knob you should be able to see the sheet metal blade spring sitting to one side of the 'VF-tunnel' in the stem.

One of the screws that holds the knob on to the stem also holds the spring in place.



If the knob was re-installed the wrong way round the spring would sit on the wrong side for it to engage the locking mechanism on the stem. I know this was one of the more tricky parts of the CLA I did on mine.

 

[Sid836]

Thank you! I had removed the knob install it in another way (not sure what I did actually as I could not see what was wrong) and now it works as expected.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Great! 🙂

It's part of some small ratchet mechanism I guess.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about...

The encircled part serves as a pawl to a ratchet, the design of the knob and stem allows it to be installed on the wrong side, thus not working like it should and you can't rewind your film.