Konica EE-Matic Deluxe F RF alignment

[ludoo]

A while ago I bought a nice EE-Matic Deluxe F for a couple of pounds (I posted a thread about it in the fixed lens forum). It's in mint condition apart from the RF: the patch in the viewfinder only moves vertically and has absolutely no horizontal adjustment. And even if it was a weird design where the patch moves vertically it would be off by a mile.

My problem is, I have no idea how to fix it. Any of you can point me in the right direction? A pic of the RF assembly when focused at infinity, where I have placed a red dot on the pin that moves when focusing

and a pic at near focus

You can see that the pin connected to the lens focus has moved laterally. My only guess is that the pin should push the screw sideways instead of having it slide along its circumference.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[FallisPhoto]

My only guess is that the pin should push the screw sideways instead of having it slide along its circumference.

Any help much appreciated.

Nah. You don't push screws anywhere. What I think it should be doing is pushing against part A, which, via a linkage, should be moving mirror B.

 

[ludoo]

Nah. You don't push screws anywhere. What I think it should be doing is pushing against part A, which, via a linkage, should be moving mirror B.

What you have marked as A is actually the side of a spring, the picture is misleading. The linkage is the screw, and in fact it's the one that can be registered by an outside hole for horizontal alignment. The weird thing is there's absolutely no horizontal movement, and turning the screw from outside only moves the spot vertically. I think something got bumped out of place, but I cannot understand what and how.

Edit: I thought about this a bit (slow day at the office), and one possible explanation is that the RF mirror ("B" in the above pic) has so much vertical play (and/or is stuck and cannot rotate) that it gets displaced vertically instead of rotating.

 

[ludoo]

After playing with the vertical and horizontal RF screws, and finding that as soon as the patch seemed more or less aligned a small bump messed everything up again, I noticed that the RF mirror has come unglued and is moving around. Mystery solved!

My problem now is how to dismount it from the RF assembly and glue it in place again.

Back view with the RF alignment screws: A for vertical, B for horizontal. The mirror is on the front face of A, so I need to remove this part from the assembly.

Front view with the detached mirror labeled as A:

Bottom view, the mirror assembly is above the large brass screw:

Any ideas?

 

[FallisPhoto]

After playing with the vertical and horizontal RF screws, and finding that as soon as the patch seemed more or less aligned a small bump messed everything up again, I noticed that the RF mirror has come unglued and is moving around. Mystery solved!

My problem now is how to dismount it from the RF assembly and glue it in place again.

Back view with the RF alignment screws: A for vertical, B for horizontal. The mirror is on the front face of A, so I need to remove this part from the assembly.

Any ideas?

Two possibilities.
1. Can you get into the place you have to glue with a hypodermic needle?
2. It looks like the vertical adjustment screw is what is holding it on.

 

[ludoo]

Well, I read your message too late and did not think about a needle, which might have worked.

I thought too the part was held in place by the vertical screw, but it turns out that it's the large brass screw on the bottom, which also holds in place the long arm that transmits the focus movement to the mirror, much in the same way a wind lever does.

Unscrewing that was not enough to free the part though, I also had to unglue the screen placed in front of the mirror, which works as a "gate" to keep the part in place.

I will buy some decent glue today (any suggestions?) and will probably work on putting everything back together tonight. I have to say I'm not overly impressed by this camera's build quality, the RF is mostly made by cheap plastic parts glued together. I am beginning to understand why both my Auto S2 were falling apart, and the better one of the two required substantial amounts of time and money to put back into working shape.

Edit: I forgot to thank you for your help, I really appreciate it; I also have to say that even on topics that are of not much interest to me, I often find your posts worth a read.

 

[ludoo]

Bought some superglue, and tonight I fixed the RF! I will fine tune horizontal alignment tomorrow when there's some light.

I'm really happy, it's a nice camera and fixing feels like a job done. Thanks for the help and moral support!

 

[arraart]

same problem

same problem

Hello I have the same problem but I can not get the top plate off.
How do I get the top plate off? I get that film revind you dissasemble but what about film advance lever?

 

[martzin]

I am working this exact issue right now. Glad to have found this entry. Thank you so much. I just have two questions:

1. How did you disassemble the last part? I can't find any way to get the final piece out, so I can get to the small mirror. No screws to be found.

2. How did you align the small mirror when gluing it? It seems the slightest misplacement throws everything off.

Thanks,

Martin