Lubing shutter leaves on Ricoh Diacord? Help!

[TimSmith-Laing]

Can anybody give me any tips on how to get at and lube the shutter leaves on my DIacord? It has an extremely sticky shutter that fires intermittently at best, and this seems to be down to dried grease on the shutter leaves.

Last night I experimented with warming the shutter under a lamp to see if this made any difference. With the grease warmed up the shutter fired snappily at all speeds, only jamming a few times. But, sadly, this was only temporary, and it seems as though I'll need to go in and clean the blades myself.

So, how do I get in? It looks as if the lens assembly unscrews from the inside, but Im wary of digging around the back of the lens with a screwdriver. Is that really what's called for? And then, what should I use to disolve the old lubricant? I was thinking a fine paintbrush with some meths/lighter fuel/toluene before relubing with very fine synthetic oil...will this work, or am I building up to ruining the whole thing?

Help please!

Tim

 

[colyn]

You don't lube the shutter blades. That will jam it up.

The shutter mechanism needs cleaning and relube..

 

[TimSmith-Laing]

Hi Colyn...thanks. Can you give me any more info on that? Just how tricky wil it be, and how do I access the mech?

Tim

 

[literiter]

What cameras have you worked on previously, may I ask? Have you opened anything like a compur shutter?

 

[colyn]

Hi Colyn...thanks. Can you give me any more info on that? Just how tricky wil it be, and how do I access the mech?

Tim

If you've never worked on a shutter before I would advise sending it out to a qualified repairman. The shutter needs to be completely stripped down and all parts inspected and cleaned then relubed during reassembly. It then has to be calibrated to specs for proper shutter speeds.

 

[TimSmith-Laing]

Sounds nasty...I think I'll take your advice Colyn. Do you know of any good repairmen, ideally in the UK?