Argus C-44R resurrection!
Argus C-44R resurrection!
Hello again Ladies and Gentlemen! This is an update on my original posting “New” Argus c-44R, in which I admitted my stupidity in breaking the wind lever screw because I didn't know it was a LEFT HAND THREAD. With the help of a kind member, Perry_B who sent me a donor C-44 I have able to successfully revive my C-44R. Notice the note of encouragement that Perry sent with the camera -
This is the part in question that I needed –
It is a lovely machined brass piece the is press fit into the camera body. A real challenge (at least for me) to remove and replace.
This is not a step by step tutorial. This is just to show you the areas of the camera in question and how to get to them. First, of course, is the removal on the camera's top deck (not going into that, it is fairly simple, says the guy who broke his camera doing just that!). Once the top deck is off you will see the brass colored Counter Plate Assembly-
And other side -
You will remove the three screws holding the Counter Plate Assembly and lift it off. After you remove the Plate you need to remove the two small springs – the Pivot Plate Spring and the Ring Gear Brake Spring on either side of the Ring Gear housing-
Once you get those springs corralled, you can remove the white plastic Stop Plate, the Counter Dial Gear, the Counter Idler Gear and the Pivot Plate Assembly and Ring Gear which are removed as a unit. You can find these parts in the parts diagrams on the Argus Collectors Group Forum -
https://www.arguscg.org/
Once you remove all that, you have exposed the object of my search, the Ring Gear Mount -
Now comes the fun part. To remove the Ring Gear Mount, you must first remove the Film Takeup Spool -
How do you do that, you ask? Well, do you see that triangular shaped piece at the bottom of the Takeup Spool? -
That has to be removed. How do you remove that? You have to scrape off the leatherette from the front left hand side (facing the camera) -
You will see two screw heads if you look real hard. You only need to remove the one on the left. With that, the Spool and Support Block will fall right out! And I do mean fall out. You want to be careful because there are two very small silver spacers and a spring that are in the center of the Spool. They usually stay inside of the Spool, but they might fall out. Then remove the Friction Disk, Sun Gear and white plastic Thrust Washer.
Now you can see up into the bottom of the Ring Gear Mount -
You will need to get a brass punch or wooden dowel that will fit into that hole and with a small hammer, carefully but forcefully hit that punch or dowel until you pop the Ring Gear mount out.
Of course now, I had to repeat the above procedures to remove the damaged Ring Gear Mount on my C-44. The only difference was that now that I knew the location of the screw that I need to remove the Takeup Spool, I just cut a small square of leatherette from over the screw head and then glued it back on when I was done -
After I beat out the old Ring Gear Mount I just tapped the donor Ring Gear mount in using a brass punch and hammer VERY carefully. After that, just had to reassemble the camera and VIOLA! It LIVES!
Mike
😀
