Olympus Zuiko 200mm f5 Disassembly Question

[R_a_feldman]

I posted this on another repair forum (Olympus Zuiko 200mm f5 Disassembly Question) and got a few good responses, but no one had any direct experience with the lens, so the responses were not specific. I am cross-posting here in case someone here has experience with the lens. The exploded diagram is on the Wayback Machine at Wayback Machine. WARNING: DO NOT go directly to olympus.dementia.org. Whoever owns the domain now is serving up malware -- a fake antivirus scam.

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I just got a OM-1 F-Zuiko 200mm f5 (not f4!) lens (serial number 120xxx) with a known fungus condition. The infection did not look too bad and the price was right.

I have been able to remove the rear two lens elements (behind the diaphragm) and the front element, but I am having trouble getting out the next two lens groups, the doublet and the plano-concave lens in front of the diaphragm. From the exploded parts diagram that is online it looks like the only thing holding the lens group in is a retaining ring which is about 1cm wide. It looks like the ring might have some thread lock applied, so I have been soaking it in acetone, without success so far (half a day).

Does anyone have any experience with this lens and any suggestions as to how to proceed?
</quote>

 

[R_a_feldman]

To close out this thread, after carefully soaking parts of the lens for several days in a automobile brake cleaner containing tetrachloroethylene (repeatedly applying it to the glue lines with a small artist's paintbrush), I was able to disassemble the rest of the line piece by piece. Now all of the lenses are free. I have treated them with hydrogen peroxide for the fungus and they all have cleaned up well.