"Pad of Death"

[jon_flanders]

A very common problem with Electros is the dreaded pad of death. I just want to mention that I have successfully replaced this pad without removing the front lens assembly. The pad (or pad area) if it is missing can be reached over the front of the camera.

Scrape the old glue off, apply glue to your new pad, insert a pin in the side and stick it in place.

See the Yashica Guy's site for pad diminsions.

 

[emaquiling]

Does anyone else know who can CLA these GSN's? I don't really have the time but I would like to get it done. Hama charges $90 to CLA. Anyone have a resource that is more economical?

 

[jon_flanders]

I doubt there is much else out there besides Hama. The Electro is actually pretty easy to work on. The top comes off in about 10 minutes. Pad replacement with my method might take an hour.

Other common problems are a corroded battery wire and stuck shutter. The GS I just fixed up in an evening needed the pad, the battery wire and a new front len due to fungus. I gave it some lighter fluid on the shutter since I had the front lens out. Now it fires up, clunks and behaves as a good Yashica should.

Give it a try!

 

[dfstone]

I have three that need pads replaced

I have three that need pads replaced

I was looking at the location for the pad and it's pretty tight quarters. As far as scraping off the old pad and old glue, how did you keep it out of the camera? The idea of using a needle to hold the new pad is pretty cool. I think I would rather go that route. The discussion of taking hours to put lens back on makes me nervous. Especially when the article says you will need three hands etc.

Jon Can you elaborate any further on this process? It would be greatly appreciated. 😎

 

[Pherdinand]

I kept a vacuum cleaner turned on with its pipe oriented towards the pad. Everything flew nicely away from the region.

 

[jon_flanders]

I was looking at the location for the pad and it's pretty tight quarters. As far as scraping off the old pad and old glue, how did you keep it out of the camera? The idea of using a needle to hold the new pad is pretty cool. I think I would rather go that route. The discussion of taking hours to put lens back on makes me nervous. Especially when the article says you will need three hands etc.

Jon Can you elaborate any further on this process? It would be greatly appreciated. 😎

I think the vacuum cleaner idea is a good one. I didn't find that that much material fell into the camera, it tends to come off on the knife. If some does, take the bottom off and blow things out.

I used "Goop" glue that takes a little while to dry and allows for wiggling the pad around. I turn the camera upside down for drying. But the pad prettymuch fits in the space anyway. I tried one camera the lens section way. It ended up being use for parts. There a re a lot of wires inside an Electro that are easy to break, even if you are lucky enough to get the camera mechanically back together.

 

[CraigK]

Well Yashica repair Gurus,

I have a lovely black Electro 35 that is in pretty good shape. I finally managed to McGiver a battery for it and am happy to say that the battery check lights up, the over and under warning lights seem to work but alas, the shutter seems to only have two speeds. When no over or under light is lit it seems the shutter fires the 1/500 default no matter what fstop I choose. When the "low" light signal is on, the shutter fires at a "B" setting. It remains open until I release the shutter button. Bottom line, whatever gizmo is supposed to choose the proper shutter speed for any given light condition/fstop/iso is not holding up its end of the bargain.

So, off to the repair shop it goes. Before I take it there though, what is your best guess as to the problem? Is there anything I can try before I take it in for repairs?

 

[jon_flanders]

Just to encourage you to try the pad replacement, here's a testimonial I got recently from Australia via email.

Hi Jon,

thanks for the reply and extra descriptions. As of 2pm yesterday my Electro 35 is clunking like a beast. Shutter is working on B, Auto and Flash settings correctly and the over/under lights seem to be more responsive - but that could be just my imagination and personal euphoria.

Following your directions and other stuff I had read off the repair forums, I sucessfully installed the new pad - and have a fully working yashica now. Chuffed.

I guess everything is easy once you know how but I really can't see the issue with this process. It's a bit fiddly but once the pad had been cut to size - it's about a 10 minute job! Certainly not the huge and involved process the 'stripping' procedure entails. Other than accidentally dropping the pad inside the camera I can't see the down side to the 'microsurgery' route at all.

I'm thrilled with this as it was going to cost me $160 to get a tech to do it here - it ended up costing 35c for a tap washer.

Thanks again for the feedback and guidance, maybe I'll write a tutorial for the net on an alternative procedure to the 'correct' way to replace the pad. I'll be sure to quote my mentors and sources.

Thanks again,

 

[dfstone]

I really appreciate your posts Jon. I spent some time this evening and got two Electros working. Still need to put light seals in the second one. On the GSN I have been using, the external under light cover was missing. Found it when I took cover off (yea). Just had to clean, glue and replace the round light seal on top.

I figured out what I was doing wrong on the top replacement of the pad. The lever that is depressed when you press the shutter was at the top and I was trying to place the pad in between. I experimented and realized that if I pressed it down it stayed down out of the way. Made things much easier. I am afraid if I took the lens off it would be a parts camera.

Thanks again.

 

[jon_flanders]

I really appreciate your posts Jon. I spent some time this evening and got two Electros working. Still need to put light seals in the second one. On the GSN I have been using, the external under light cover was missing. Found it when I took cover off (yea). Just had to clean, glue and replace the round light seal on top.....

Thanks again.

Two Electros back to life in one night! The world is a better place.

Glad to have been of some help.

 

[dfstone]

Hmmm Spoke too soon on the original Electro - I had to resolder the Synch cable. Doesn't trigger the flash when you press shutter but does trigger when you rewind. I guess I need to clean and resolder.

 

[terence]

Just to add my 2c worth:

I have 3 yashicas and one of them had no pad. You can easily tell by the "clunk" sound it makes when you advance the film. IMHO if you want to work on one of these, if's much easier having 2 cameras and you can cross reference in case something goes wrong (which it will if you are a newbie like me). Listen carefully when you cork the shutter, the sound the camera makes with and without the pad is distinctly different.

I replaced the pad with rubber cut from old inner tyre of a bike (2 pieces glued together to get the 2mm thickness). I did it the stipe down way. I managed to pull one of the wires out and had to resolder it back (not the easiest soldering in the world but not THAT hard). But I would not have been able to do it if I did not have the second camera as a reference.

If I had to do it again, I think I'll try replacing the pad using Jon's method. BUT I'd say it's only viable if you have done a pad replacement before or you have another camera to "copy". I had a lot of difficulty locating the non-existing pad to start off. I had to look at a working camera to locate it.

Cheers.

 

[Buttershug]

Hi,

I'm the gushing newbie that Jon quoted above - I replaced the pad, Batt wiring, lightseals, front lens element and cleaned and recalibrated the finder on my G - all of it from reading posts on fora such as this. I do thank Jon and others who contributed their opinions and experience in various postings, without which I would have been stumbling around pretty much in the dark. The 'micro-surgery', or the 'Flanders' version of the pad replacement is a breeze, it really is. Not nearly as daunting as the thought of ripping apart an electro and then trying to put it back together bit by little bit...

In general, (with some exceptions of course), there seems to be a handful of things that go wrong with these cameras - all of which can be fixed with little time and patience. And the results are amazing. My electro has produced some of the best shots I've ever made and seemingly without much effort. It's so damn fast - point - shutter - shoot. And the lens is brilliant. I love looking at some of the tiny, tiny deails in things like tree bark and grains of sand that come out crystal clear in some of these shots.

But I guess I'm preaching to the converted here.

Good to see a bit of interest in a Yashica forum - I hope it continues. 😛

Best,

David.

 

[cauliflowerhead]

Can anyone tell me where the POD is? I've looked online but on yashica-guy's site it doesn't show where the pad is for the micro-surgery route of fixing it.

If anyone has a pic or a link or something I'd love to see it.

I have 2 G's that I've taken apart for comparison, the both have the same problem, one of them has a pad like thing that looks like its deteriorated but I don't know where the clunk sound would ever come from because it doesnt seem to hit anything. Neither of mine clunk though.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks. 🙂

 

[normb]

Just wanted to let others know that I too recently replaced my POD. I did loosen the front plate but I didn't actually have to pull the lens off to replace the POD. there was so little of my POD left, that I just scraped the residue off with an x-acto knife. I glued the new one in place and all was good, a pretty painless procedure (I did break the ASA dial screw when re-assembling, but that's another story). There are alot of good references here and elsewhere on the 'net for replacing the POD.

The POD should be visible from the front of the camera on the shutter release side near where the lens plate meets the body shell at the top You might not be able to see it if it's compeltely rotted away. All I had was a brownish "grease blob".

 

[cauliflowerhead]

Oh...*cracks knuckles*...this might be harder than I had originally thought.

There's no room at all if what I'm looking at is it.

 

[pshinkaw]

There are some excellent photos of the innards here:

http://personal.inet.fi/koti/picnet/Y35G/

including some "Pad of Death" photos.

-Paul

 

[cauliflowerhead]

When you have the camera opened up and the lens is facing you, is the pad on the right or the left of the shutter release? I think its on the right but if so I have no idea how I'd get too it.

Sorry for the questions, I just dont want to ruin two Electro's and I don't want to open my working one up and take a chance at breaking it.

Thanks again.

 

[cauliflowerhead]

I gotcha...I know what I'm looking at now. I can barely see what I'm scraping off and I have no idea how I'd fit a new pad in there. Is it eally that bad taking it all apart? Or should I just try this method?

So I just took it all apart since I have 2 other non-working ones I can use for parts should something go wrong.

I used a cork cut to size (very roughly might I add) and as soon as the glue dries I'll cross my fingers and either have a really really good night or a really really bad one.

Wish me luck. 🙄

 

[Poptart]

I guess I got lucky; my GSN is perfect.