Replacing shutter cloth on a Zorki 4

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Roger Vadim

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Hi all!

I have a Zorki 4 in overall good shape and especially like the bright finder (much better than the one in my fed2).
But the shutter curtain has been painted thickly with some sort of laquer paint, its wobbly and doesnt look very trustfull. I would like to change the curtains and perform a CLA. My question is: is it very difficult to change the curtains, and ist it worth the effort (might just by another one for parts with a good shutter...)

Has anybody changed the curtain and could give me some advise?

Thanks, Michael
 
The description of your Zorki's shutter does warrant replacement. To do this, you must know how to take the Zorki-4 apart. The best reference would be Isaak Maizenberg's books.

I have replaced the shutters in my Zorki, FED, and even Zenit cameras. No Zorki-4 however. The replacement material isn't very critical, and you can use the shutter cloth from camera-repair supplies.

To give you an idea how shutter replacement is done, and the subsequent operations needed to put it back to running state, see here:http://jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page455.htm

Note that the operations shown are for Zorki-1 or FED-1. The Zorki-4 has a more complicated assembly and has extra parts like the slow speed mechanisma as well as flash synch switch. But to be able to work on later models, it would best to see how the basic mechanism works first :)

Jay
 
If you follow the sticky "HOW TO - Zorki 4K CLA" it'll get you pretty close to being able to get at the shutter curtains - you just need to remove the RF to get at one of the top plate screws. After that, ZorkiKat's site will show you the rest. Underneath the additional complexity the shutter is pretty much the same on later FEDs and Zorkis as the early ones. It's tedious and fiddly but not difficult. The bit that'll try your patience is reassembling the parts into the crate whilst keeping the curtains, laths etc all in the right relative positions!
 
Thanks for your help!!
hmhm... looks like some work... i am not sure about this stripping the camera down thing... i once ruined a nikon FE because i couldn't get the mirror house back in the frame - the link to the trigger didn't work. and this sounds very simmilar...
now i have a stripped down FE for parts...(which might come in handy in 20 years when the other FE's fail to work(sic!);))

maybe i wait until winter for that attempt anyway. And check the speeds extensivly on slide film (I normaly do B/W...)

cheers, michael
 
Yes I actually purchased this curtain that arrived a few days ago. I wonder how far I am to replacing the curtain from this point (see attached) I've followed the CLA guide, but pretty close now to acting recklessly :)

39E9B73A-B67A-4D3D-A1F5-B071745A04AB_zpsm74ps3pz.jpg
 
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Looks like there are traces of oil in the base of the shutter crate. A Zorki 4K of this age should still have good curtains.

Oil and (Spray like WD40) will distort and damage the rubber on the cloth. That's probably why the previous owner tried to patch up the curtains with paint or lacquer.

Too bad there are many 'old stock' camera's at the moment being 'repaired' with spray to make them functional for sale.
 
I was mistakenly recommended a thin oil to apply to the shutter gears of which one drop ran on to the metal. After that I was told of using lighter fluid, which is amazing stuff. The curtain you can see in the pic must be the rear curtain and this is looking ok, however when the shutter is cocked, the front curtain is heavily perforated and in very poor condition.
 
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