Screw mount leica sticky shutter curtain

[pailes]

Hi Everybody,

I'm a long time reader of various threads in this forum and just recently I decided to register myself in order to be able to contribute. This is my first post 🙂

Doing quite some camera repairs for the past 5 years I came across a Leica IIf in good condition. There was a little problem with the shutter, which was basically stuck immediately after being released, but eventually freed up and started working for some time, but when putting the camera aside for a while (with shutter cocked) the problem reappeared.

So having some experience with camera repairs and having replaced shutter curtains on various russian counterparts I started to disassemble the camera to find out what the problem might be. Interestingly, after having the camera dismantled almost completely (shutter crate left in place), cleaned and relubed most of the moving parts, the problem was still there.

I looked for hours into the mechism, moving all parts individually, still I wasn't sure what could cause the issue. The shutter curtains were still intact, so I did not attempt to replace those. After another while it dawned on me what could be the culprit: When resting the camera with a cocked shutter, the shutter curtains would start sticking together around the laths, as they perfectly overlap in cocked position. When released this would cause a lag in the shutter operation or - depending on how much they would stick together - prevent shutter operation completely.

So I started to take a cotton swab and clean off some gooey black stuff off the curtains over the laths, which helped to solve the issue for now but the thing is, I got another Leica IIIg now which is having exactly the same issue. So I wonder if this is a common problem (as I don't find anything related to this specific problem) and why it starts happing and what could be a proper fix, rather than just cleaning it a little or replacing the curtains. Any input appreciated.

Regards,
Peter

 

[Highway 61]

So I started to take a cotton swab and clean off some gooey black stuff off the curtains over the laths, which helped to solve the issue for now but the thing is, I got another Leica IIIg now which is having exactly the same issue. So I wonder if this is a common problem (as I don't find anything related to this specific problem) and why it starts happing and what could be a proper fix, rather than just cleaning it a little or replacing the curtains.

The old rubber coating of one side of the curtains is outgassing and changing into sticky goo ; nothing can be done to stop this, that's natural aging. The shutter curtains of your cameras have to be replaced with some new material (Aki Asahi sells very good some online).

This is a common fix with such cloth curtains made light tight thanks to a rubber coating. Next stage of the disease will be flaking of the coating and pinholes in the curtains.

On the old Nikon rangefinder cameras, the fabric shutter curtains are made of a special kind of woven silk which is light tight without the need of any coating at one side of the shutter curtains. Those "Habutae silk" Japanese curtains hold better over time than the Leitz, Canon, Fed and Zorki cloth curtains for instance.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

This is nothing special for cameras with shutter like this in old rangefinders.
The fix for it is called - CLA. Not just dumping oil here and where on visible parts "repair", but cleaning and lubricating springs in curtains rollers. Leaving shutter crate in place does absolutely nothing to fix this problem.

 

[pailes]

The old rubber coating of one side of the curtains is outgassing and changing into sticky goo ; nothing can be done to stop this, that's natural aging. The shutter curtains of your cameras have to be replaced with some new material (Aki Asahi sells very good some online).

This is a common fix with such cloth curtains made light tight thanks to a rubber coating. Next stage of the disease will be flaking of the coating and pinholes in the curtains.

On the old Nikon rangefinder cameras, the fabric shutter curtains are made of a special kind of woven silk which is light tight without the need of any coating at one side of the shutter curtains. Those "Habutae silk" Japanese curtains hold better over time than the Leitz, Canon, Fed and Zorki cloth curtains for instance.

Thanks for the reply. I was already guessing that it's probably the rubber coating of the shutter curtains deteriorating, maybe in combination with the glue that is used to attach it to the laths. At least this is some kind of confirmation to my thoughts!

 

[pailes]

This is nothing special for cameras with shutter like this in old rangefinders.
The fix for it is called - CLA. Not just dumping oil here and where on visible parts "repair", but cleaning and lubricating springs in curtains rollers. Leaving shutter crate in place does absolutely nothing to fix this problem.

Thanks for your input, as I said, I know what the reason is, the springs in the curtain rollers are not causing this 😉 (thus a CLA will not fix the problem)