Tensioning problem

[Alpacaman]

Hi all,

I have been following these forums for a few weeks now, and now I finally have cause to make a post, even if it is asking for help. 🙄

My Zorki 4K had a shutter mechanism that wasn't working, so I opened it up and fixed that. Then I found that the shutter curtains were acting up and needed re-tensioning. The roll farthest from me (when the back of the camera is towards me tensions fine), the the screw closest to me (the second shutter curtain?) seems not to. I have been turning it anti clockwise for a while, but it seems to have no effect, does it just need a lot more tensioning, or is it not working? How quickly do these things normally tension? Feel free to point out if this is a stupid question, I have a feeling it is.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Oops, I should probably have put this in the repairs section.

 

[Ramon-uk]

From a completely untensioned spring you normally need about 3 or 4 turns.

Place your screwdriver in the slot and hold it, loosen the nut, if there is any tension on the spring it will try to turn the screwdriver.
If there is no tension try 3 turns anti-clockwise, release the pressure on the screwdriver a little, if spring doesn't try to turn the screwdriver then you probably have a broken or detached spring.

What did you actually do to repair the shutter in the first place.

 

[Alpacaman]

Well, in that case it would seem that the spring is detached (unfortunately). The shutter release thing was gunked up, so pulling some parts out of that and cleaning them seemed to solve the problem.

 

[wolves3012]

As Ramon-uk says, after 3 or 4 turns you should easily be able to feel the tension on the spring. Whereabouts are you? I have a couple of spare rollers if you're brave enough to strip it all down to swap it, I could send you one.

 

[Alpacaman]

Uh, New Zealand. I ended up taking the defective roller out, removing the curtain from it, screwing the top off the roller, and putting the spring back in its little notch. I then cemented the curtain back, and it seems to be working much better now, but it will take a lot more fiddling until I am satisfied.

Thanks for the offer though 🙂