Vertical alignment

[Biber]

Does anyone know where you can find the tool needed to adjust the vertical rangefinder alignment on later Ms, preferably without paying too much, and how to perform the adjustment once you have it?

I'm trying to find a relatively secure way to handle this myself since there is no one in my city who can fix this, I have to go to Malmö one time to leave the camera and one time to pick it up again every time it goes out of alignment, and sometimes it would be nice to be able to repair it immediately.

 

[Kris]

Jonas, the vertical alignment is done adjusting a screw behind the red dot. The red dot is attached only by sticky tape and can be removed using a small flat screwdriver (although I saw a Leica tech removed it by using only his fingernail). One good thing about M2/3/4 there's no red dot to remove, just a cover screw. 🙂

Just move the screw a tiny bit as the movement of the double image is quite sensitive. You'll have to be patience but it can be done quite easily. Mount the camera on a solid tripod.

 

[Biber]

I had a look behind the screw on the M4P (easier to remove and put back than the dot on the M6). Behind it was something with a hole in it (hard to describe when you don't know what it is), I'm not sure how I should adjust it using a regular screwdriver. Should I push it in some direction or is it supposed to be screwed?

I don't want to damage anything so I'm doing this very carefully. 🙂

 

[Kris]

Can you shine a torch into the hole? There should be a screw there that you have to turn using a flat screwdriver. I've seen M7 with the red dot removed and the hole indeed looks bigger and different to that on M3. But the vertical alignment mechanism should stay the same i.e. turn the screw for adjustment.

On the M3, when the screw is pushed, it moves backwards. I tried as much as possible not to apply pressure, just torque to turn the screw. As I said, be patient. Good luck! 🙂

 

[Biber]

I had a look behind the dot on my M6, and it looks totally different from my M4P. There are two holes behind the dot, one small in the middle and one slightly larger in the lower right corner. There is something that might be a very tiny screw behind the larger hole, but even if that is the correct one I have no screwdriver that small.

I think it's best if I can ask the repairman to show me how to do it myself.

 

[awilder]

The safest way is to order the tool from Leica as I did. The tool at it's business end has a pin that goes in a small hole of the vertical adjusment plate. Just above the pin is an eccentric cam that engages a slot near the small hole and rotating the tool raises or lowers the slot which raises or lowers the RF image. Facing the camera, rotating the tool counterclockwise raises the RF image. The tool was $250 USD years ago when I bought one. You can make your own tool by piggybacking two Allen (hex) wrenchs together if you have have a set by simply removing the red dot cover and finding the size wrenchs that fit if you can see inside the openning. Finding a way to firmly piggyback them is the trick since rotation of the two wrenchs must occur as a unit.