Zorki 4 Remove Second Curtain Release Arm

[newfilm]

hey guys, the usual story, my sometime the second curtain of my Zorki 4 stuck open, and it will close if I pull on the curtain a little or winding the shutter for next shot, this does not seems to affect speed above 1/60, only the slower speed.

I strip the top down, following the various excellent thread found on this forum, and sure enough the second curtain release arm thing is not spinning fluidly as I think it should, I have manage to remove the shutter speed selector (the golden colour thing).

I've attach picture bellow I hope it describe my current situation better. I can't seems to remove the Second Curtain Release Arm? I try to pull it up but it don't seems to move, I'm afraid to apply too much force and bend/broke the arm.

Any hint welcome, many thanks.

 

[wolves3012]

The release arm is a force-fit on the shaft and isn't really meant to be taken off - why do you need to remove it? You can do all the necessary CLA work without taking it off and your stuck curtain is probably not caused by a fault here (although some lubrication to the pivot will likely not hurt and is covered in the "How To")

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

+1

It (the second curtain cam) is connected to the part seen below (which interacts with the shutter drum) and is likely not causing the fault in your camera

 

[newfilm]

I see. Ron, by the way, how did you get the drum out? Do you continue to disassemble the top part until all screw are remove and the drum housing would just fall away? Any spring to watch out in the drum I assume stuff will start to unwind when the drum is pull out from the body?

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

I see. Ron, by the way, how did you get the drum out? Do you continue to disassemble the top part until all screw are remove and the drum housing would just fall away? Any spring to watch out in the drum I assume stuff will start to unwind when the drum is pull out from the body?

Check before disassembling that the shutter has been fired 🙂
With a Zorki 4 and 4K (its the same for a 3, 3C and 3M) you can disassemble the camera going from top to bottom as you describe. However I find it most practical to first disassemble the body shell and the back/bottom. Answering you question: there are no springs that will jump - apart from the 4K which has a windgear with a bladespring (check the notes from CLA sticky).

THINGS FOR YOU TO WATCH OUT:
1. Tiny washers that are located at the shaft of the drum (up and below!); they might fall out or fall out in a later stage (sometimes they are sticky because of grease on them);
2. The shuttercurtains but more likely the ribbons might come loose from the drum or its rollers. Therefore it is best to leave the curtains and rollers on the drum and rollers as much as possible.

If you want to take the drum and rollers out, it is also better to first take out the front plate from the shutter crate.
This is how the camera looks when taken off the body shell, the back, bottom and front plate of crate (note I also took off the rangefinder in order to give it a good clean):

Further advice is to layout all the parts in a specific order on a white paper: it will help you to reassemble the camera lateron since you don't mix up the different little screws and washers.
you get something like this:

Shuttercrate before taking out the drum (is locked with a screw at the bottom) and curtain rollers:

After taking out the drum and rollers:
you can now fully clean the restrictor gear and where it was seated when you take it out (bottom of shutter crate)
many times this gear is one of the causes of a faulty shutter:

Taking out the shuttercrate gives room to clean the gear train of your camera (after a good clean and lube it may wind smoother):
In case of the camera below there were film chips on some gears:

You can also clean out the tooth of all the gears (don't forget the gear below the shutterdrum) with a tooth pick.

If you've never done this, then the hard part is to get the drum and rollers with its shutter curtains back in the right place: but practice AND PATIENCE will help you to get it right.
Oh and after installing the rangefinder, you'll have to test the camera again for accurate focusing.

 

[newfilm]

Oh wow Ron, mighty thanks for the picture! I have previously follows wolves3012 guide and arrived at the shutter drum (thanks wolves3012 🙂. I guess I'll be continuing the disassembly on the coming weekend, this weekend has run out 🙁

will report back what I find in the drum when I get there.