Zorki 4K Rewinding Question

[TXForester]

While rewinding the film in my 4K, I noticed the the rewind knob would go part of one or two turns and hesitate (unexpected resistance). After several turns it would lock up. I played around, but did not force anything.

I found that when it hangs up, I could turn the shutter disengaging "bush" to the shooting position and give the film advance lever a partial turn. Turning the shutter disengaging "bush" back to rewind position, I could then rewind some more film with periodic resistance until it hangs up again. I repeated this until I wound the film completely.

Seems like there is a problem somewhere between the disengaging "bush," the advance lever and the takeup spool. One or more of those may be hanging up causing the resistance in rewinding the film. Any ideas about the cause and is it something that I can fix or does it require specialized knowledge/tools?

Thanks

 

[wolves3012]

The most likely cause is dried up grease in the release mechanism. Unfortunately, it's not accessible without major disassembly. However, if you look fairly well down the Zorki 4/4K CLA thread, you'll come across the bit about lubricating the release via the little hole in the sprocket.

You could flush some lighter fuel (petrol/naphtha) down there too, hopefully removing some of the grease. Tilt the body back to make sure none goes into the bottom of the shutter crate. Work it between wind and rewind a lot! If you do this, you need to take precautions to catch the fluid as it spills out of the bottom and you also need to make sure it's fully dried - I'd leave it in a warm place for 24hrs with the back off. I take no responsibility for this procedure but it might just work and save a lot of effort.