Zorki 5

[-doomed-]

I recently acquired a zorki 5 in relatively good shape , seems to have a sticking shutter , it works for about 5 shots then it sticks until i turn the camera to vertical and gracity pulls it down .

Im wondering if anyone hasa good writeup that still has a working lin on repairing my zorki 5.

I have a feeling that the rewind lever being loose feeling is part of the problem.

Other than that i feel like this will be a good shooter , i love the collapsable elmar type lense, which needs some sort of lubing on the threads to get it back to smooth operation.

Any help would be appreiciated.

 

[ZorkiKat]

Accessing the insides would be similar to working on a Zorki-1. Both slide off the body shell, and from there, the parts can be worked on. The winding lever and everything associated with it is different though. This is one of the more complicated parts of the Z-5. Some of its components are quite fragile too.

ONE THING which you must remember about Z-5 is NEVER to "dry fire" the shutter without any lens on the camera. The parts of the shutter speed mechanism and the RF can mesh. Without the lens, the RF arm can jut out too far and within the topplate, the parts connected to it will get too close to the shutter speed regulator. Though this doesn't always happen, it can and when it does, the fix can be tedious.

If you must fire the shutter without any lens, push the RF follower inwards (lightly and slightly midway through). This is to make sure that the RF components within the top plate doesn't mesh with the shutter parts when the shutter disc rotates during firing.

Some say that this isn't true, but I've been handed a couple of Zorki-5 already which had their RF and shutter parts tangled, and this happened for the reason given above.

 

[ZorkiKat]

BTW, Zorki 5 (and perhaps Zorki-6) winding levers tend to feel really heavy and gritty. In most instances, the old grease used in them has hardened.

This heavy feel can also be due to missed meshing of the advance gears. The gears are arranged in two or three steps and encased in a cradle type assembly. This cradle can be adjusted several ways, which allows a lot of play to make meshing possible. The cradle's mount can be shifted until the gears engage smoothly and then fixed. Plus a lot of new grease (thick and heavy is better than light and thin) will help.

Do not try to force the winding lever if it feels tight or refuses to move. The gear teeth used in Z-5 were quite brittle.

 

[wolves3012]

The Zorki 5 is somewhere between a Zorki 1 and Zorki 6 in terms of stripping it. There's a thread in this subforum on how to remove the top from a Z-6, the Z-5 being pretty much the same. As Jay says, the lower part comes out like a Z-1 and his site has great instructions on that!

Jay: You're right on the Z-5 and Z-6 having "gritty" winders unless they are cleaned, relubed and adjusted properly. Once done, however, they are lovely.

 

[-doomed-]

Other than the sticking shutter it seems to work well the winder is pretty smooth on it