Zorki 6 curtain assembly

[ujkozavlanje]

Hello everyone! I got a Zorki 6 from my late grandad, and the problem with it was that the speed selector had seized and was stuck at 1/30 of a second, and the second curtain wouldn't close at all, only halfway upon tripping the shutter.

I've disassembled the camera, cleaned and lubricated all of the components, and the rollers are turning with no problems, the advance also, but l'm having a hard time reinstalling the curtains properly, l can't get them to travel as they should. After l tensioned the rollers (3 and 4 turns for the first and second curtain) l can advance the camera, but the first curtain upon releasing it travels only halfway, and at the same time gets kinked and bulges out towards the lens, and the second curtain is stuck all the way to the right.

I've been following the instructions on jay fedka site, but to no success. Can you please offer me some advice as to how to properly assemble the curtains? Thank you in advance!

 

[wolves3012]

Did you remove the curtains/tapes from the drum or tension rollers? You shouldn't have needed to but if you did they have to go back *exactly* as you found them (on the drum-end anyway). A likely cause is that you didn't fit the restrictor gears back in the correct position, these are the gears at the lower end of the curtain drum - they limit the range of movement the drum has. It's also possible to arrange the curtains and tapes incorrectly so they tangle up, although if you followed Jay's photos they should be right. Failing that, I'd have look at the mechanism with the top removed, you may be able to see what's blocking the curtain(s) when you fire the shutter.

 

[ujkozavlanje]

Thank you for your help, l eventually figured out what l was doing wrong...

Aside from running the tape of the second curtain the wrong way, l was tensioning the first drum in the opposite direction (l don't know how l managed to do that) and that was causing the bending of the curtain. Once l ran the tapes properly and tensioned everything the way it should be, the camera fires on all speeds, there is some shading on the right, but l need to adjust the tension, l just set it approximately for testing (about 3,5 turns for both).

However, l do have another issue. When l connect this lever, the way it should be:

when set on B, the camera releases at another faster speed, maybe 1/250 or faster, can't really tell, but when it isn't connected, the first curtain releases as it should, the shutter stays open for as long as l hold the button, and when l release, the second curtain goes only halfway and stays there, as if it doesn't have enough tension to complete the cycle. Similar thing happens on 1/30, but not on faster speeds. Should l increase the tension of the second?

 

[wolves3012]

Ok, let's try and explain how the shutter speed mechanism is supposed to work. On the photo above, your arrow points to the second curtain latch, it's the cresecent-shaped arm and it's spring-loaded inwards and downwards and has a notch in it, you can see it clearly. The speed-change has two main parts, one is the alloy piece that can be lifted and turned and it has an arm on it with a downward-facing pin. The other part is brass and also has a short arm and upwards-facing pin, it's linked to the second curtain. Here's how the shuttter should work:

On all speeds, both curtains are released together and the crescent-shaped arm is lowered and pushed inwards. For speeds other than "B", the small arm (on the lower part) becomes trapped by the crescent-shaped arm's notch (so the second curtain is immediately held back) but the upper (alloy) piece's pin reaches a point where it kicks the crescent-shaped arm aside, releasing the second curtain. The angle between the two pins/arms is set by the shutter speed, the larger the angle the longer the second curtain is held (i.e. slower speed).

On "B", the latch works slightly differently. The alloy part never travels far enough to kick the crescent-shaped arm aside, so the second curtain is held open until you release the shutter button. Releasing the button allows the crescent-shaped arm to lift up and so releases the second curtain.

By the way, with the latch removed, the shutter will always run full-speed and there will be no exposure at all - both curtains are released together, remember!

As far as your second-curtain travel is concerned, you can fire the shutter and then *gently* feel the curtain-lath to see if it has tension left in it. If it has, the fault is likely to be in the restrictor gears (on the bottom of the curtain drum) or something else is blocking the travel. If it hasn't, you don't have enough tension. However, even a couple of turns tension on the rollers should be enough to close the curtain if it's free-running. Two turns is probably not enough to work correctly but it should close the curtain. Just one thought: you are setting the tension rollers with the shutter in the "fired" position aren't you? Don't do it with the shutter cocked, that's not correct.

 

[wolves3012]

One more thought about the second-curtain latch: The spring that tensions it needs to be right. Too much tension means the latch holds the curtain so securely it won't push aside, this then stalls the first curtain too. It will sound as though all speeds work as "B". Too little tension means the latch fails to hold the second curtain at all - all speeds will sound fast and there will not actually be any exposure. You may have to bend the spring to apply more, or less, tension. I have had to do this but it's unusual so don't do it unless you've established the problem.

 

[ujkozavlanje]

Thank you for the info! I was tensioning the curtains with the shutter released of course. I believe that the second curtain needs a tad more tension, but l'll check first. The restrictor might not have been positioned properly, because when l open the back of the camera the second curtain lath is visible and is maybe half a width too far to the right. As far as the spring on the second curtain arm goes, it might be holding the arm too securely, l remember when l was disassembling a Zenit EM for CLA its spring was much thinner and didn't have as much tension as on Zorki.