JohnAS Posted September 16, 2017 Share #1 Posted September 16, 2017 (edited) Advertisement (gone after registration) Pulled my M8 out of its' box after being in there for a long while. Charged up my two old batteries. One afternoon, one of the batteries, that was showing "2 bars" on the battery charge level, died mid-wind. No battery display. Turning the camera off and on gave a little peep, with no display. Putting in the other battery gave me the dreaded "drive blocked" message. What to do? Visual inspection of the shutter showed that it looked ok, but was not fully cocked. Send it to Leica? Bang it and see if it'll continue cocking with the good battery? The "banging" it a bit with the palm of my hand did nothing, despite what others suggested on this forum on posted-long-ago messages. Mark Norton's "Anatomy of an M8" was incredibly helpful; (it is on this site) as it showed what the insides of the camera was like. So, armed with one of my (expensive) screwdrivers, I removed the 5 screws holding the plastic plate on the bottom of the camera (take the bottom cover off). The cocking lever was shown to be ALMOST fully cocked, and the cocking cam was at it's highest (thus, least torque) position. A little push with a flat bladed screwdriver on the bearing shaft that rides on the cam enabled the shutter to finish the cocking procedure. Screws put back in place, and the camera is functioning very well. Two new batteries ordered, and the "dud" marked so it is not used in the camera. Now, I do some delicate metalworking for another hobby of mine, so have good tools, and know how to use them, but I think anyone who has some top-quality (German, in my case) screwdrivers and a clean environment should be ok - just think before you poke. Camera now seems fine, and it's a pleasure to use again. Why did I leave it in its' box for so long??? Edited September 16, 2017 by JohnAS 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted September 16, 2017 Posted September 16, 2017 Hi JohnAS, Take a look here Bad battery and "drive blocked" - a simple fix. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Jeff S Posted September 16, 2017 Share #2 Posted September 16, 2017 (edited) Good work. Maybe you could eventually take apart an M10 for us, a la Mark Norton (not Horton). Jeff Edited September 16, 2017 by Jeff S Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnAS Posted September 16, 2017 Author Share #3 Posted September 16, 2017 Woops - fixed the "Horton" to "Norton" - thank you for pointing out my (careless) mistake. An M10 - hmmm - have to purchase one first, unless someone wants to loan one? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ko.Fe. Posted September 17, 2017 Share #4 Posted September 17, 2017 This is where one shot taken with mobile phone (they focus and expose close to the thing properly) before second use of expensive German screwdrivers would make big difference for guy like me. But thank you, now I know it is possible. Somewhat Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnAS Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share #5 Posted September 18, 2017 (edited) Hi Ko.Fe. - Mark's thread is available on this site. Yes, a picture would be worth a thousand words, and fortunately, the picture is provided by Mark himself: https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/21079-anatomy-of-the-leica-m8/page-4?do=findComment&comment=224409 That is the under-side view, with the camera resting on the lens mounting flange. You can see the red arrow, push the round bit at the base of the red arrow to the right. In Mark's picture, the shutter is cocked; when I took mine apart, the cam (seen behind the arm-to-be-pushed) was ALMOST finished pushing the arm to the right, but had stalled. The "round bit" in mine was approximately where the arrow head is in Mark's image. A short, firm push caused the shutter to cock (easily heard. - smile -). The first try with a battery gave me a warning message, (likely because the arm was not where it was expected to be) but the camera figured it out, and it's been fine since. Hope you never have to perform this operation, but if you do - at least you'll have a bit more guidance to help. Certainly saves a trip to Leica NJ for a 2 minute operation, and the money saved would pay for a few batteries. (mine are being shipped and should be here tomorrow, fingers crossed) John. Edited September 18, 2017 by JohnAS 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnAS Posted November 30, 2017 Author Share #6 Posted November 30, 2017 Well, news, maybe not good news. Was on a trip, new batteries, charged. Shutter jammed one afternoon. Managed to unjam it, by "palming" it when turning it on, and it cleared. However, it did jam again, on our last day, and could not get it unjammed. It's boxed, ready to go back for servicing. I actually really like the M8, and not really interested in upgrading, although a corrosion-free M9 might be a possibility - we'll see what Leica says about my beloved M8. John. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernstk Posted December 1, 2017 Share #7 Posted December 1, 2017 Advertisement (gone after registration) I had the same issue with my M8. Sent it to Wetzlar and they repaired the shutter, realigned viewfinder, recalibrated the sensor position and did a general service. It came back like new and running very smoothly. Ernst 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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