Film not rewinding on M2

[ChewMo]

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Hoping someone here can help shed some light on my situation with my M2!

 

so I recently received an M2, which I’ve had and used primarily for the past month or two. When I bought the M2, it was said to have recently been CLA’d, but how true that is I’m not sure. Anyway, I’ve put about 10 rolls through it, few hiccups here and there with loading film, and rewinding. I think most of it was user error though coming from an M7 body (which I feel is pretty hard to mess up loading and unloading) recently after finishing a roll I was rewinding it, and when it got near the end the tension got to be too much to turn by hand, so being the idiot I am, I gently gave the knob a quarter turn with some pliers, and it finally broke free of tension. I spun the knob a few more times, but there was still film reaching the take up spool. The rest had wound inside the cassette as it should. 

 

So, the next roll I put through it the following week after this little incident, shot and advanced fine, but when it was time to rewind, the knob would turn and turn without ever feeling like it was rewinding the film. It also kind of gave a click feel every turn, like it was trying to rewind the film, but the teeth inside the body were skipping in place because they could handle any resistance. I finally called the roll a loss and took it out. After testing a few things, I realized the know would move the teeth, and the red eyes with no film inside, or resistance on it. But when I reached my finger inside where the teeth would catch the bottom of the film canister I was able to hold it still with enough resistance, and the knob would still turn, without turning the eyes or the teeth. Almost like my little plier episode stripped the knob from the teeth in someway. Curious to know if anyone has had a similar issue? Or if anyone has an idea of where I should go from here. All my local camera repair shops are closed for the next few days, so I suppose I’m also just being a bit impatient with the whole ordeal

[Mute-on]

Sounds like a trip to a known Leica service expert is unavoidable. It would seem that the little plier episode was somewhat fatal.

I’ve never forced the rewind on my M2, but neither has it given such resistance that I might have ever come close. Rewind resistance should be moderate and fairly constant until the film leader releases from the spool. 

Live and learn, I’m afraid. 

I hope it is easily repairable!

[jaapv]

Pliers to a camera? Ouch. You certainly broke the rewinding mechanism. Fortunately these cameras can be repaired in most cases.

Next time open the camera in your darkroom and gently remove the film.

[ChewMo]

I’d like to call it a momentary lapse of judgement unfortunately. But I suppose you guys have confirmed it, it’ll need a trip to a repair shop. For the time being I guess it’s back to the trusty M7 while she gets fixed

[jaapv]

Ok. As long as you don't resort to a hammer should the shutter button get stuck.

[250swb]

1 hour ago, ChewMo said:

recently after finishing a roll I was rewinding it, and when it got near the end the tension got to be too much to turn by hand, so being the idiot I am, I gently gave the knob a quarter turn with some pliers, and it finally broke free of tension.

I can guess what you are thinking now, 'if I can just prise the top off the camera with this big screwdriver and pour some glue inside it should fix the broken part and save me from sending it to a repair man'. But don't!, you'll find the job much easier if you use a hacksaw.

[hilm3]

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That happened to me once, but I think it was the M6. I did not force the lever, but opened in a changing bag. Turned out one of the sprockets on the film had cracked and split and the film was stuck. It was very near the beginning of the roll near the leader. My guess was the the leader had become brittle. I was in the habit before then to kink the film leader if I happened to rewind the film before I had shot all the frames. I would bend the leader at the point counting the number of frames I had shot. This was likely the cause of the roll tearing as I rewound. I now use a sharpie and draw the line instead of kinking the leader.

[earleygallery]

Pliers to force a hand made precision mechanical camera?!

I suspect that you've broken the clutch mechanism at least, maybe damaged other parts too. The good news is that it will be repairable (pretty much the same parts will be used in the current MA) but the bad news is your mistake will not be a cheap one. You may as well stump up for a full CLA while you're at it.

Edited January 28, 2019 by earleygallery

[davidmknoble]

I agree on the full CLA while they have it.  I shot the military version of the M-2 awhile and some M-3's for several years.  I found that if the 1/1000 of a second was set to closer to 1/900 second, the shutter speeds stayed spot on for awhile.  Best of luck, love that era camera body...