Leica R-E sticky shutter

[domp]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Hi all,

Recently picked up a Leica R-E for what I thought was a pretty good price. Brought it home and fired the shutter a few times on the mechanical setting (1/100th) and it was fine for a few fires before seizing up entirely. Mirror up, unable to wind or fire the shutter.

Thought it was toast but found that after a few gentle bangs on the bottom of the body the mirror comes down and I am able to wind and fire again.

So currently the camera works as so: wind, fire, mirror goes up (shutter does not move), I bang on the body a few times, shutter fires and the mirror comes back down.

Obviously this is unusable in its current state and I'm pretty sure no one in my country (Australia) services these.

Does someone have something I can try to fix it up? I'm pretty handy on the tools so not afraid to get into the guts of the camera. Really just want it to work as its a lovely piece of kit

[nitroplait]

On 8/10/2022 at 2:09 PM, domp said:

Does someone have something I can try to fix it up? I'm pretty handy on the tools so not afraid to get into the guts of the camera. Really just want it to work as its a lovely piece of kit

I haven't had hands on experiences with the R-E, but I recently bought a Nikkormat EL with a problem that sound similar to what you explain.

In my case the cause was not a sticky shutter but slightly lazy mirror movement. On the Nikkormat the shutter waits for the Mirror to finalise its upward movement.

The mirror hinge was sticky and the camera would need a gentle tap to finalise the last millimeter - it was hardly visible with the naked eye that the movement wasn't completed, so I thought like you that the shutter was the culprit.

If you fire the camera without lens and just give the mirror a gentle tab upward with your finger, it will probably reveal if this is the same issue as I had.

In my case the problem was solve-able by applying 1-2 tiny drops of naphtha/lighter fluid to the mirror hinge in the rear - with the mirror up (it can be locked up on the Nikkormat EL - don't know if that is the case with the RE). A little subsequent exercise of the shutter/mirror cleared things up.

This is potentially a VERY RISKY operation, as naphtha can ruin the focusing screen and finder if it gets in there. It may also do great damage to the shutter. The right way to do this repair is to remove the whole mirror box which is never a simple task with an SLR and above my pay grade. 

I held my camera in a position so I had some control of where the naphtha would move, and applied the drops with a syringe (after having practiced a bit outside the camera).

Don't know if this helps, but again I have to say - this procedure may potentially ruin your camera! 

Edited September 14, 2022 by nitroplait