Leica R8 disassembly - Part 1

[rick_dykstra]

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Hello everyone. 

For a long time I’ve been frustrated by the lack of information on how to disassemble a Leica R8. So I made a video about it. My purpose was to establish whether I’d be able to replace its damaged shutter. If anyone has a good shutter, or a whole R8 (or R9?) that’s surplus to requirements, or an R10 (with its autofocus shutter; that’d be nice), do let me know. 

The Part 2 video is being developed and will be available for all to see sooner than any of us see an R10. I found three problems with the winding system and will be glad for your input on solving them.

Regards, Rick.

 

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[rick_dykstra]

I’m jumping ahead here. My Part 2 video has not been posted yet, but here’s what will show up at the end. The part in the attached photo appears to be broken. I think it should be Y shaped. The right side finger is missing. 

This part pivots on its bearing, left and right by about 15°, with the fingers fitting into one of two adjacent sensors. When the part is over to the left, the left finger sitting inside its sensor indicates ‘stop winding.’  And when the part is over to the right, the right finger sitting inside its sensor indicates ‘start winding (if all other conditions are met).’ 

Has anyone got one of these in their parts drawer? Even a photo of a good one would help.

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And here’s this part in the R8, showing how its fingers slot into the winding status sensors.

[masjah]

Rick, was there any sign of the broken off bit inside the camera?

 

[rick_dykstra]

Hi Masjah.

No, I’ve not found the missing finger, not even deep in the bowels of the camera. It might have fallen out years ago, when I took the bottom off for a look-see (very intimidating!). If I did find it, my plan was to reattach it.

This morning I delved deeper into the camera than before, removing all of the mainspring mechanism, along with the Copal shutter again, to get at the broken part. I measured the thickness of the remaining finger as 0.2mm, or 8 thousandths of an inch. I used an old feeler gauge blade and my Dremel to make a new finger, 8mm x 1mm, then trimmed and bent it and soldered it into place. Third try got it right. Then another trial reassembly. Sounds easy but it took most of the day. Upon testing with the motor-winder - no joy. 

I persisted and found that the sensor contacts for the wind-on lever being at the ready position had been slightly bent during disassembly. It was no longer making contact as it should when the lever is parked. After some bending and tweaking, at the next test, the motor-winder worked! Yay! 😄 Everyone in the house heard about it.

I’ll try to publish my Part 2 video tomorrow, showing all of this. 🙂

[rick_dykstra]

On 10/28/2025 at 7:40 PM, rick_dykstra said:

I’ll try to publish my Part 2 video tomorrow, showing all of this. 🙂

For completeness, here is a link to the Part 2 video.

Leica R8 Disassembly - Part 2

Regards, Rick.

[gbealnz]

I am in awe of you, this is way beyond me, (and I'd suggest, many/most here as well).

Lovely to see that someone is taking the time to keep older gear functioning. Well done.

[rick_dykstra]

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22 minutes ago, gbealnz said:

I am in awe of you, this is way beyond me, (and I'd suggest, many/most here as well).

Lovely to see that someone is taking the time to keep older gear functioning. Well done.

Hi G.

Thanks for your kind words.

It's been a very interesting process. Something of a journey of discovery, given the almost complete lack of guidance out there. Hopefully my videos will help in that respect.

Pulling these camera's apart to fix them is challenging, nerve wracking, fun and frustrating, but ultimately very fulfilling when the problems are solved and they work again. The mechanical side of it is not too difficult, provided very good records are made and good photos are taken with each step. The hard part is figuring out what does what, or worse, how to put several pieces back together so they will work correctly, without any instructions. It's the ultimate three dimensional puzzle. But if care is taken and plenty of time is allowed, it can be done. 🙂

Regards, Rick. 

Edited November 13 by rick_dykstra

[Zhenggg]

Hello Rick, I have an R8 with some symptom. Is it possible that you happen to know how to solve this. In my case the mirror stuck in the up position after a shutter release. I can get the mirror down by remove the bottom plate of the body and play with some mechanisms, but pence I advance and fire again the mirror is again stuck. I believe my shutter fires properly as I tested in mirror-up mode with various velocities and the curtain does response properly. I would be really grateful if you happen to know how to solve this.

I know some EOS1/3 have similar problems due to something related to the electronic magnets, which can be easily solved by using a strong magnets playing around. (Basically the originates from that some iron get magnetized after long period storing with battery in but no firing, so using a stronger magnet to dis-magnetize it will solve the problem). I don’t know if the R8 has a similar design and still cannot tell from your video. 

Edited November 14 by Zhenggg

[Zhenggg]

To better describe the symptoms of my R8, I removed the bottom plate and made some observation. So let’s call the configuration of the mechanisms before the shutter is cocked by config-A, and config-B when shutter is cocked. In my case when I fire the shutter, what I see from the bottom remains at config-B; only when I used some trick to play with some parts can it recover config-A.

[rick_dykstra]

19 minutes ago, Zhenggg said:

Hello Rick, I have an R8 with some symptom. Is it possible that you happen to know how to solve this. In my case the mirror stuck in the up position after a shutter release. I can get the mirror down by remove the bottom plate of the body and play with some mechanisms, but pence I advance and fire again the mirror is again stuck. I believe my shutter fires properly as I tested in mirror-up mode with various velocities and the curtain does response properly. I would be really grateful if you happen to know how to solve this.

I know some EOS1/3 have similar problems due to something related to the electronic magnets, which can be easily solved by using a strong magnets playing around. (Basically the originates from that some iron get magnetized after long period storing with battery in but no firing, so using a stronger magnet to dis-magnetize it will solve the problem). I don’t know if the R8 has a similar design and still cannot tell from your video. 

Hi Zhen. I can think of a couple of causes for the mirror in your R8 not being pulled down. 
Firstly, when you have the bottom off, look to see if the main spring mechanism is pulling the mirror down when it fires. Use a plastic spudger or your fingernail or something to hold the main spring back so it moves slowly, to observe what’s happening. You will see a brass tab which pushes a stainless steel arm; the one that pulls the mirror down. It sounds like the brass tab and the mirror arm have jumped out of position with each other, so that the tab is no longer pushing the arm. Or the brass tab might be broken? I’ll add a photo pointing to these parts in a minute, but they’re next to the straight gear rack that is bolted on to the brass plate of the main spring mechanism. 
If these two parts are no longer properly positioned relative to each other, it might be necessary to separate the two halves of the camera, to juggle them back into correct position. This is a normal step during assembly, a step it’s good to have three hands and fifteen fingers to do!

It sounds like the mirror release solenoid and it’s magnetic release is OK, as the mirror is staying down when you pull it down. If so, this is good news, as a problem here would not be so easy to fix.

I see you’ve sent another message, which I’ll look at now.

 Regards, Rick.

[rick_dykstra]

18 minutes ago, Zhenggg said:

To better describe the symptoms of my R8, I removed the bottom plate and made some observation. So let’s call the configuration of the mechanisms before the shutter is cocked by config-A, and config-B when shutter is cocked. In my case when I fire the shutter, what I see from the bottom remains at config-B; only when I used some trick to play with some parts can it recover config-A.

Thanks for this extra information. It’s in line with what I expected and so my reply above remains valid. Look for the picture I’ll post soon, once I’m out of bed. 😄 Regards, Rick. 

[Zhenggg]

Thanks Rick. Something to clarify, the mirror actually doesn’t stay down when I pull it (by directly operate the mirror)( it only goes down when I push some lever in the advancing mechanism (it’s probably not called this way though), I learned this trick from another post in a German-speaking forum.

Btw I uploaded a video showing my case, which also shows the trick that replace the mirror (hopefully it may help someone with a machine of slighter issue, and they don’t have to look for the ancient original post https://www.digicamclub.de/showthread.php?t=26660.

 Please notify me if further disassembly is needed for diagnosis regarding the mechanics, or if it’s probably electronics and the chance of fixing is rather low.

[Zhenggg]

6 minutes ago, Zhenggg said:

Thanks Rick. Something to clarify, the mirror actually doesn’t stay down when I pull it (by directly operate the mirror)( it only goes down when I push some lever in the advancing mechanism (it’s probably not called this way though), I learned this trick from another post in a German-speaking forum.

Btw I uploaded a video showing my case, which also shows the trick that replace the mirror (hopefully it may help someone with a machine of slighter issue, and they don’t have to look for the ancient original post https://www.digicamclub.de/showthread.php?t=26660.

 Please notify me if further disassembly is needed for diagnosis regarding the mechanics, or if it’s probably electronics and the chance of fixing is rather low.

Also, it might be helpful to know where the solenoid/magnet is located, so that I can try my neodymium magnet “technique” learned from EOS’s BC troubleshooting. Do you have ideal where that module is located? Thanks in advance.

Edited November 14 by Zhenggg

[rick_dykstra]

@Zhenggg 

Hello Zhen. Here's some pictures to help you see the relationship between the brass tab in the main spring mechanism that pushes the mirror return arm. First a picture to help orient your eyes with the parts. The green arrow points to the brass tab which pushes the stainless steel roller at the end of the mirror return arm. During assembly of the front half of the camera body (with the mirror assembly in it) into the rear half of the body (with the main spring mechanism in it), it's necessary to juggle the mirror return arm so that it lies in front of the brass tab (green arrow).

From the symptoms you've described, it could be that the mirror return arm's roller has slipped to the wrong side of the brass tab. Perhaps the tab is bent or broken? The next pic will show the brass plate removed from the camera and the brass tab that pushes the mirror return arm. Does yours look unbroken? Are they in the right positions, so that when the main spring mechanism fires, the mirror return arm will be pushed by the brass tab? This action pulls the mirror down.

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The green arrow points to the brass tab. The red arrow points to the roller at the end of the mirror return arm. They need to be in this orientation relative to each other, but might both be shifted to the left or right, depending on whether the main spring mechanism is cocked.

 

Here's the brass plate on its own, showing the tab. The tab has right a angle at its end, which is hard to see in this pic. The end of the tab pushes the mirror return arm's roller.

[Zhenggg]

31 minutes ago, rick_dykstra said:

@Zhenggg 

Hello Zhen. Here's some pictures to help you see the relationship between the brass tab in the main spring mechanism that pushes the mirror return arm. First a picture to help orient your eyes with the parts. The green arrow points to the brass tab which pushes the stainless steel roller at the end of the mirror return arm. During assembly of the front half of the camera body (with the mirror assembly in it) into the rear half of the body (with the main spring mechanism in it), it's necessary to juggle the mirror return arm so that it lies in front of the brass tab (green arrow).

From the symptoms you've described, it could be that the mirror return arm's roller has slipped to the wrong side of the brass tab. Perhaps the tab is bent or broken? The next pic will show the brass plate removed from the camera and the brass tab that pushes the mirror return arm. Does yours look unbroken? Are they in the right positions, so that when the main spring mechanism fires, the mirror return arm will be pushed by the brass tab? This action pulls the mirror down.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

The green arrow points to the brass tab. The red arrow points to the roller at the end of the mirror return arm. They need to be in this orientation relative to each other, but might both be shifted to the left or right, depending on whether the main spring mechanism is cocked.

 

Here's the brass plate on its own, showing the tab. The tab has right an angle at its end, which is hard to see in this pic. The end of the tab pushes the mirror return arm's roller.

Thanks for response! From what I saw my problem might not be related to the coupling of the two components. I’m not sure and the best images I can get are attached. The components seem OK?
 

Could you also check the video I uploaded earlier, which should that there seems to be no response from the any advance-related mechanism when I fire the shutter. (I suppose it’s expected to recover to some in-cocked position after shutter release; but as in the video, it doesn’t ).

[rick_dykstra]

55 minutes ago, Zhenggg said:

Thanks Rick. Something to clarify, the mirror actually doesn’t stay down when I pull it (by directly operate the mirror)( it only goes down when I push some lever in the advancing mechanism (it’s probably not called this way though), I learned this trick from another post in a German-speaking forum.

Btw I uploaded a video showing my case, which also shows the trick that replace the mirror (hopefully it may help someone with a machine of slighter issue, and they don’t have to look for the ancient original post https://www.digicamclub.de/showthread.php?t=26660.

 Please notify me if further disassembly is needed for diagnosis regarding the mechanics, or if it’s probably electronics and the chance of fixing is rather low.

Ah, I see. Thanks for this video. This shows that the brass tab and the mirror return arm are in the correct positions. My post above with the three pictures is not relevant. That's good news. No need for further disassembly, so far. 🙂 

From watching the cycles you perform, it does indeed look like there is a problem with the main spring mechanism being activated after the second curtain of the shutter has fired. The trigger sear you are lifting with your pen is activated by the solenoid below it (it has the red and white wires going to it). However, it's not clear at this point that the reason for non-firing of the main spring mechanism is due to the steel bar that is held against the solenoid being overly magnetised. It would be a good idea to look for other sources for the problem first. See my suggestions below.

I would be cautious about using a strong magnet to try to demagnetise the steel bar that is held against the solenoid's own magnet after cocking. I would prefer that the steel bar was removed before attempting to demagnetise it, if needed at all. Also, it would be better to use a demagnetiser rather than a strong magnet, as it's more controllable. Of course you can use a strong magnet to try to demagnetise a steel object ... but test for success. First, try the following suggestions. 

It could be that the steel bar that lies adjacent to the solenoid is simply adhering to it. There could be some corrosion, gunk, etc, that's holding it there. Try to free the steel bar away from the solenoid. It will move about a millimetre away, when pushed gently (Edit: you'll need to overcome the magnetic hold of the bar against the solenoid, which does take a bit of a push). This can be done at the interface between the solenoid and the steel bar, shown by the green arrow in the following picture. (Try to use something other than a pen; no need to leave ink there, which could cause problems.) Or, push the other end of the steel bar that lies against the solenoid, up near where you are activating the trigger sear. This is shown by the red arrow. Does manipulating these parts free things up, so that the solenoid can now release the steel bar? If not, we should investigate whether the solenoid is working electrically.

Regards, Rick.

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Edited November 14 by rick_dykstra

[Zhenggg]

Thanks Rick. I’m kind of confused about which is which now. Is “the steel bar” the whole component I circled below or is it something else. I want to be cautious considering this machine is kind of beyond my knowledge from every perspective.

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[rick_dykstra]

1 minute ago, Zhenggg said:

Thanks Rick. I’m kind of confused about which is which now. Is “the steel bar” the whole component I circled below or is it something else. I want to be cautious considering this machine is kind of beyond my knowledge from every perspective.

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Yes, that is the 'steel bar' I've referred to. It is held against the solenoid by a magnet, until the electrical activation of the solenoid overpowers the magnet and allows the bar to be pulled away by a spring that works on the steel bar's pivot point. You can manually push/pull the steel bar away from the solenoid, thereby simulating the solenoid being activated electrically. This then releases the trigger sear, which you have already discovered and shown in your first video. So, is this steel bar free to move away from the solenoid? Is its spring working?

I've been looking at freeze-frames of your video. I'm wondering if the red and white wires from the solenoid are properly connected to the solder points on the flex-tail (orange flexible circuit). The white wire looks a bit suspect.

Regards, Rick.

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[Zhenggg]

Thanks again but confused still. I think the pink-circled I pointed earlier is actually two (or more) components, and I guess we are talking about the blue one  in the following fig. I made a slow-motion vid trying to learn how they work, and repeated triggering the sear, it seems only the yellow part moved and the vertical blue part had no response. Is this normal or does this indicate something went wrong (as the blue part remains the same position whenever a. Non-cocked, b.cocked but not release, c≈a. Releadsed.

 

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[rick_dykstra]

8 minutes ago, Zhenggg said:

Thanks again but confused still. I think the pink-circled I pointed earlier is actually two (or more) components, and I guess we are talking about the blue one  in the following fig. I made a slow-motion vid trying to learn how they work, and repeated triggering the sear, it seems only the yellow part moved and the vertical blue part had no response. Is this normal or does this indicate something went wrong (as the blue part remains the same position whenever a. Non-cocked, b.cocked but not release, c≈a. Releadsed.

 

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It is the blue part that touches the solenoid. This is the 'steel bar' I've mentioned. Try to manipulate this, so it moves a tiny distance away from the solenoid. Or is it stuck? The solenoid is the black part (with the red and white wires) to the left of the steel bar.

When you push the trigger sear manually, it is normal to see no reaction from the steel bar and solenoid. By doing it manually, you've tipped the last domino in the sequence. The others that normally come before it are unaffected. However, when this group is working correctly, the solenoid pushes the steel bar away, which allows the next part to move by spring action, which allows the trigger sear to release the main spring mechanism. It's like a game of Mouse Trap.

I've watched the slow-motion. It doesn't help establish whether the steel bar is being pushed away by the solenoid. So, push the steel bar and watch closely to see if it separates from the solenoid. It will spring back immediately, so could be difficult to observe. However, simply manipulating it could free it up.

Edited November 14 by rick_dykstra