Any Camera Whisperers out there?

A recent aquisition was this lovely Yashica Half 17 Rapid. I have a soft spot for both Rapid cameras and Yashica, so I was very pleasid with this fine specimen in mint condition. Except when I found out a home that it was not quite that mint: the shutter blades are stuck.

I assumed it was just some old lubricant that had gunked up and stuck the blades together So I disassembled the lens, and started working the shutter with lighter fluid.

After a bit of cleaning, I could open the shutter. Closing it again took some working on the mechanism. And then it stuck again. In a previous camera cleaning action (different camera), repeated cleaning would eventually get rid of all gunk and the shutter would open and close freely. But this time, an hour of wiping with lighter fluid brought me exactly nothing. Poking the shutter (gently) with a tooth pick will open it, but then it won’t close until I nudge the mechanism a bit. Just firing the shutter wil produce a click, but no movement in the shutter blades. Everything inside the camera looks perfectly clean, nu old oil or gunk clogging anything up.

So now I’m stumped. What else can I do? Should I disassemble the rest of the lens house to see if I can get to the actual mechanism? I’m not too keen on that, my fixing skills are not that great. I tend to mess up little springs and lose screws… Or am I missing someting else here? I would hate for this camera to be just a pretty paper weight.

Are there any camera whisperers out there who can give me a hint?

scritto da stratski il 2013-11-15