Time … is not on my side, yes it is?

Tech tip … do not take apart something and leave it in pieces for 8 years!!!

So, today I am putting one of my Minolta-35’s back together … and I don’t remember what screws and parts go where. Yeah, I took notes and pictures, but back in the oldn days I was not that detailed in documenting.

Hmm, now were did all those tiny screws end up? I did place all the parts in a compartmentalized plastic thing … but it seems that there are too many things missing? Question is, were they there to begin with?

Reminders to my future self …

Film counter dial … small washer, then larger collar, then larger washer, then dial, then screw on the knob, enough to let the dial rotate … then tighten grub screw.

When taking off a lens mount ring make a serious effort to note if there where the shims, and where they are … mark the top of the ring.

Don’t leave things unfinished soooo long. Finish what you started.

Now I just remembered that one of the bodies was specifically purchased for parts as it was incomplete.

Minolta-35 … drop!

I was cleaning up the shutter gearing on the second body when I identified a problem with the first curtain.

Wind up the shutter … the second curtain gets released and pulled to the spring roller … then the first curtain gets released and pulled … eh, only part way ???

Hmmm, ok so lets follow those gears … the second curtain roller gear engages a larger gear (6b) on the shutter speed dial post … this larger gear independently follows the gear above it that is driven by the first curtain roller … hmm, this gear is getting stuck. It is sitting on top of one of the sprocket gears (4c) , and the teeth are touching.

Another thing … when I press down the rewind gear I can only partially rotate the sprocket … it appears it is also getting stuck because it is touching the other gear.

Ok, look, turn, look, turn … ah, the speed dial post has a lot of lateral movement … hmmm.

What keeps it in an upper position is a collar on the bottom, this sets the height of the post and gears. It appears that is has been set too high … and the grub screw is very loose … hmm.

then I noticed that part of the black metal body is not level?? This part of the plate keeps the bottom gear (6b) elevated, AAAAHHH, so not to touch the sprocket gear (4c) .

Hmmm, so how did the internals get out of wack ? The only thing I could think of was that the shutter speed dial was impacted. This deformed the body and also pushed the bottom collar upwards … so now the upper gear is sitting too low and touching another gear that it should not.

Ok to raise the post … loosen a couple of grub screws on the collar … raise collar … tighten the grub screws … Ok, now to push the black plate upwards so it is level … hmmm.

Ok, so first thought was to use pliers to pinch the top plate and the black plate … eh, hmm, thought process says this would just deform the top plate before the black bottom plate … ok think.

Some time ago I purchased a lens vise … this is designed to remove dents from the front of lenses … reshape it, but I found during usage that it mostly forces the metal into an oval (better to hammer out the dent with a wooden dowel + hammer) … back to the story … the bottom of camera is much stronger than the top, so the best way is to internally expand the space between the plates. I used the lens vise in between and used it to push the top black plate upwards !!! Winner !!! Now there is no contact between the gears.

Now, I am just trying to figure out how someone would have impacted the shutter speed dial that much to deform the internal body ???

Minolta-35 … for gearheads

While working on this project I decided to take a closer look at the mechanics as there is almost no information about these parts of the camera and I also wanted to clean off them off so the it moved freely. I figured additional friction will interfere and cause you to over stress the roller springs.

YOU MAY NOT WANT TO DO THIS PART … if you don’t want to bother paying attention and note the positions of certain gears … then it may not operate properly after you put it back together.

I took off the light baffle to get at the slow speed escapement. This is held on by three screws on the bottom and four screws under the top (not so easy to put back on) … note that this baffle also secures the top gear plate so keep aware of the spring rollers when everything gets loosey goosey.

Take out the slow speed escapement that is sitting on the bottom … two screws from the bottom. Toss that in the ultrasonic. Pull off the slow speed bar.

Top gear cover plate … three screws (not the fourth in the middle).
Take note on the left side that there is the end of a spring that goes through it that needs to be worked out.

#1 – Film advance gear. This gear is responsible to wind up all the rest of the gears to set the shutter.

#2 – This gear is sitting on a spring. The rewind lever pushes this gear down when in winding position to couple winding gear 1 with 3. I just realized that the gear is upside down in this picture … the gear should be low to engage the winding gear.

#3 – Is a dual stacked gear. The top engages gear 4b, and the bottom turns the first curtain roller gear #5

#4 – This is the shutter release and sprocket section. There are three gears here … the top one 4a is attached to the top plate and it has a pin on the bottom. You can see from the upper image that the middle gear 4b has a circular trench that the pin sits in. When in it’s locked position, it is turned by gear 3 which turns gear 6a that turns gear 7, which is the first curtain roller.

#5 – Second curtain roller gear. The one on top is driven by the first curtain roller gear #7 The one on the bottom is driven by the second curtain roller.

#6 – Speed selection post. The top gear 6a is turns this post, the lower gear 6b revolves independently. The lever in the middle triggers when the second curtain gets released.

#7 – Second curtain roller gear … there is a notch, which I have not figured out what it is for.

That long lever the left is the spring loaded to push the slow speed bar into position.

The curtain roller can be pulled off to be cleaned.

I did not completely disassemble all the components, as some items did not want to come apart easily, so I cleaned it up whatever I could reach to try to get in between parts to get old oil out and put some new oil on the pivot holes.

Before putting the gear cover plate back on you need to set the flash trigger gear (on the left) into position. Gear 4a needs to be placed into position … release the shutter and turn the gears into its final position, then turn gear 4a with the post pointing at the large hole … you may need to adjust this to have it sit properly in the gear 4b groove without pushing it down.

FYI, on the LCR Facebook group Ketil Berge Lunde has the most awesome illustrations of the part interactions of the cameras he has worked on … which, even though I have an artistic flair, I cannot create.

Minolta-35 … same model, different parts?

I was just looking over the camera’s that I have taken apart, and just realized that some components are different on one of them.

I know there were slight changes over time from my readings, and especially of Paul Sokk’s site about the Minolta , four of the the ones that I have are model II type a1, so I assumed they have the same parts … and two type b1.

Serial # 35xx (x2), 37xxx, 47xxx, 55xxx, and an 80xxx

The 35xxx and 37xxx have almost identical internals … the only difference is that the 35xxx bottom plate and body cover is not notched on the winder side.

The 47 has some internal differences … I am going to guess that the type a2 and b1 models also have this … ?

• Viewfinder diopter collar design changed. It is is multiple parts, so the top cover no longer has a screw/hole on the side to secure it.
• Self-timer engagement plate is slightly different (minor)
• Rewind release gear has a different shaped post and has been placed forward … which also means the top gear place is different.
• Curtain spring rollers are brass (minor)
• Half of the gears are not brass (minor)

The 55xxx, and the b1 80xxx (which I do not have anymore, but I was just looking at some images I took of it) are comparible to the a1 47xxx.

The 55xxx is the only one that has a completely different mechanism to trigger the flash. It is not just a rotating gear.

Soooo, you if you are looking for a model II parts camera, you may want to keep an eye on the serial# depending on what parts you need.

I also like to note the bottom (not the cover plate) is stamped 393, 434, Z 373, P 138, and Z 980 … I have no idea what this means.

For those that have debated (noted on Paul’s site) about the frame width changes on the various Minolta-35 models … I used a caliper to measure two model II’s frame plate opening, and they have a frame size of 23.4 x 33.8mm

Contact part ii

Ok while that shutter is out we can get to the rest of the camera.

So lets take a look at the front … time to clean the focus helicoid part. The Contax used a design were the focus mechanism of the 50mm lens is on the camera. The large focus wheel turns a helicoid in the body that moves the lens.

The front part (whatever you want to call it) is held on by four screws, note the top left one is short …. and another note, that there may be shims so keep an eye.

You can now pull this off the body.

Slowly turn the focus helix out and note its position when it is released … this will give you a hint when you put it back on.

Clean off the old grease, give it a good clean with a toothbrush.

Put on some new medium helicoid grease.

Now back to the top.

Take off rangefinder cover and other metal pieces … lift off the rangefinder tube and rangefinder windows … clean

Before putting focus part back in, lock it at infinity … then adjust the rangefinder focus with a really far away object.

OK, so the below image shows a new strap has been put on … and thinking about this further I really should have replaced both … another thing I forgot was to note the distance of the curtain opening.

Ok, so I was too busy putting this back together to photograph the process … so oh well.

Now, if you had removed the top curtain roller make sure that you had reset the shutter as noted by Richard Haw before you put it back on … very very important.

Wind up the tension on the bottom curtain … again Richard’s notes … follow them to set/test the shutter. If it looks OK then put some more turns on the lower roller … test the speeds … then put it all back together.

For those of you working on the Kiev versions you will find them similar … for those with the later Contax models, then things will be a little different.