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Spent 14 hours chasing a shutter issue on a customer's old SLR that turned out to be one tiny screw
A guy dropped off his beat up Pentax last Tuesday saying the shutter would hang open on slower speeds, and I figured it was a simple CLA job. Three teardowns later I still had the same problem, so I started swapping out shutter assemblies from a parts body and still nothing changed. Around hour 14 I finally noticed the mirror box was sitting maybe a hair off level, and the culprit was a stripped screw on the hinge plate that a previous repair guy had overtightened. Once I backed it out and reseated everything the shutter ran perfect at every speed. Has anyone else run into a mirror box alignment issue that masquerades as a shutter problem? I want to know if there's a faster way to catch this before wasting a whole day.
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jakem9810d ago
14 hours on a Pentax shutter is brutal, I feel that pain. I had a similar thing on a K1000 where the mirror was hanging just enough to drag on the foam and it looked exactly like a slow speed issue. Took me two teardowns before I checked the mirror box screws. That tip about the hinge plate is good to know though. Next time I get a shutter problem that won't quit I'm checking those screws first.
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