Om2 something is stuck

Hi everybody,

 

My beloved OM2 has stopped working, I can't pull the film lever witch from my understanding is quite a commun problem on the Om series.

 

But I want to fix it !

 

Sorry for the hard to read explanation it is hard for me to describe.

 

I found a tutorial on youtube explaining that the reason of the problem is the gears at the bottom of the camera operating the lever and the shutter are not in sync and one springs might be worned out.

 

On the picture I uploaded with this post you can see the spring "A", I try to put back the gear in sync on top of it but I have a problem, when I put the gear on top of it, carefully in sync with the gear "C" the two levers that are on the same axis "B" are blocking the lever mechanism as the sutter button. Is it normal on the OM2 ? I can't seem to figure out the principle of those 2 levers, also are the batteries necessaries for it to work ? I don't know if they are any good.

 

Thanks to anyone who could help me with this matter and save my beloved camera that my father bought new directly in Japan at the time.

 

Also if you have any suggestion of maintenance on this camera, like oiling some parts or anything else, I'm all ears !

If you think a video would be better, I can put one on youtube.

 

Matt.

 

The long black lever in the upper part of the photo (it's not completely shown) is under tension. It means you have to release the shutter before you do gear adjustment.

 

OM2 requires the batteries to be operated but it can also be reset manually. Search this matter and do a reset before proceeding. You can't adjust the idler gear correctly otherwise.

 

Also, where's the mirror? Is it up or down?

Save yourself the pain of trying to fix it and send it to www.zuiko.com for service. John Hermanson has serviced all of my OM-2 bodies and my OM-1 bodies. He is the man when it comes to OM service.

Oil will not help. In any way. Please don't.

 

There is far too much to describe, and far too many possible faults, to even begin to offer a solution online. Even successfully re-installing the transfer gear alone (the one that goes over the silver spring, "A") once the actual fault is corrected (wind gear problems? shutter curtain problems? mirror problems? Impossible to tell without inspection!) is something that is best demonstrated, not described. You've got to install the spring into the underside of the gear, then with the shutter and wind set properly, hold the spring in place just the right way with tweezers and flip the gear over and lower it in place so as not to pinch the spring, then.... Well, if we were sitting at a bench, I could show you, but there would be no point until the original fault was corrected. Something an experienced tech could likely correct as part of a routine overhaul.