Jump to content

Advance Lever Not Returning to Start Position


10975056

Recommended Posts

Hi I just recently began shooting film with a Fujica ST701. For the first two rolls of film I put through it every time I advanced the film the lever would spring back to the starting position. However after loading a new roll of film when I advance it the lever does not spring back like previously. I carefully rewound the film to ensure that it wasn’t exposed and that I didn’t rewind it all the way into the canister to check and make sure everything was alright and nothing was broken. After removing the film the advance lever would spring back to the start position as it is supposed to so I reloaded the film thinking maybe I had loaded it incorrectly but again after loading it the advance lever would not spring back. I did this a few times and every time I took the film out the lever would spring back but when I loaded the film it would not. When the film is loaded I can move the advance lever back to the start manually without much resistance but I’m concerned using it in this manner may damage the camera. My question is would I be alright using the camera in this manner? Has anyone else had a similar issue? I’m wondering if maybe there is an issue with the film that would cause this I honestly have no idea so if anyone has had a similar experience or any suggestions for what may be causing this I’m all ears.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The advance lever mechanism may need cleaning and oiling. The lever pushes a toothed ratchet around when advancing the film, but the lever is meant to "freewheel" back to it's original start position by means of light spring tension. Any dirt or goo in the mechanism will prevent the spring from doing it's job properly

 

The action of the lever returning to it's start position is quite independent of any other action regarding film winding, it's an action on it's own, simply to get the lever back to where it started from. So if there's no dirt, goo, burrs, bent or badly worn parts etc, the mechanism should work fine

 

If you intend to disassemble the film advance mechanism yourself for cleaning, you might need to research if any of the screw threads are lefthand

 

In the first instance though, you could try dribbling some lighter fluid under the lever to see if it frees up and returns of it's own accord

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well since it only does NOT spring back when the film is loaded there is likely a very slight drag or load on the spindle that may be lightly bending the spindle preventing the spring to return the lever. As you mentioned you can manually return the lever to the start position. I've had cameras with this problem and they never got worse, I just simply gently returned the lever to the start position. It may end up being just not worrth the hassle, but the info given above would probably go a long way to a good fix.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...