Nikon fe2 rewind fork problem

Hello everyone!

I broke the film rewind on my Nikon FE2 and was in the process of replacing it when somehow, and I have no idea how I did it, the rewind shaft with the fork got pushed up past the detent which is supposed to keep it in place below! I'm not sure what laws of physics I was able to bend to get the shaft past the detent.

At the moment I am unable to get the shaft below the detent. The detent blocks the shaft (as designed) but my shaft is on the wrong side! Any thoughts from the community? See pic attached. It shows the shaft pushed up past the detent.

Thanks for your help!

From your screenshot it seems that there's a little pin or locking latch (see the red pointer in photo below) blocking the shaft moving down, without a major disassemble work from the top plate I would give it a try with a tweezer or small screw driver pushing the pin away to clear the path (either up, down, or inward a bit if its moveable) and see if you can move the shaft back down at same time. Good luck.

I once got an FE for free with that problem. It had other problems as outlined here:

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What camera(s) are you using this weekend?

I didn't dare to dive into the problem until I got another free trashed part stripped FE2.

First I thought I was in luck when I saw this:

Just peel of a little covering, unscrew two screws, pull out latch - problem solved! Not!

Please excuse me if the description below sounds confusing. English is not my first language, and my technical vocabulary leaves much to be desired:

Not visible above is the fact that the top of the latch is covered by the top plate assembly and don't come out by just unscrewing the cover plate (709). :-(

I was not confident that I could remove the top cover of the FE without damaging more than I was trying to repair, so I tried my luck on the FE2.

I succeeded in removing the FE2 top cover, but noticed that it wasn't enough to free the latch - so I gave up the idea of disassembling the the FE as I had already reached the limits of my abilities.

With the latch exposed on my FE (disassembled according to the schematics above) and after having tried all kinds of ways to nudge the latch pin back in order to free the rewind fork, I decided to bent the latch outward (part 708 on the drawing above).

I did it first on my FE2 and confirmed that when pushing back the bent latch it was possible for the tip to retract just enough to free the rewind fork. Eureka!

With the rewind knob unscrewed the rewind fork can be completely removed.

I then pushed the latch towards its unbent position while putting pressures with a screwdriver on the latch pin from the top (through the hole where the rewind fork normally is).

By putting pressure from above and pushing the bend latch back in position, I succeded in giving the latch (708) its approximate original shape.

I could then re-assemble the latch spring/cover. Reinsert the rewind fork and re-mount the rewind knob - and my FE works like a charm.

I hope above made sense.

Needless to say; the correct way to remedy this problem is full disassembly but I knew that such a deep dive would cost more than the FE was worth, and I since the camera was free to me, I had little to loose.

You may see things differently.

Step 1 (be carefull when you remove 709 - the spring 714 may fly):

Bend the lower part of the latch 708 outward.

Step 2:

Press the lower part of the latch back inwards towards the camera body. The top part/tip of the latch should retract a little - (aka move a tiny bit outward - the dotted line represents the pivot point), hopefully enough to free and remove the rewind fork.

Step 3:

While pressing the lower part of the Latch inward towards the camer, press downward on the latch tip from above (with a screwdriver) to reshape the bend metal.

Reassemble the latch assembly and reinsert the rewind fork/rewind knob.

I read your post and thought "no way he gets an answer", was I ever wrong!

Sometimes answers come in surprising ways too. The comments may lead to discovery of an answer or to an alternative.