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Nikon FE shutter stuck, mirror won't come down.


pablo_emilio_lafon

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Pablo I repair cameras for a living. The stuck mirror situation is quite common. Usual cause is the dampening foam strip along the edge of the viewing screening turning into a gooey mess and quite sticky. With a toothpick gently try and pry the mirror from the viewing screen in the pentaprism. If it does not release immediately, stop! The mirrior is very delicate and the return mechanism on the mirror box is likewise. Lastly take the batteries out for a minute. Then re-insert carefully. The mirror/shutter should release. Failing this is is time to visit the nikon repair centre.
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Are you able to move the film advance lever? Something that can happen to this style of camera is that things can get thrown out of sync, resulting in the conditions you describe.

 

When it happened to me, the guy that fixed it for me showed me what he did in case it ever happened again. Since the film advance lever wouldn't swing out in a normal film advance move, he removed the bottom plate of the camera. There was a "lever" of sorts engaging a toothed cog at the bottom of the film rewind mechanism. He moved it out of the way, cocked the shutter and everything was fine again. If your film advance lever won't move, this may be what's going on.

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  • 1 year later...

Hi Folks,

I had the same problem with my FG and by moving shutter speed dial to M90 it released the mirror which I cleaned and evidently the FG needs good batteries to release the mirror from all other speeds. Camera is working just fine now so thanks to all who posted possible solutions to sticking mirror problems...Ron

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  • 5 months later...

Hi, and thanks to Eric Sande,

 

removing the bottom plate and pulling just marginally with very little force, pulled the stuck

tooth out of the way of the cog on the film advance capstan with a fine pair of forcepts (you

can tell it is the capstan as it has the tongue and groove for the MD12 motor drive facing you

as you peer into the guts) I heard a click of sorts and then heard the mirror drop back into

place, cocked/advanced and.... voila!! thanks Eric!

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  • 1 year later...

<p>The Lord of Heaven, the God of all the earth, the one who gave His Only Son to die on the cross of Calvary, bless you.<br>

I had the problem of a stuck mirror and the film advance lever would not move to allow loading of the film.<br>

I am so happy that I followed the instruction of moving to the M90 position and was greeted by a sound from the camera and the Mirror fell into its rightful place. <br>

A BIG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL.<br>

ROY THOMAS.</p>

 

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  • 4 years later...
On 7/1/2019 at 5:40 PM, KarlesBarkley said:

I'm able to release the mirror using M90. But when I go to take a picture the mirror locks in the up position again. Any help/idea's on how to troubleshot this is appreciated.

Same here, any ideas? 

Heres an idea of the symptoms with this FE:

Shutter sticks after a period of time left without shooting and at random. When pressing the shutter, the mirror will flip up and the shutter stays closed (meter & battery check are normal). After releasing the mirror using the M90 or B, it goes normal and shutter fires at all speeds, but then the same thing will happen again if I stopped using the camera for awhile, or at random. I've replaced fresh batteries and tried cleaning the battery holder with alcohol etc, none of them resolve the problem.

Edit: It kinda feels like the battery will disconnect after certain time.

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