T-90 shutter repair, DIY or not?

If anyone has done a home DIY repair for the infamous T-90 "sticky

electromagnets" problem, I would appreciate any comments regarding

relative ease. On a scale of 1-10, with a 1 being replacing a filter

in a furnace, and a 10 being hanging a door and getting everything to

work right.....I'm familiar with the problem on searches on the net

and here, although i havent seen any step-by-step instructions. I do

have a manual with exploded drawings that tells how to access inside

the the magnets, etc. I can do most technical stuff, except doors :)

 

 

I ask because yesterday I received a T-90 in a large lot of items

from E-bay, and the shutter works what I would describe as

intermittently, ("click click click", then after mounting and

unmounting lenses about 10 times suddently worked, but this morning

back to the blinking triangle and click click click) and I think is

headed for total non-firing, like my original one that is in a drawer

for several years now waiting on the repair. I do have a seven day

period on the ebay T-90 body that I can return. thanks Tom in seattle

On your scale anything inside a T90 is a 15.6 Sorry to say unless you have the repair manual and years of experiance since the T90 is the single most advanced 35mm manual focus camera ever sold. It's not a door or furnace filter. Would you attempt to repair your new HD TV?

 

If you want it use it if it is working most likely a LOT of use will help it clear up. If not then it needs to go out for a CLA (clean lube and adjust) PERIOD

I dunno. There are people on the Classic Camera Forum who routinely repair Compur shutters and such like. Just because I lack the skills and patience to do something I never assume others can't. I'd certainly see if the service manual is available before tackling the job, though.

Ok, so tonight I took the front apron off my old T-90, takes about 1 minute...take one look inside, close it back up. (It's amazing how flimsy the body material feels when off the camera, almost like a piece from a Revell model) I go back in the archives here, and there is a post from May-ish 2004 that Mark above talks about banging on your palm or carpet while pressing the shutter. So I try that, I take my old body, bang it on my palm, and it works the first time. I fired 400-500 times, all modes, for good measure. Then I get the second body, the one I just bought, it worked after about two dozen times of pounding, hand was hurting pretty good. (lens off for both :) ) Fired it several hundred times. Came back two hours later, my original body is still working fine, but the one I just bought is back to the stuck blinking triangle, so it is going back to the seller.

 

It sure is good to have my 1988 T-90 back after 3 years or so in the drawer...and I will be working it religiously. Thanks for all the helpful advice, I love it when the simplest solution works.

WT scarry in there isn't it. I have been inside mine to replace a broken lug had to take the whole side under the little wing door apart to get at the part to modify it to work with a metal replacement lug. And it was not fun one twist and a solder joint becomes juck, one attempt at soldering and something else goes wrong etc etc. The T90 is just not the camera to go training yourself in camera repair.

 

HP the shutter is a mechanical device as such much easier to repair then mucking about in the single most complicated manual focus camera made with it's microprocesser electromagnetic relays and what hell hell is that's all stuff inside that tiny black.

I have done it. Mark is right, it's a 15.6 on a scale of 10, even if you're handy. Probably 65 solder joints to desolder, lots of parts hanging loose, easily a two-evening affair to dig into one your first time.

 

I cleaned the shutter magnets as best I could, test fired the shutter many times on the bench, reassembled the camera, and . . . it wouldn't release. So I tore it down again and swapped a shutter assemble from a dead parts camera and all works fine.

 

The flashing arrow is another similar problem. That means that the electromagnetic release for the mirror mechanism is stuck. Same issue, different part. That project is a 15.4 on the scale. Once you get to that magnet, you're only five minutes away from having the shutter out.

Alan, yes, I think you stated that in your May 04 post above that i mentioned. For now I'm keeping my fingers crossed, it's been working for 3 days now! Sent the other one back.

 

What I don't understand, in the repair manual, which I don't have in front of me at work, it seems like a simple process to clean the magnets, all it says is "remove front apron", use "45 deg pick and a syringe"...i have no clue what they mean, haha, and if all you had to do was open the front apron and screw around with a dental pick, I'm on board....based on my success with re-assembling Timex watches as a kid, I'll pass....

>>based on my success with re-assembling Timex watches as a kid, I'll pass....

 

LOL. I am reminded of the words from a Clint Eastwood movie...A good man recognizes his own limitations.

<p>I have one T90 and have a sticky shutter, as most of you, i can fire the shutter a few years ago, after idel for afew years, the shutter began to jam, but i still can fire it by pressing the battery check button afew times or turn it on/off the reset the error. After somedays, the shutter is completely dead. I give it up and keep it in the dry box since then.<br>

One day I read about zone system and remember that the T90 metering is exactly the same, have 9 stop bar scale on the view finder, can look up severa points of reading on it, it's a very advance even I look at it today. I am thinking about to repair it, I start to searching for a assembly drawing or something like that on the web, Finally I got a complete services manual, I removed the wires and flexiable one by one, there are afew layers of FPC and alot of wires connection,finally I can touch the shutter unit. Auctually the shutter is not a complicated stuff, it just a two spring loaded metal curtain with two magnetic switch to trigger the curtain. Most of people say the manget getting dirty or trap with dirt after long time of storage, but I don't think it's the reason the shutter doesn't response. I found the magnet is a shiny polished surface, it's very clean, I can release it by applying 2-3V on it, so the conclusion from my surgery is the problem is not lying on the magnet, it should something wrong on the circuit leads to not enough current to drive the solenoid. I give up finally as i don't have the logic analyser to measure the signal path, Just let someone to find out a solution to rescure this lovely machine.</p>

 

<p>I have one T90 and have a sticky shutter, as most of you, i can fire the shutter a few years ago, after idel for afew years, the shutter began to jam, but i still can fire it by pressing the battery check button afew times or turn it on/off the reset the error. After somedays, the shutter is completely dead. I give it up and keep it in the dry box since then.<br>

One day I read about zone system and remember that the T90 metering is exactly the same, have 9 stop bar scale on the view finder, can look up severa points of reading on it, it's a very advance even I look at it today. I am thinking about to repair it, I start to searching for a assembly drawing or something like that on the web, Finally I got a complete services manual, I removed the wires and flexiable one by one, there are afew layers of FPC and alot of wires connection,finally I can touch the shutter unit. Auctually the shutter is not a complicated stuff, it just a two spring loaded metal curtain with two magnetic switch to trigger the curtain. Most of people say the manget getting dirty or trap with dirt after long time of storage, but I don't think it's the reason the shutter doesn't response. I found the magnet is a shiny polished surface, it's very clean, I can release it by applying 2-3V on it, so the conclusion from my surgery is the problem is not lying on the magnet, it should something wrong on the circuit leads to not enough current to drive the solenoid. I give up finally as i don't have the logic analyser to measure the signal path, Just let someone to find out a solution to rescure this lovely machine.</p>

 

<p>I have one T90 and have a sticky shutter, as most of you, i can fire the shutter a few years ago, after idel for afew years, the shutter began to jam, but i still can fire it by pressing the battery check button afew times or turn it on/off the reset the error. After somedays, the shutter is completely dead. I give it up and keep it in the dry box since then.<br>

One day I read about zone system and remember that the T90 metering is exactly the same, have 9 stop bar scale on the view finder, can look up severa points of reading on it, it's a very advance even I look at it today. I am thinking about to repair it, I start to searching for a assembly drawing or something like that on the web, Finally I got a complete services manual, I removed the wires and flexiable one by one, there are afew layers of FPC and alot of wires connection,finally I can touch the shutter unit. Auctually the shutter is not a complicated stuff, it just a two spring loaded metal curtain with two magnetic switch to trigger the curtain. Most of people say the manget getting dirty or trap with dirt after long time of storage, but I don't think it's the reason the shutter doesn't response. I found the magnet is a shiny polished surface, it's very clean, I can release it by applying 2-3V on it, so the conclusion from my surgery is the problem is not lying on the magnet, it should something wrong on the circuit leads to not enough current to drive the solenoid. I give up finally as i don't have the logic analyser to measure the signal path, Just let someone to find out a solution to rescure this lovely machine.</p>

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