Topcon Super RE - Mirror locked up & advance lever stuck

Hello,

one of my old Topcons has given up recently. During shutter action a really strange "springy noise" could be heard. Since then the mirror has been stuck in the top position and the advance lever can't be moved by more than a few millimeters.

Initial investigation revealed the shutter button behaves like the camera is not cocked and the mirror can be forcibly lowered by pulling the short "mount aperture tooth" down. The DoF preview lever does nothing (as the mirror is in shooting position). That's about it.

I got myself the service manual and successfully unmounted top right front and plates - I've even obtained a 1.4mm "holding" screw as the manual instructs. However, under the top right plate, there are no excessive dirt/dust particles nor loose parts in sight.

At this point I'm quite scared to continue disassembling since I got no clear idea what subpart should be inspected next. The service manual doesn't seem to describe of such issue so I'm out of ideas.

Do the symptoms sound familiar to anyone, please?

I'm not familiar with that particular camera, but the general release sequence of horizontal cloth shutter SLRs requires the second curtain to complete its travel, to release the mirror and the wind lock. The curtain can be checked by placing a finger on either side, and trying to move it to the rewind side.

If the problem is the second curtain travel, the cause is usually dirt and dried lubricant, and the cure is to have the camera serviced.

It happened to my Unirex the other week during my first photo shoot with the camera, mirror stuck up and the advance lever stuck halfway. I fixed it but I still have no idea what exactly caused the problem, and I had no idea how to get it working again.

The only way I can help you out is to post the sequence of what I actually did that eventually unstuck the mirror and lever without me even knowing if it would work. Fortunately it did, by sheer chance.

Firstly I tried to remove the top cover but that came to a halt because the cap screw holding the film advance lever was stuck very tight. So, for the time being getting to the mechanisms under the top cover had to wait. Secondly, I proceeded to the bottom cover, removed it, and found a half a handful of what looked like crushed peanuts. I cleaned it out and lubricated all moving parts that I could see under there.

Now, lucky for me, when I gently applied pressure to the film advance lever a few times and prodded the mirror, they came free. But I was only prepared to apply light pressure to the advance lever so as not to damage any mechanisms. I suspect it was the stuck mirror that was the real problem, more so than the advance lever being stuck. The gunk in the camera may have initially caused the mirror to stick, however I can't be real sure about that, all I know is that since greasing the moving parts, the camera freed up and is even quieter now when firing the shutter. It was quite noisy to begin with, which gave me a clue that the camera was dry and needed servicing.

I hope this assists you to at least keep going with it, and you know now that by my effort with my camera, it can be done.

I'm not familiar with that particular camera, but the general release sequence of horizontal cloth shutter SLRs requires the second curtain to complete its travel, to release the mirror and the wind lock. The curtain can be checked by placing a finger on either side, and trying to move it to the rewind side.

 

If the problem is the second curtain travel, the cause is usually dirt and dried lubricant, and the cure is to have the camera serviced.

Thanks, it was exactly that - it just need a prolonged wiggling with the curtain. Then the mirror went down.

Sadly, next wind & shot & wind sequence resulted in jammed shutter again. This time there is a curtain "holder" (the one closer to the film plane) being visibly stuck in the middle of its travel. It's impossible to perform the finger trick again due the mirror being in position.

I'm going to try to remove the bottom plate and check the internals for accumulated dirt as @kmac suggested. However, removing the bottom power switch requires a "pig nose" tool which I need to obtain first.