Minolta XE-7 sticky film advance lever

[Andy Collins]

<p>I just recently acquired a very nice XE-7 in pretty good shape, only a little brassing but overall in pretty nice condition. The only problems with it are the meter being off by about 2/3 of a stop (not a big deal; just adjust the ISO) and the film advance lever sticking in its fully extended position until I flick it firmly. Then it snaps back into its proper position. What's the cure for this? I read somewhere that this is a common problem with these bodies, so hopefully there's a common solution. It's not a big deal really, more of an annoyance than anything but I would like to eradicate the problem if possible. Any ideas or experiences with this particular issue?</p>

[jack_welsh]

<p>Of my Minoltas, Have a SRT 202, that the film frames overlap. And, my X370. the film advance lever is stuck. But, having several Minolta's. I haven't gotten them fixed yet. Back in the early 90's, I took a Minolta , (not sure which one) on a 6,000 mile Amtrack trip. When, I got home, those frames were overlapped.<br />Not sure about your XE-7 problem. As I mentioned in an earlier post. The one I had, I dropped it!<br>

I've heard that black camera bodies, of any brand, are proned for brassing.</p>

[Andy Collins]

<p>I had that problem on my SRT-102 before it was fixed. The pictures came out just fine from the XE-7 and the film advance lever doesn't stay stuck, it just sticks until I give it a firm flick and then snaps back into position. Overall the camera works well except for the two little foibles I mentioned.</p>

[ben_ballard]

<p>I have 3 XE-7's I've gotten off eBay. The best one is fully-functional except the shutter speed indicator in the viewfinder is a little bit askew so it shows 2 number at a time, and I know that the upper one is the actual setting. Another has a similar problem with the film advance. It works, but it gets stuck half the time and requires a few extra attempts to flick it before it unsticks. The third one is unusable because the film advance doesn't move. You can flick the advance lever just fine, but inside the camera nothing moves. I think film advance problems are a common issue with XE-7s, although I'm not sure if it's bound to happen sooner or later, or just a case where I have 2 bad ones that were mistreated. I've heard it's not easy or cheap to fix, but I don't know beyond that.</p>

[k5083]

<p>My XE-7 advance lever is a little bit flaky too. The lever is limp during the beginning of the stroke, when it's not doing anything, and sometimes needs just a little encouragement to return at the end of the stroke, I guess a little like yours. To me it seems like there is a spring in the mechanism somewhere that has lost most of its zing, but I have taken the top few pieces of the lever apart and not found it there. The issue is so trivial that I am not willing to disassemble the camera any further to go looking for it.</p>

 

[jason_hopper]

<p>It's a complicated fix having to do with adjusting the film advance operation rings A (p/n 081-3007-0x) and B (081-3008-0x). These are two toothed rings mounted on the advance shaft and buried deep inside the top cover. They're so buried they're the last pieces to come off if you were doing a complete strip of the topside advance mechanism.</p>

<p>The two rings are held in place relative to each other with a set screw. If the adjustment is off one way, the lever sticks at beginning of travel, if off the other way the hang up is at end of lever travel or the shutter doesn't get charged. These rings have nothing to do with how well/smoothly the rest of the advance works.</p>

<p>Think these rings tend to slip minutely relative to each other with use over many years. Made the mistake of trying to fine tune their setting (long ago) and best it could get was a slight stick at beginning of travel which tends to go away under load with film. It was an incredibly tedious job, and the range of adjustments before things went way off was very very tiny.</p>

<p>Wouldn't recommend trying to fix this, there's so much disassembly to get down in there.</p>

 

[Andy Collins]

<p>I'm not going to mess with it. It doesn't happen all the time--maybe 20% of the time--and a quick flick snaps it back. In fact if I advance the film slightly more firmly it doesn't do it at all. It's really a minor quibble that's more annoying than it is a problem. I had thought that if it were a simple fix I'd look into it, but it sounds complicated and not worth the trouble. Plus, I love the camera too much to mess it up!</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>I have an old XE-7 (unclaimed repair from family camera shop) that is missing the rewind crank and has dead meter. The advance lever sticks just as yours does. A testament to the toughness of this camera- even in as bad a shape as it's in the shutter will still fire at its mechanical 1/90 second setting. Just hanging on to it for parts.</p>

[steve m smith]

<p>My XE-1 also suffered from this problem. Taking the winding lever off and giving the mechanism a tiny amount of Servisol switch cleaning lubricant brought it back to silky smooth operation.</p>

[Gus Lazzari]

<p>Here's the fix for this very common issue:</p>

<ol>

<li>Remove advance side top cover plate after prism top-plate is also removed</li>

<li>With <strong>provided images</strong> as your guide, solvent wash rachet unit then apply 1/2 drop of very light watch oil</li>

</ol><div></div>

[Gus Lazzari]

<blockquote>

<p>"the film advance lever sticking in its fully extended position" <em><strong>Andy C.</strong></em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>The very light pressure rachet gets sticky and doesn't swing back in a fluid fashion...</p><div></div>