{"id":930,"date":"2014-12-27T21:49:57","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T05:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/?p=930"},"modified":"2020-04-10T00:40:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T08:40:49","slug":"leica-iiia-cla-and-repair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/leica-iiia-cla-and-repair\/","title":{"rendered":"1936 Leica IIIa CLA and Repair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giving my 1936 Leica IIIa a CLA. It basically works fine, the shutter fires on all speeds but the slow speeds are sluggish. The curtains have previously been changed, maybe even twice in it’s 78 year history and look good. Overall there is brassing on the top and bottom plates but from normal heavy usage telling me it was well loved. From what I can see, the inside looks clean-ish, no major rust or anything like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"leica_IIIa-cla-01\"<\/a>
overall ‘before’ shot<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"leica_IIIa-cla-05\"<\/a>
dirty vulcanite<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"leica_IIIa-cla-06\"<\/a>
filthy around hard-to-clean places<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Above, showing the external condition, dirt and a reddish oxidation to the Vulcanite\u00a0(red circle) and dirty internal glass.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove these 4 screws (red circles), carefully remove the lens flange as there may be shims between it and the camera body. Mine had none but there were several on my Nicca when I worked on it.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"when<\/a>
when you remove the 4 screws, these brackets come loose. The upper one is held by the RF coupling arm, that comes in handy when putting it back on.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove the slow speed dial by removing the screw (red circle) but ignore\u00a0the small set screw (red arrow), it is not necessary to loosen this, it will come off with the speed scale disc, making adjustment later unnecessary, but before lifting the dial off, make some kind of mark on the square shaft to indicate which edge is up for reassembly.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"I<\/a>
I found it helpful to just loosen this screw rather than remove it. It’s got a very short shaft so only 1\/2 to 3\/4 turn and the clicker disc will be loose enough to remove<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove these 3 screws (circles) then lift off all the discs, remember their order they came off and the post.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove all these screws (red circles). the two dark body screws on the right (rewind side) come out and a bracket will fall out the bottom. It’s easy to figure out how it goes back in<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove these screws (circled)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"hold<\/a>
hold down on the RF coupling arm so it clears when you remove the shell<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove the shell simply pull it down, it shouldn’t be hard to remove<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"shell<\/a>
shell removed, the film pressure plate will fall out with it’s leaf springs (arrows)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

After getting the shell off, that’s a good time to observe the shutter action. Look through it against a florescent light. When I did mine I discovered the 1\/500 speed had just a blip of light and the 1\/1000 speed showed no light at all so now it’s a CLA and repair as well.<\/p>\n

Lets remove the top plate to see the Timing Mechanism and RF glass. (on the III and IIIa, only the smaller plate over the RF comes off, on the later IIIc, IIIf and IIIg, the entire chrome top plate comes off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove the screw between the RF round windows and remove the two round front RF windows. The right one (red arrow) may or may not come off in two pieces. mine came off in one piece. The left window (yellow arrows) should come off in two pieces, the outer ring and the inner window that also adjusts the vertical RF view. Use a spanner to remove it’s outer ring, the inner spanner slots adjust the RF. If your RF vertical view is already correct there should be no need to adjust it later<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove this rear viewfinder window<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove the rear screw (oblong circle) and the Diopter adjust post (circle)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"pull<\/a>
pull out the Diopter \/ RF window. It will need cleaning and greasing<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"remove<\/a>
remove the 3 screws on the cold shoe (circles)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"set<\/a>
set the shutter dial to whatever speed, it won’t matter, on the IIIa, it screws off and can only go back on one way. Loosen the set screw (circled), turn the shutter dial lefty loosey. it may be helpful to wind the the film advance first (also when reassembling)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"view<\/a>
view of the top plate area<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

While I was cleaning the old grease I noticed a stop-post on the second shutter release arm was leaning. I poked it and it wiggled. I tightened it and all speeds work now!<\/p>\n

\"red<\/a>
red arrow shows the post that was loose, causing the 1\/500 and 1\/1000 speeds to not work. That’s the closing curtain\u00a0release lever that rests on it. Note the old dried grease (yellow arrows)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I cleaned old grease and re-greased the Timing Mechanism, winding knob, rewind knob shaft and Diopter adjust. I cleaned the gears at the bottom of the shutter drum.<\/p>\n

\"cleaned<\/a>
cleaned top plate and fresh grease on the Timing Mechanism<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

12\/23\/14: cleaned the Vulcanite. a 3 step process and it looks great now. Reassembled the camera shell and slow speed dial.<\/p>\n

\"Vulcanite<\/a>
Vulcanite all cleaned. It was a 3 step process, well, a 5 step actually because I had to do step 1 and 2 twice. First I cleaned it with Isopropyl alcohol. That left a whitish dry looking coating, I cleaned that with Windex. It may not take 2 or 3 tries with your vulcanite, mine was pretty bad. I did the first 2 steps at least twice then I finished step 3 with ‘Mothers Back to Black’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lets put it back together. The film pressure plate rides in it’s own groove milled into the back of the body shell. The two leaf springs have their own slots as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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\"the<\/a>
the flat leaf springs in their slots (red circles) note the round groove milled into the back around the springs. this is the pressure plate groove.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"put<\/a>
put the pressure plate back into its groove, I held mine with pressure down with a Kemwipe so I didn’t leave a thumb print. hold it down as you slide the shell back onto the body. Once it clears the framework, you can let it go, it will stay.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"be<\/a>
be sure to hold down on the RF coupling arm as the shell passes over so it clears.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"shell<\/a>
shell back on. when you put the screws back in leave the center silver screw out until after you get the lens ring back on, that way it won’t interfere with the bracket that goes under the RF coupling arm.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Now put the lens ring and slow speed dials back on. If you had shims under your lens ring, remember where and how they went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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\"this<\/a>
this mark goes to the left side<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"the<\/a>
the slow speed dial parts in order of replacement. First the brass washer, the chrome spacer, the post with it’s mark where ever\/however you marked it, the plate with the clicker disc attached (mine shows them still separated), put some fresh grease in the groove on the back of the speed dial and replace it. If you separated the knurled knob from the speed dial, you should notice there is an indentation where the factory set the set screw. if your slow speeds were adjusted before, just put this back as it was and replace the speed dial with the post as marked.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"finished\"<\/a>
finished<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"Here<\/a>
Here it is with my Nikkor-HC 1:2 5cm lens from 1953<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This camera was fun to work on. It may seem intimidating but is actually easier to work on than the later Japanese rangefinders where you, a lot of times, must remove \u00a0the leatherette to get to the lens plate to get to the shutter to get to the …blah blah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giving my 1936 Leica IIIa a small repair and CLA. It basically works fine, the shutter fires on all speeds but the slow speeds are sluggish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,112],"tags":[145,109,146,152,151,153,144,149,143,135,150],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-camera-repair","category-vintage-cameras","tag-145","tag-camera-repair","tag-cla","tag-iiia","tag-leica","tag-leica-cla","tag-leica-iiia","tag-leitz","tag-rangefinder","tag-repair","tag-wetzlar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1404,"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/1404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tunnel13.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}