Argus C3 shutter did not survive CLA

WinnipegTLRFan · Jun 23, 2015

So I found myself a lovely little Argus C3 "brick" and it was in great shape but the rangefinder needed disassembly and cleaning desperately and the shutter was acting up. Anyway I looked online and found many posts and pages stating it was a very simple camera and hard to break and a camera people recommended for learning how to clean and repair vintage cameras. Anyway long story short I seemed to get everything apart, cleaned and back together again and the shutter speed knob does seem to tension but when I press the shutter release absolutely nothing happens. Furthermore how the shutter does not seem at all intuitive in terms of how the mechanics work so it is hard for me to tell how it functions and all the tear down info I can find with pictures seem to appear to have been shot with a cellphone camera from 15 years ago from completely useless angles if you want to actually see the shutter. I guess I am partly venting frustration and partly asking if anyone might have a clue what went wrong.

Thanks

Dan

Gerald C Koch · Jun 23, 2015

Something I learned many years ago putting a new water pump on a 1965 Mustang. There were 7 bolts holding the pump onto the block. Only 2 were of the same length. So when disassembling something take very detailed notes including diagrams. Taking something apart is easy. Putting it back together in working condition is the trick.

BrianShaw · Jun 23, 2015

I know what went wrong. You got in over your head. Shutters are not intuitive to tear down and put back together. There is hope though. Search around for the repair manual and double check spring placement. I remember finding the repair manual somewhere in the past. What I can't find is dad's c3. Good luck. With the right information I'm sure that you can succeed.

Yeeski · Jun 23, 2015

Lots of useful repair information on the Argus Collectors Group site:

http://arguscg.org/manuals/c3/

DWThomas · Jun 23, 2015

I second checking out the ACG site. In fact, they have a group forum on Yahoo which you could join and ask questions. I've had my C3 apart enough for a bit of a CLA and cleaning and adjusting the rangefinder, but I did not disassemble the shutter mechanics. As I understand it (and this recently came under discussion on the ACG Yahoo forum), there is a thin metal band that couples the shutter mechanics to the actual shutter assembly that has been known to fail. There seemed to be some debate whether this was a known common problem or not. In any event, that might be one possibility. There are a lot of little "links, levers and pinions" in there, if you actually took a lot of the mechanics apart, I would suspect it would not be too hard to get something out of kilter. I tried very hard (and successfully) to avoid going that far with mine. And after all, those cameras could be as much as 75+ years old! (We should all do so well at that age! )

Paul Verizzo · Jun 23, 2015

Take digital photos at every step.

Every small screw that comes out, tape to a piece of paper with a notation where it came from

DWThomas · Jun 23, 2015

Paul Verizzo said:
Take digital photos at every step.

Every small screw that comes out, tape to a piece of paper with a notation where it came from

I also tend to like working on a sheet of flannel or other soft cloth so that a small screw or other part that suddenly drops doesn't skitter across a Formica work surface and disappear into an alternate universe. Things landing on soft cloth tend to just stay where they land. I suppose a bit of caution about picking up fuzz or fibers is in order, but surely less insurmountable than disappearing parts!

WinnipegTLRFan · Jun 30, 2015

Thanks. for all the kind responses. Sorry if it seemed like the original post was a bit panicked because it was. Thank you for those that posted links to repair manuals. What I am hoping to find is a diagram that shows the relationship between the timing mechanism and the cocking mechanism. The timing mechanism seems to tension just fine and the cocking switch seems to work but not tension seems to be applied when it is cocked. So when I press the shutter button the cocking lever just twitches anemically.

From my PC repair days I thought keeping each set of screws in separate containers and keeping each container in a specific order would be enough to get me through it. Guess not. I suppose the good news is they are very inexpensive cameras and abundant so I might need to cobble together various parts from another one if I broke something.

WinnipegTLRFan · Jun 30, 2015

Another oddity that I noticed is all the info I found indicated that the default position of the shutter blades should be closed (which makes sense) but mine were and are stuck open from the moment I got it like it was stuck in bulb mode. Maybe it was messed up when I got it?

BrianShaw · Jun 30, 2015

Don't apologize about being panicked. Many of us have walked in your slippers. Just don't throw out the parts if you decide to call it quits. I messed up a shutter when I was learning And threw it out. But when I bought another I learned that I could have used some of the parts. Too late, of course.

Sirius Glass · Jun 30, 2015

It is never too late to panic according to Chris.

WinnipegTLRFan · Jun 30, 2015

Thanks. Definitely not throwing it out. I will fuss with it until I fix it our I will look for a junker body to cannibalize for parts. I also acquired a Foca Sport 2 that is in great shape but the rangefinder needs some cleaning. But for now I will give up my dreams of amateur repair man and I will take that one to my local shop to be cleaned properly. Learned my lesson....for now.

Mr_Flibble · Jul 1, 2015

Argus shutters are rather robusts, so unless gears are stripped, springs are broken or linkage arms are bent out of shape it should be perfectly repairable.

Perhaps a picture of the mechanism in it's current condition might help us identify the problem?

Argus C3 shutter did not survive CLA

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