After a late night browsing the web, I decided to take a risk on an "As-Is" SQ-A body For Cheap, put in a small bid, and to my surprise, won. The camera wasn't working, but with a new battery, and after verifying the mechanicals were all working correctly, I started fiddling, armed with a parts / electrical diagram (but not a service manual). Most circuits seemed to be working, and much to my surprise, the body started working intermittently.
At this point, I decided to turn a gamble into a functioning camera, and picked up a lens, a couple of film backs, and lucked out on an AE prism finder for a ridiculously good price.
Here's where it gets odd, and where the question comes in-- With the AE Prism finder attached, in either manual or auto mode, the camera works perfectly, from 1/500 to 8 seconds, and I swear I got a 12 second timed exposure out of it at least once in "Auto" mode.
Without the finder, it works intermittently-- sometimes it works fine, sometimes it acts like there is zero power to the entire system (although as noted, many of the circuits appear to be live). 1/500 shutter speed, no red light when shutter closes. Battery check works.
Based on the amount of flicker in the AE prism when the shutter button is pressed, I'm suspecting the contacts on the shutter switch need to be cleaned / adjusted, possibly along with what the diagrams call the "memory switch". I have instructions for adjusting both, and they appear to be on the bottom of the camera-- but what I don't know, is how to safely remove the bottom plate of the camera. Anyone here done such an operation before, and can you provide pointers?
At this point, I decided to turn a gamble into a functioning camera, and picked up a lens, a couple of film backs, and lucked out on an AE prism finder for a ridiculously good price.
Here's where it gets odd, and where the question comes in-- With the AE Prism finder attached, in either manual or auto mode, the camera works perfectly, from 1/500 to 8 seconds, and I swear I got a 12 second timed exposure out of it at least once in "Auto" mode.
Without the finder, it works intermittently-- sometimes it works fine, sometimes it acts like there is zero power to the entire system (although as noted, many of the circuits appear to be live). 1/500 shutter speed, no red light when shutter closes. Battery check works.
Based on the amount of flicker in the AE prism when the shutter button is pressed, I'm suspecting the contacts on the shutter switch need to be cleaned / adjusted, possibly along with what the diagrams call the "memory switch". I have instructions for adjusting both, and they appear to be on the bottom of the camera-- but what I don't know, is how to safely remove the bottom plate of the camera. Anyone here done such an operation before, and can you provide pointers?
