Canon A1 LED display trouble

[Woutervg97]

Hello!

In an old safe of the school I work it, they found a Canon A1 and gave it to me. Awesome! All I really had to do was oil the thing to get the squeek out. But.... the lightmeter display seems dead.
I´ve checked the following
- In auto mode, you can clearly see it changes settings depending on the light
- The battery check shows quite clearly that the battery is good
- I've checked with another battery just in case.

Now there is absolutely zero lights going on in the lightmeter. Anyone know what to do?
I do have an old Canon AE1 sitting in the attic, which had a broken shutter. Could I reuse parts?

 

[Chan Tran]

I do not understand what you said. If you say the camera changes settings depending on light then how do you say the meter is dead?

 

[Woutervg97]

Sorry, I meant to say the lightmeter display in the viewfinder!

 

[Woutervg97]

Been messing with it for three days. It just turned on for some reason

 

[Nitroplait]

Would you give some examples of what you have been “messing with”? I have an A-1 that seemingly works- except for the display.

 

[Woutervg97]

I saw somewhere that flipping the lightmeter on and off continuesly might force it to work somehow. Maybe that is what eventually got me lucky

 

[Nitroplait]

Thanks. I’ll play around with it for some hours while watching Netflix and see what happens.

 

[Woutervg97]

Honestly. This repair has made me both love and hate this hobby.

 

[Chan Tran]

Sorry, I meant to say the lightmeter display in the viewfinder!

If there is no display in the viewfinder how do you know the camera is changing settings?

 

[gbroadbridge]

You've turned the viewfinder display lever on, yes?

The one to the right of the Film speed dial...