Exakta disassembly, help needed

[Ricklb]

I recently acquired an Exakta V, serial number 681145. I am attempting to disassemble to perform a clean and lube. I am stuck at the removal of the rewind button - see red circled item in pictures. This button must be removed to access and remove the rewind idler gear shaft, otherwise the camera's shell cannot be separated from the chassis. This rewind button will not pull off. Nothing visible is obstructing it and I have applied quite a bit of force. It moves up and down freely in its normal function. It feels like something is holding it in place but I cannot find that something. I have Miles Upton's Ultimate Exakta Repair but his book is based on the VXIIa version and that version uses a simpler rewind button that just pulls off. I have done a clean and lube on four other Exakta Varex cameras but this is my first V, and that darn rewind button has me stumped. Any advice?

The picture above on the right shows the button in normal operation, the left picture shows it engaged to allow film rewind.
Rick

 

[shutterfinger]

The rewind lever is likely attached to the shaft with a pressed in pin and if so will have to be driven out or pressed out. Pictures of the side and camera body side of the mechanism will help.

 

[Ricklb]

Yes, there is a pin that, if nothing else, is the axis for the pivot of the button when you position it for rewind. I thought that might be what is preventing removal and I tried to push it out but it wouldn't move. Everything else for chassis removal is so easy with this camera that I guess I didn't want to believe that pin has to be drifted out to remove the chassis.

 

[shutterfinger]

Check both ends of the pin for the same size. The ends may be staked to prevent the pin from sliding out and if so an end will need to be drilled to remove the staking.
In your previous photos there is a screw head directly behind the rewind lever and between the gears, any chance the rewind is attached by it?
Have you tried any of these manuals? http://www.ihagee.org/repairspare.htm

 

[Ricklb]

shutterfinger: I removed the screw you referred to and it made no difference.

I have good news and bad. The good news is that I have managed to remove the chassis from the shell. The bad news is that I mangled a bit the rewind button and slightly bent the fixed shaft it rides on. I tried to drift out the tiny pin visible in the third picture I attached but it didn’t budge and I only succeeded in loosening the fixed shaft to the point that when the rewind button was depressed normally it would not completely move the rewind idler gear off the advance gear which results in an inability to rewind. Now I have to move the rewind button outward as I depress it to make the rewind idler gear clear the advance gear. Much sadness. I do not think this pin was designed to be removed. At that point I decided to get rough and started twisting the button around thinking maybe it would come free if it was twisted 180 degrees. It didn’t. Belatedly I noticed that if I held the button and the plate under it up manually I could just barely angle a screw-driver into the slot of the rewind idler gear shaft and thus was able to remove the rewind idler gear. You need three hands to do this. I cannot believe Ihagee engineered the rewind button to be un-removable. No wonder they changed it in the next model.

 

[shutterfinger]

Always put a support on the opposite side of the shaft you are trying to drive a pin from with a hole or space for the pin to go into and even then the shaft may bend a little.