Exakta Varex problems

[brent.bousquet]

I decided to figure out what was wrong with an Exakta Varex I bough on eBay and I found something weird. The shutter speed indicator or the little dot on the screw doesn't line up with the actual speed. Also the timer isn't working, if you try to set it then it will just start I going and won't fire the shutter. I took the screw out but it just tightens back to the wrong spot. Any suggestions? Also I can't find the right manual for it. It has no manual counter like the other Exaktas I have. I will post a shot of the camera and another of it up against an Exakta vx I have. I made my own dot that lines up with the correct speed.

 

[Brett Rogers]

Depending on the model there may be a washer under the securing screw for the speed dial. Perhaps it's missing. If it turns too far for the mark to align, substitute a slightly thicker washer. If not far enough, a thinner one or sand it down until it's good. It doesn't need to be super tight, just secure. You may need to use some abrasive paper to fine tune the fit anyway. It's an easy fix.

Are you setting the timer correctly? You should have slow speeds marked to 12 seconds and delay speeds marked to 6. If you're in the range to 12 seconds and not on B or T at the main dial it probably won't delay. You can use the timer range at any speed, and this should provide delay before firing the shutter at 1/1000, 1/500 or whatever speed is set on the main dial. At B or T you should get delay, plus whatever time you set the timer dial to. Of course, no matter what you're trying to set the shutter must be cocked, first.

The other possibility is that the gear timing is incorrect. You can mesh them at many combinations of teeth but only one will actuate the lever that trips the mirror and starts the exposure after the correct delay. Some other functions may work OK at incorrect timing settings, but only one will see both timer and slow speeds working at all settings as they should. I know this as a result of successfully re-timing a Varex IIa from scratch a few years ago after a professional repairer made a mess of re-assembling it (the receipt for the "repair" work with some incriminating notes came with the camera).

If you're definitely operating it correctly, you'll have to take a deep breath and dive in there to re-adjust it until it's good. Take a good look at the gear peg that trips the mirror lever. If you can get that positioned so that the timer has the right delay, the slow speeds should then come in OK when the system is re-assembled: but check them all, anyway.
Cheers,
Brett

 

[brent.bousquet]

Thanks for the tip I will see if I can find a washer to stick in there. Im deffinetly using the timer correctly as long as it's the same as on my vx because that one works just fine. I am not opposed to opening it up but I've never worked on these cameras before. Is there any info about repair online somewhere just for reference before I go digging around in there?

 

[Brett Rogers]

Thanks for the tip I will see if I can find a washer to stick in there. Im deffinetly using the timer correctly as long as it's the same as on my vx because that one works just fine. I am not opposed to opening it up but I've never worked on these cameras before. Is there any info about repair online somewhere just for reference before I go digging around in there?

Miles Upton wrote a manual for them. I haven't got a copy myself but I've heard it's pretty good. There is a bit of info on the web about them. A 35mm Exakta was covered in one of the Tomosy books. Not sure it contains enough detail to time the escapement gears from scratch. It's been a while since I read it but I'm pretty sure it doesn't, actually. In your case all is not lost though, quite the contrary.

There were a number of changes to features of the Exakta models over the years. Finder options for example. But the escapement set up stayed the same, or close enough, for a long time. And because of the unique body design with individual left and right top covers, it's actually pretty painless to expose the gears in question. And you have a good working example that sounds like it's set up correctly.

I actually managed to time my first IIa correctly from scratch without assistance. But, never having handled an Exakta before (let alone a correctly assembled one) it took quite a lot of contemplation and stripping, assembling and stripping again, before I got the mesh right.

If I'd had a correct one at hand I would have done what I'm suggesting you do, and had a look at it to work out what had to be moved, and when.

It's been a few years but I'm pretty sure that prior to removing the escapement setting knob the escapement has to be wound. Meaning that of course the shutter has to be cocked. I think your models should have the little rotating shutter button cover to avoid accidental release. This is where it will demonstrate its usefulness because you won't want to fire it as you are taking that top cover off so make good use of the release block. Take some digital images of set up as you go, noting the position the knob is set to. You might want to sacrifice a driver to taper the blade—being an Exakta of course the slot for the setting knob retaining screw is not flat, is it!

With the shutter cocked, the escapement wound, and it's setting noted (it's been a long time but try setting six seconds plus timer delay with main dial on B, Ie. the setting knob on the final click, first?) If unhelpful set to 1/5 or whatever the shortest delay speed is at the other end of the scale, but getting the timer delay *and* the slow speeds to *all* work was my challenge so perhaps start with that and try to get the timer function going?

OK: with the right top cover off and everything still cocked you may also, if needed, temporarily re-install the setting knob of the good example so you can wind and release it and observe the way the system works. This may assist.

Ultimately, though, you want to set the faulty example to exactly the same state as above, repeat the removal process for the top cover and then check the relationship between the gear under the knob with the (many) peg holes for the various timer and non-timer speeds to the other gear with the peg that will, as you'll observe, trip the mirror release and start the mechanism if it's properly timed.

The actual escapement itself is not very accessible below the interior plate these gears sit on. You'd have to pull the mechanism out of the body casing (from memory) to get good access to it. Not that this is particularly hard, but I don't think you'll probably need to go that far. Not for this issue, anyway. The Exakta speed escapements themselves are pretty reliable (as are the cameras in general *if* nobody has buggered around with them). My untouched-for-god-knows-how-long pre-war Kine isn't running perfectly (yet). It's trying to, though, and I can tell you it's basically only cleaning, lubrication and perhaps curtains (Ie all purely age-related issues) stopping it from going well. They usually want to work if they're clean, lubed and not tampered with. So the escapement itself is unlikely to be your problem (the speeds themselves may well run a bit slow, Eg. 12 seconds may be 14 or 16 but they'll likely be consistent and stable as found, and you can easily compensate for such long times). Hence the prob is most likely to be the incorrect assembly of the gears driven by the escapement, not the escapement itself.

The mesh of both gears and the position of the setting wheel are all important. What makes it such a tricky thing to set from scratch is that you can easily get some or most of the slow speeds going even with the timing badly off. It's how the professional repairer had installed mine. But: only one combination of gear timing will get the slow speeds and all the delay settings working right. It's like setting up many (but not all) overhead cam drives: the position of every gear is important.

Obviously I can't be definitive without seeing the camera involved. But from what you've told me: it smacks of the mechanism having been incompetently assembled by some numpty who wasn't paying attention to the correct orientation of the parts. Again, these were a good, reliable camera. Some threads were definitely undersized—they're not Nikon F-bulletproof—but, if not forced or abused, they tend to keep on working surprisingly accurately, as long as they have not been fiddled with. So look to assembly issues in the first instance, and go from there.
Cheers
Brett

 

[Theo Sulphate]

In addition to the advice given above, I can provide a few links on Exakta repair that I've saved.

This link used to have photos and a description of a complete Exakta disassembly:

Dead Link Removed

(I can no longer access it, even with the Internet Archive Wayback machine).


This link may help:

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-160.html

 

[Theo Sulphate]

This link used to have photos and a description of a complete Exakta disassembly...

Here is the link:

http://web.archive.org/web/20140213...nd-exakta-and-the-replacement-of-its-shutter/