Gauge of wire for F2 Battery compartment?

Kino · Nov 28, 2019

Looked at the repair manual; no help.

I need the green/yellow wire that goes from battery holder to the advance turn-on reed switch.

The old wiring simply refuses to take solder; it just burns and turns black. There was corrosion on the connector tab, so it probably wicked-up the wires and corroded it for a distance. Anyway, I'd like to totally replace them along with a NOS battery holder I found.

Thanks.

shutterfinger · Nov 28, 2019

A picture of a section of the wire stripped of its insulation will help. Its likely #20 or #22 wire.
Try stripping the end, scraping it with a knife on all sides, then apply soldering iron and Rosin Core Solder.

Kino · Nov 28, 2019

Best I could do right now. Jacket measures 0.81mm by calipers...

Kino · Nov 28, 2019

Wondering now if it's not 30 or even 32 gauge; it's really small and 2 of them have to fit in a 2mm channel...

shutterfinger · Nov 28, 2019

https://powerwerx.com/help/wire-gauge-awg-reference-table
20 gauge.

reddesert · Nov 29, 2019

The current these wires carry is really small and practically anything would do, but wires smaller than about 24-26 gauge are a PITA to strip and solder in my opinion. It's not 20 gauge - 0.81mm was the diameter including the insulation, while a 20 AWG has conductor diameter 0.81 mm. Try 24 gauge.

Kino · Nov 29, 2019

Thank you Shuterfinger and Reddesert for the help. Another member will graciously be sending me replacement wire that seems to be identical in size.

I started out to just clean the low speed escapement of this old F2, but as I am learning, 50 year old plastic and wiring does not like to be disturbed AT ALL.

Wonder what we are going to do when all the NOS spares are gone?

cmacd123 · Nov 29, 2019

Kino said:
Wonder what we are going to do when all the NOS spares are gone?

I have seen some parts being reproduced by small factories. But yes, never ever throw away a broken Camera even if (especially if) it is not worth fixing. the parts you save may help keep you going.

Kino · Dec 9, 2019

Thanks to Photrio member John Koehrer who sent me a couple of sections of very fine wire, I was able to strip out the glued-in wire and replace it when I replaced the battery chamber and the meter functions!

Whew! That was nerve wracking! Nikon really didn't want that wire wandering, so they pasted it down with some clear adhesive that forced me to take an X-acto knife and cut it out. It lies in parallel with a second wire for the battery circuit, so it was very difficult to NOT cut the other wire.

Got the slow speed escapement cleaned and back in and the camera reassembled and it fires on the slow speeds that were just locking-up, but they now are all around 1/15th of a second instead of 1, 2, 4, and 8.

Some progress, but not complete yet...

mshchem · Dec 10, 2019

Kino said:
Thanks to Photrio member John Koehrer who sent me a couple of sections of very fine wire, I was able to strip out the glued-in wire and replace it when I replaced the battery chamber and the meter functions!

Whew! That was nerve wracking! Nikon really didn't want that wire wandering, so they pasted it down with some clear adhesive that forced me to take an X-acto knife and cut it out. It lies in parallel with a second wire for the battery circuit, so it was very difficult to NOT cut the other wire.

Got the slow speed escapement cleaned and back in and the camera reassembled and it fires on the slow speeds that were just locking-up, but they now are all around 1/15th of a second instead of 1, 2, 4, and 8.

Some progress, but not complete yet...

Good Job! I had a F2 that wouldn't deliver current to the meter, it was farther up stream, not what you encountered. I gave it to a friend, he never uses a meter anyway

Kino · Dec 10, 2019

Thanks! The F2 battery circuit is pretty simple, but threading the wire in and around the body is something that takes careful study; there is little room for error and the wire must be almost exactly the right length or it will foul the mechanism in certain places. Frankly, I resolved that if the repairs I did last night failed, I would just use a meter but I got lucky...

BMbikerider · Dec 10, 2019

Kino said:
View attachment 235573

Looked at the repair manual; no help.

I need the green/yellow wire that goes from battery holder to the advance turn-on reed switch.

The old wiring simply refuses to take solder; it just burns and turns black. There was corrosion on the connector tab, so it probably wicked-up the wires and corroded it for a distance. Anyway, I'd like to totally replace them along with a NOS battery holder I found.

Thanks.

There is a possibility that this wire is an alloy which does not take ordinary solder. I have come across this before where one wire had a built in resistor made from a copper and another metal alloy (possibly aluminium) which refused to take solder. As you found out, when I tried to use solder, the wires turned black when heat was applied. It was part of a wiring circuit where two level of power were needed and were altered with a switch to activate this wire which had a built in resistor to reduce the voltage.

I have just spoken to a colleague who is an instrument electrician and if this wire is what I suggest, the only solder that will 'take' is silver solder which will require a lot of heat to get it to melt. Not, perhaps what is best when repairing a camera.

Kino · Dec 10, 2019

BMbikerider said:
There is a possibility that this wire is an alloy which does not take ordinary solder. I have come across this before where one wire had a built in resistor made from a copper and another metal alloy (possibly aluminium) which refused to take solder. As you found out, when I tried to use solder, the wires turned black when heat was applied. It was part of a wiring circuit where two level of power were needed and were altered with a switch to activate this wire which had a built in resistor to reduce the voltage.

I have just spoken to a colleague who is an instrument electrician and if this wire is what I suggest, the only solder that will 'take' is silver solder which will require a lot of heat to get it to melt. Not, perhaps what is best when repairing a camera.

Well, the wire looks like stainless, but the end of the wire I removed that was soldered to the power reed switch melted with a 30 watt iron, so I don't know what to say. I don't think it was silver solder on the reed switch...

I went back in and tinkered with the slow speed escapement mounting screws and found that it takes a very light touch when tightening these screws to allow the escapement to run freely. I also noticed that around the mounting screws was the residue of a clear adhesive, so I tuned the tightness to approximate 1 second to the best of my ability, put a tiny amount of clear fingernail polish on the screw heads and now everything seems happy.

Once I apply the refoaming kit from Jon Goodman, I should have a very nice addition to my Nikon stable.

BMbikerider · Dec 11, 2019

If it worked then that is brilliant.

Gauge of wire for F2 Battery compartment?

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