Hasselblad auxiliary shutter repair

[sissysphoto]

For any of us to retrospectively speak on Victor Hasselblad's reasoning for designing the c cameras like he did is not possible. 2 things are for sure. It is the most compact possible camera body for it's format, and it is a simple design with a minimum of parts. Take the mamiya rb for instance. Compare body sizes, with only 1cm in frame length increase.

 

[MattKing]

Compare body sizes, with only 1cm in frame length increase.

Actually 2cm - 6x8.

 

[Neil Grant]

...the Mamiya RB was reliable right from the start - and I don't think they acquire much in the way of problems as they age. The whole RB system is on the big size and clearly not designed as a direct competitor to the Hasselblad - though their abilities do overlap to a degree.

 

[500c/m]

Hi everyone,

I managed to rewind the spring successfully and put everything back together again. Unfortunately the problem is not resolved, and I realised the problem might not be this spring.

@phass:
The problem with my camera is: The upper door close fully with good tension, however the lower door does not close fully (even though when you push it, there's good tension behind). I think it has something to do with what the gap between the two door that you talked about, rather than the spring. When I turn the knob (on top of the gear for the spring), both door moves together however there's always 1cm gap between them. And when the upper close close, the lower door stops, 1cm away from being fully close. When I turn the knob further, the lower would close.

I tried to hold the small shiny disc you described to adjust the door, however there seems quite a lot of resistant doing so and I dont want to force it. Any further advice for me please?

For anyone who is interested in the original problem, if your auxiliary shutters are jammed or sluggish and without good tension, I encourage to attempt rewind the spring. It can be quite fiddly however not overly technical to do. I did it before reading Phass method (put the outer hook in place first), and I put the central hook in place first. I used two fingers on one hand to hold part of the spring that has been winded into the gear, and use the other hand to wind the outer hook around it. Its quite fiddly however there's not many things that can go wrong. If it jumps out you can just try again. It took me a few tries. Good luck.

---
Hello,
Thanks for your documentation, description of your experiencies and photos. I have almost the same problem with an old "new stock" 500c/m body from Italy (beware when you see an Italian seller on the auction sites - always problems with what the try to sell). I managed to get it to operate though it was totally stuck from old, grease, dust and mismanagement by Italian technicians trying who probably have distroyed something which I now tries to find.

What now is left that the upper auxiliary shutter door does not open fully which results in shady lines/parts covered on the bottom of the negatives. Tried everything and of course the spring went out. Took a while beforde it was back. Thanks for the tip to put a lot of grease on the bed before restoring the spring. However, the upper door still does not open fully for at open view to the lens.
Any ideas how to solve this?
Tried to turn the axle with a plier with no result. Don't know how to hold the axle strong enough when turning the top disc without distroying the disc.

 

[phass]

---
Hello,
Thanks for your documentation, description of your experiencies and photos. I have almost the same problem with an old "new stock" 500c/m body from Italy (beware when you see an Italian seller on the auction sites - always problems with what the try to sell). I managed to get it to operate though it was totally stuck from old, grease, dust and mismanagement by Italian technicians trying who probably have distroyed something which I now tries to find.

What now is left that the upper auxiliary shutter door does not open fully which results in shady lines/parts covered on the bottom of the negatives. Tried everything and of course the spring went out. Took a while beforde it was back. Thanks for the tip to put a lot of grease on the bed before restoring the spring. However, the upper door still does not open fully for at open view to the lens.
Any ideas how to solve this?
Tried to turn the axle with a plier with no result. Don't know how to hold the axle strong enough when turning the top disc without distroying the disc.

500 c/m, you have read instruction incorrectly - you rotate the auxiliary door around axel by holding disc with pliers.
Cheers.

 

[enthdegree]

Hi, thank you for the information phass and others. I performed these repairs successfully as described.

Three questions to anyone who knows:

• Is there any objective way of telling whether the spring is overwound? Does it make a difference? I can see the mirror bounce off the top pad when I fire the shutter now, and I feel a bump when the camera fires, but don't want to mess around with the insides more than necessary.
  
• Can someone post a picture of the spring winding tool phass described? The spring is indeed hard to keep down as you wind it but I can't imagine how a "Y shaped piece of flexible plastic" would aid.
  
• Where is the documentation that describes how to make focus adjustments? It must be somewhere in the repair manual but I haven't found it.

Thanks

 

[phass]

Hi, thank you for the information phass and others. I performed these repairs successfully as described.

Three questions to anyone who knows:

• Is there any objective way of telling whether the spring is overwound? Does it make a difference? I can see the mirror bounce off the top pad when I fire the shutter now, and I feel a bump when the camera fires, but don't want to mess around with the insides more than necessary.
  
• Can someone post a picture of the spring winding tool phass described? The spring is indeed hard to keep down as you wind it but I can't imagine how a "Y shaped piece of flexible plastic" would aid.
  
• Where is the documentation that describes how to make focus adjustments? It must be somewhere in the repair manual but I haven't found it.

Thanks

I probably should put quotes around the word tool. I used it to hold spring down when I was closing the spring chamber. This is a schema of that “tool”

 

[enthdegree]

I probably should put quotes around the word tool. I used it to hold spring down when I was closing the spring chamber. This is a schema of that “tool”

View attachment 277107

I see how that helps now. Good idea!