Help with Contax IIIA focus

[campy51]

I bought a Contax IIIA about 3-4 weeks ago that was working except the meter and I also bought a Jupiter 8. I have shot a roll and the exposures have been all wrong except for maybe 3 or 4. I have taken it apart and did a cla based on what I have read and now even the 1/1250 is showing light whereas it wasn't before my cleaning. Even the 1/500 was inconsistent at best. I have not made any adjustments on anything but somewhere along the line when I removed the front lens assembly and the focus wheel I lost infinity focus and I cannot figure out how to get infinity focus. Everything is out of focus now. Does anyone have a procedure for this that they could share? I can't seem to find it on the net. Any ideas?

 

[dxqcanada]

You stated ... removed the front lens assembly ... what exactly did you do?

 

[campy51]

Took off focus wheel assembly and lens mount.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

It has been more than 20 years since I opened a IIIa, but IIRC there usually are scribe marks for the position of the helical relative to the rangefinder. Set the helical at infinity then the rangefinder to infinity and match the scribe marks. If there aren't any scribe marks, then you'll have to do it manually. Rangefinder on infinity and the helical on infinity.... At least with the Contax you know infinity is infinity with the helical. Use the stars or the moon for infinity for the rangefinder. The gears on the rangefinder will mesh with the helical and there is only one way that will be accurate.

Hope that helps.

 

[campy51]

Thanks for responding, no one seemed to be interested. Coincidently just about an 2 hours ago it came to me on how to do it, but I don't know if this was the right way. I took of the lens mount and installed the focus wheel and set that to infinity and then scribed it. I forgot this is a rangefinder so the lens has nothing to do with the rangefinder. I then installed both the lens mount and focus wheel without moving them from their settings. I will have to get some film and check it.

 

[BAC1967]

You can get a 35mm ground glass on eBay to check the focus.