Ikoflex “coffee can” problems.

i wonder if anyone can help me. I see a couple of online videos of this camera but no-one is taking one apart.
The focus lever on mine moves fractionally and the front lens plate assembly reacts similarly but we are talking a fraction of a mm. The cog behind the lens plate tries to turn but again only a tiny amount (it can just be seen beneath the lever through the slit in which the lever travels (or should travel). There is a similar amount of movement in the tube behind the lens.
Lighter fluid has done very little - I thought it might be old grease gumming things up.
How is the assembly accessed? There is no access from the camera case as far as I can see. Later models are a different design and videos of them being dismantled do not help.
Do the lenses have to be removed and if so how is that best done? I only have one of those lens wrenches that are all over the auction site and I find it to be almost useless. Shaky and very prone to jumping out of the slots. As a second question can anyone recommend a real lens wrench that is useable?

I can't help with the camera. But if by "lens wrench" you mean a spanner (not one of those flexible clamping things), I have some experience. I have two of the parallel bar types. One has removable end pieces, it's not the best. The other has has fixed ends, one side flats and the other points. That one works better.

But the tool that gets used the most is a pair of dividers. These are not as stiff as the spanners, but they fit in anywhere and reach deep. The pointed ends work in any retaining ring.

First off if you use lighter fluid on a camera do so next to an open flame.

Next post some pictures of your fossil even if you have to use the camera in your shirt pocketable portable high speed switch machine with Alexander's Nuisance Device.

Third this ebay link may not show up in your region https://www.ebay.com/itm/PRO-Camera...336201?hash=item19fd543349:g:Ry8AAOSw1ZBUuLEU
but this one likely will https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pro-DSLR...579347?hash=item1ce061a2d3:g:ze0AAOSwBXleBIdF
It is sturdy and I have yet to need to use the set screws to keep it steady and it works on 95% of lens cells I've used it on. I do mostly large format and a few TLR's from the mid 1930's onward.

I don’t believe lighter fluid is going to anything.. Most likely culprit is the lens board has been bumped slightly and the lens board is sticking against the body. All in all bad news. I have newer Ikoflex and really like it.

thuggins said:

I can't help with the camera. But if by "lens wrench" you mean a spanner (not one of those flexible clamping things), I have some experience. I have two of the parallel bar types. One has removable end pieces, it's not the best. The other has has fixed ends, one side flats and the other points. That one works better.

But the tool that gets used the most is a pair of dividers. These are not as stiff as the spanners, but they fit in anywhere and reach deep. The pointed ends work in any retaining ring.

Click to expand...

The parallel bar types have not worked for me. I have held off replying until now as things moved on. The taking lens retaining ring can be accessed via the access hole plate in the back of the camera. I filed down the points of a pair of long nosed pliers until they exactly fitted the slots in the ring - a long and laborious process made bearable by the fact that it was successful. Having removed the lens and the lens plate it transpires the problem is with the distance wheel at the top of the camera - each lens has a cog surrounding the helical gear and the taking lens cog meshes with the distance wheel. So 3 cogs which act on each other.
The distance wheel cog is a very strange assembly which still has the be removed - it is proving to be even more difficult than the lens. It connects through the camera case to something that can’t be seen. I still can’t figure how to remove the waist level finder - no screws are visible but if it comes off it will allow access to the rear of the distance wheel assembly.
Thanks for your interest.

shutterfinger said:

First off if you use lighter fluid on a camera do so next to an open flame.

Next post some pictures of your fossil even if you have to use the camera in your shirt pocketable portable high speed switch machine with Alexander's Nuisance Device.

Third this ebay link may not show up in your region https://www.ebay.com/itm/PRO-Camera...336201?hash=item19fd543349:g:Ry8AAOSw1ZBUuLEU
but this one likely will https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pro-DSLR...579347?hash=item1ce061a2d3:g:ze0AAOSwBXleBIdF
It is sturdy and I have yet to need to use the set screws to keep it steady and it works on 95% of lens cells I've used it on. I do mostly large format and a few TLR's from the mid 1930's onward.

Click to expand...

The parallel bar types have not worked for me. I have held off replying until now as things moved on. The taking lens retaining ring can be accessed via the access hole plate in the back of the camera. I filed down the points of a pair of long nosed pliers until they exactly fitted the slots in the ring - a long and laborious process made bearable by the fact that it was successful. Having removed the lens and the lens plate it transpires the problem is with the distance wheel at the top of the camera - each lens has a cog surrounding the helical gear and the taking lens cog meshes with the distance wheel. So 3 cogs which act on each other.
The distance wheel cog is a very strange assembly which still has the be removed - it is proving to be even more difficult than the lens. It connects through the camera case to something that can’t be seen. I still can’t figure how to remove the waist level finder - no screws are visible but if it comes off it will allow access to the rear of the distance wheel assembly.
Thanks for your interest.

beemermark said:

I don’t believe lighter fluid is going to anything.. Most likely culprit is the lens board has been bumped slightly and the lens board is sticking against the body. All in all bad news. I have newer Ikoflex and really like it.

Click to expand...

The parallel bar types have not worked for me. I have held off replying until now as things moved on. The taking lens retaining ring can be accessed via the access hole plate in the back of the camera. I filed down the points of a pair of long nosed pliers until they exactly fitted the slots in the ring - a long and laborious process made bearable by the fact that it was successful. Having removed the lens and the lens plate it transpires the problem is with the distance wheel at the top of the camera - each lens has a cog surrounding the helical gear and the taking lens cog meshes with the distance wheel. So 3 cogs which act on each other.
The distance wheel cog is a very strange assembly which still has the be removed - it is proving to be even more difficult than the lens. It connects through the camera case to something that can’t be seen. I still can’t figure how to remove the waist level finder - no screws are visible but if it comes off it will allow access to the rear of the distance wheel assembly.
Thanks for your interest.

Can you post some pictures of the view finder?

I have wasted my money on parallel bar lens spanners that were cheap junk sold at a high price to make up for low profit on other items that moved faster. The one I linked to is rigid and I have bent a sharp point on mine on a stuck ring. Over priced cheapies would have bent the cross bar.