Leica M3 tension adjustment

Picked up M3 double stroker the other day, seller said it had some issues including an occasional sticky shutter. I ran a roll through and there was an occasional sticky shutter on the fast speeds.


Checked out a few vids and thought Nobu video was pretty straight forward. So did the adjustment only had to do one rotation anti clockwise and all seems good, will shoot another roll to check.


Unscrew 3 screws to take the base plate off and remove the spacer next to the adjustment screws.






Need to find the correct fitting screw driver and insert to to one side of the screw so it covers the pressure washer on one side only and press down and turn anti clockwise. Doesn't seem to work if you push down with the screw driver in the centre. You do this without unscrewing the ring lock.

After running a couple of rolls through it all seems fixed now.

I did the same thing on a Canon FTb. Watched a youtube video and a simple tightening of one shutter curtain fixed it. On the other hand, I once bought an M3 that had been CLA'd by Youxin Yee and got negs exactly like the op did here. Sent it back twice, but it came back each time doing the same thing. Finally sent it to someone else who fixed it, and they said the shutter curtains had been tightened way too much. This is not a dig on Yee, I know lots of people have had good results from him. Weird.

The DS M3 is one of the few cameras I would like to own again.

momus said:

I did the same thing on a Canon FTb. Watched a youtube video and a simple tightening of one shutter curtain fixed it. On the other hand, I once bought an M3 that had been CLA'd by Youxin Yee and got negs exactly like the op did here. Sent it back twice, but it came back each time doing the same thing. Finally sent it to someone else who fixed it, and they said the shutter curtains had been tightened way too much. This is not a dig on Yee, I know lots of people have had good results from him. Weird.

The DS M3 is one of the few cameras I would like to own again.

Click to expand...

I think mine just need some love. I just tightened in quarter turn intervals till it looked like it was firing right. The first roll did have one bad frame, so I dry fired it a hundred times and this roll had no issues, nice even spacings and exposure @ 1000 & 500.

The above youtube video is for M3.

I opened up my M6 base cover and found that it is quite different from that of the M3 as shown in the video.
Is there any info. on M6 curtain tension adjustment?

TIA for any info.