Loose Nikon 50mm 1.8 AI lens

[xtolsniffer]

Hi all,
I picked up a pretty dusty Nikon 50mm f1.8 Ai standard lens for a few pounds from a box at the back of a junk shop. The glass cleaned up nicely but the barrel of the lens is a bit loose - i.e. when you rack out the focus, the part of the lens barrel that extends has a little bit of give both laterally and rotationally. Is this likely to be fixable by tightening something and is it likely to be an easy fix? I mostly use a 55mm Macro as standard anyway, so it's not worth sending off to be serviced but it would be nice to get it back to a better operating condition. The helicoid is not stiff but sounds a little dry too. If it's likely to be a complicated job I may not bother but if it's an hour or two I might give it a go.
Ta!

 

[John Koehrer]

Could just use some new grease. Do you feel lucky? The lens mount's held on with three screws.
Removed and with the lens to the end of it's travel you may be able to put a bit of grease on the exposed
part of the helical. you're going to use a relatively fine grease like lubriplate or a bicycle grease. Not
something like Molybdenum or axle grease.

This is what I'd call a redneck solution. The correct grease isn't worthwhile if you're using just a dab of it.

 

[BrianShaw]

It’s a normal aging issue. A cleaning and replacement of grease on focusing mechanism will make it like new. Inexpensive Servicing by a pro, which. I always recommend.

It’s a special damping grease that’s used to give the focus ring the right feel.

If you do nothing at all the lens will still work fine.

 

[xtolsniffer]

Micro-tools sell a #10 Helical grease, I wondered if that might do the job. It's not cheap, but as I've sort of fallen into fixing old folders at the moment, I might be able to justify it for a number of projects that are on the go...