Minolta Hi-Matic 9 Battery

[ChuckP]

A friend gave me his old Hi-Matic 9 to try and sell. I removed the old corroded battery, cleaned things up and tried a PX-625A alkaline. I know it takes a mercury battery but I was just trying to see any meter action. Nothing happens that I can see even with the meter check dots set. The needle stays at the top of the scale. I just wanted to verify that the 625A should show some type of meter action. If it should any ideas why my meter needle is dead?

 

[SMBooth]

Did you take the bottom off, maybe a wire has corroded off.

 

[Mike Wilde]

Sometimes the corrosion even travels up the inside of the insulated wire a distance.
Mercury battery corrsion products seemed to wick thier way in all sorts of strange manners.
Suspect every connection associated with or near the battery compartment

 

[ChuckP]

Did you take the bottom off, maybe a wire has corroded off.

No, but I did screw things up further. Accidentally hit the self timer and now the shutter is hung up. The release fires but no shutter action. It did work fine on manual before this. I'll probably offer it cheap as-is. It's a nice looking camera and I'd hate to mess it up by trying to repair it myself. After sitting on the shelf for 30 years it probably needs some TLC.