Minolta x700 film-speed ring problem!!!

[tak13]

Hey, I am new to this forum and I got this little problem that need some advices on.
I just bought this Minolta x700 on ebay. All other stuffs work fine, the shutter, lens, rewind handle, etc... But this film-speed ring doesn't works. It is loose. When I lift it up and turn it, it is very sluggish and hard to turn since it is loose. And the number indicator does not moves when I turn the ring. It stays at 400.
What is the problem?
Does this thing need expert's repair or could I repair it myself?
Does this thing is just an external problem or internal as well.
Let say, if I am not going to fix it, does it affects alot on my photo shooting? I know it control the ISO of the film so but I still have the shutter speed and the aperture.
I have the video recording myself trying to turn it. Please take a look!
[video=youtube;CXwJjzBUCCw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXwJjzBUCCw[/video]

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Um, that's not good. And unless you have affected this repair before I wouldn't go a'tearing into it just yet.

 

[freddie.rios]

Unless someone dropped the camera on the ring, I suspect the previous owner tried to repair or maintain and either the camera is missing parts (like metal washers), or it was put back together wrong. Judging by my own X-700, your ISO and exposure compensation ring is way too loose. Depending on how much the camera is worth to you will indicate whether or not you're willing to open it up. If you're mechanically inclined and are meticulous and careful, I can send you the repair manual if you message me, but you cannot hold me accountable if you irreversibly damage your camera. You can however use your camera in manual mode, use an exposure meter and manually adjust the settings from the meter, but I'm assuming you just want it to work. Thank you for showing us a video, it was extremely helpful.

 

[sandermarijn]

The X-700 is notorious for the failure of its two capacitors. One's in the bottom, the other under the top plate. A repair of the top capacitor requires taking off and putting back the top plate. The reassembly can easily go wrong, and then one ends up with 'your' problem.

Why don't you just return the camera? Your seller has messed up by sending out a broken camera.

If you want to have a go at it yourself, take a look at these instructions/pictures.

 

[tak13]

haha, I know the video definitely helped. I took out my dad's Pentax K-x to film, it took awhile to upload it. I posted on other forum, they were helpful but just couldn't find the answer. I'll probably not going to open it up since I don't have the tools for it. I do have the repair manual I found online. Maybe I'll try to open it in the future. I bought this for total of $38 on eBay. From a suggestion of a poster from another forum where I posted the same question, my exposure adjustment control still working so that person tell me to compensate the exposure adjustment for the ISO. It shouldn't affect much to my photo shooting since I'm still a beginner. Just curious, how much do you think it would cost to repair this?
@sandermarijn technically, the camera does works, it just doesn't work for that film-speed ring thing. Exposure adjustment control still works. And I bought for cheap.

 

[John Koehrer]

The ISO dial has a pin on the bottom that engages a notch in the variable resistor inside..
If you raise the rewind knob you will see a silver ring with two notches in it.
Take the rewind knob off, it unscrews. remove or loosen the silver ring and lift the ISO dial. There's a wave washer under it, don't lose it.
When you can see the resistor you'll see the notch, it's "U" shaped. Set the ISO dial so it would be set at 100, move the resistor to match the pin and set it all together.Reinstall the wave washer, silver ring and rewind knob.
If the pin hasn't broken off, you will have done you're first camera repair.

 

[tak13]

So what you are saying, there is a chance that the pin has or hasn't broken. And also, I don't have the tool for it, and it is not like a $5 camera where I can do whatever I want with it.

First of all, how do I unscrew the rewind screw off? It is so tight, and I couldn't find any screwdriver to actually fit it.
[IMG=http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4043/28062366.jpg][/IMG]

 

[John Koehrer]

First thing is open the camera back.
insert something in the rewind fork in the film chamber to keep it from turning and the knob unscrews. righty tighty, lefty loosey.
Unscrew th silver ring. tweezers or small screwdriver work. It's probably loose enough to unscrew with a finger nail or sewing needle. Then just take a look for the pin & notch, hold them down while you put the silver ring back in. I usually use a pair of tweezers to snug it up.

 

[Mike Wilde]

I had an old x-700 (new to me ) open over lunch hour at home to deal with a stuck EV lock pin. The fix - blowing out dust and a gentle dot of sewing machine oil and excercising it a few times to work it loose and functional again requires pulling the whole top of the camera off, which I have done on x-700/570's before.

Go slowly, put parts down carefully in a sequence to aid you in remembering the order an location that they were removed from.

The tricky parts like the top of the film advance lever retainer, the top retainer around the film advance/shutter cocking lever shaft, the shutter trigger retainer ring, and the film sped retainer ring are pulled using a cheap pair of snap ring pliers fitted with pin tips. This tool allows the fasterners to be spun loose enoght to finish spinning them off with a small flat tipped screw driver.

The tricky part to watch out for is the little square black lock release beside the shutter mode dial that allows you to release the lock and move from P to A to manual shutter speeds. I drop it into the top while the top is held updside down, and then hold the top inverted, and fold the rest of the camera down into the top to sucessfully reassemble this bit.

Good luck with your fix.