My X-700 has an extra part.

[Ric Trexell]

While using my 25 year old Minolta X-700 on Thansgiving day, the wind lever jammed. I thought ok, sell it on Ebay for parts. Well, today I thought, why not take the top cover off and see if you can fix it. So I did that and put the lever on to see if I could find the problem. Guess what! The camera wound and the shutter fired. I examined it further and could not find any problems. I know, cameras that fix themselves usually unfix themselves too. So I put the thing back together and guess what, I now have a coil spring that I can't remember where it goes. Everything seems to work great and I have snapped the camera about 50 times with no problems. I checked the counter, the ISO settings, the speeds and anything else I thought might be it. If you have ever worked on a X-700, can you tell me where that spring goes? It is driving me nuts. Thanks. Ric.

 

[sandermarijn]

Ric, the linked pictures on this page may help.

Two of my Minoltas (X700 & an X300s) broke down with the capacitor problem and both were fixed with the help of this excellent guide.

No mention of a stuck advance lever, unfortunately.

 

[Paul Sorensen]

Maybe the camera wasn't working properly because it had an extra spring in it, did you consider that possibility?

 

[ath]

Does the film counter reset when you open the back? Does the advance lever move back to its rest position? If it it a small sprig it cold be the spring under the "unlock button" for leaving A and P. These are the springs that come to my mind...

 

[Ric Trexell]

Thank you Sandermarijr: It is the spring by the rewind lever. I thought that was it when I put the camera back together but it didn't seem right. I think I was probably putting it in upside down. The camera seems to work great without it, and that might have been the original problem. Weird, but I'll put it back on and see it that is the problem. Hey, that is a great page for information, I copied it to my favorites. Ric.

 

[Ric Trexell]

Maybe the camera wasn't working properly because it had an extra spring in it, did you consider that possibility?

Yeah, I always thought these had too many parts in them anyway. All joking aside, you might have sort of hit on the problem. The spring in the rewind lever might have caused the problem in the first place. I was loading a new roll of film when it happened. Ric.