Need a bit of help in taking apart my Konica Auto S2

Hello everyone, I'm trying to take apart my Konica Auto S2 to try and see if I can fix a lens which has a couple issues and it seems I've gotten stuck trying to get the leatherette off without ripping it apart like Thomas Tomosy seems to suggest in his book on camera repairs. Does anyone here know how to take it off in order to access the rear of the lens and the aperture section. These are the problems the camera has:

-Something's rattling behind the shutter, possibly inside the body
-Shutter locks out in manual mode (from what I read it should only do that in auto mode)
-Aperture does not move when in auto mode, regardless of light meter reading
-Entire barrel section gets crooked when trying to focus beyond 10 meters, as if something was preventing the bottom half from retracting beyond that, top half retracts properly.

Everything in the top and bottom section, and up to the shutter section of the front seems to be working perfectly well.

So, this is weird. I unscrewed the little ring at the back of the lens which you can access by just opening the lid and there doesn't seem to be loose in the focusing mechanism or the bit that conneects it to the rest of the shutter, but even then I just can't seem to figure out why the auto mode won't work, where the mechanism is that makes it work, or why that damn lens barrel won't sit level when at infinite focus.

Not sure from your description but it sounds like in post #2 you describe undoing either a rear lens cell or a rear retaining ring (I am not sure if this retains the shutter and lens onto the focusing assembly).

Did you have a look at http://feuerbacher.net/photo/repair/KonicaAutoS2/KonicaAutoS2.html ?

Someone lend the man a hammer.

reddesert said:

Not sure from your description but it sounds like in post #2 you describe undoing either a rear lens cell or a rear retaining ring (I am not sure if this retains the shutter and lens onto the focusing assembly).

Did you have a look at http://feuerbacher.net/photo/repair/KonicaAutoS2/KonicaAutoS2.html ?

Click to expand...

Yeah there's a little ring that's attached right behind the rearmost lens element, loosening it releases everything in the lens barrel up to the focusing mechanism. I checked that website out but it doesn't go beyond the frontmost part of the shutter mechanism, so no dice.

Everything in the front of the shutter mechanism works fine, all of the pins engage with the wheel properly, the only thing missing is the little lever that makes the shutter selections click into place but that's just because I was too lazy to put it into its place for the pic


Behind we have the aperture control, shutter windup mechanisms, and shutter release lever; though the aperture mechanism itself is hidden behind a metal plate.

A is the shutter windup mechanism, the film advance lever rotates the bit on the camera body's side, which turns the pin on the barrel's shutter mechanism.
B is the shutter release, when light conditions allow for it, it releases down and fires the shutter.
C is the aperture lever, turning the the aperture ring raises and lowers it, which in turns moves the little pin that controls the aperture.
D and E are a mistery to me
D winds up when using the the film lever, and then it releases in the way shown by the golden arrow once you fire the shutter, what it does is a mistery to me. I believe it connects with E, a spring-loaded (spring outlined in pink) lever which doesn't appear to interact with or control anything at all, whether in manual or auto more.

No dice finding what the hell, likely about A or B, is preventing the bottom half of the barrel from retracting when focusing to infinity. The only thing I can think of is having to shave off a milimiter or two off the pins on those two they're barely a bit too long, which shouldn't cause any kind of issues but I'd still like to avoid if possible for obvious reasons.
Furthermore it appears that whatever the auto aperture mechanism is, it sits between the previously shown sections of the barrel, which I'm sure is going to be quite a bit more complex and harder to both tear apart and put together than what I've seen up until now, especially having to go blind due to the lack of decent references on this

Huss said:

Someone lend the man a hammer.

Click to expand...

Don't give me ideas lol

I am impressed with your efforts. Something I have zero skills with!

I'm pretty sure the Konica auto S2 auto exposure is a trapped - needle system, where the position of the meter needle regulates a linkage that controls how far the aperture stops down when the shutter is pressed. IOW I don't think there is a separate auto aperture mechanism hidden inside the barrel. It may be that the mechanism is related to the levers you labeled D and E. As you say, the shutter should fire when in manual mode regardless of the meter reading, so I think something is out of place in this mechanism, and that might also be why the lens doesn't retract all the way. I'm sure grinding down the pins is not the right answer.

You may find this thread and shutterfinger's comments on the shutter (see labeled photo in post #2) of interest: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/konica-auto-s2-shutter-repair.189859/

Searching for "trapped needle" + konica s2 will also give more links on how it works.