Need help with Minolta Hi-Matic 11 locked shutter release!

A friend of mine has a beautiful Minolta Hi-Matic 11 that was owned by her grandparents. The camera worked just as it should mechanically, but had a very cloudy viewfinder. So, I offered to clean it for her. I had done the same thing with two Canonets and my Hi-Matic 7s with no issue.

I cleaned it up and everything was working fine when I put it back together. But, when I handed it back to her, she wound the lever about halfway around and then it stuck. The shutter release was also stuck.

Now, the shutter release is locked in the up position. The film advance will wind, then when it gets to the end of the stroke, will meagerly fire the shutter. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

When I took it back apart I realized I had let the little shutter release pin fall out, so I replaced that but that was not the issue.

If anyone could provide some insight it would be much appreciated. I would like to avoid making an enemy out of a friend!

I doubt this is the problem, I just got a Hi-Matic 11, the film advance will not advance if the exposure mode is the in A position but the battery is not installed or there is not enough light to made an exposure, I got the camera with out a battery, once I move the exposure to shutter priority the film advance and shutter worked fine.

Unfortunately, this is not the problem. And actually, the shutter release is not actually "locked". The issue is that the "resting" position (the position after the shutter has been cocked) for the gear in the bottom camera now does not line up with the small hole that allows the shutter release pin to pass through. So, when the shutter is cocked, the shutter release is blocked with the solid gear, rather than being able to pass through the small hole in the gear that it is supposed to. When the gear is lined up so that the position of the hole corresponds with the location of the release pin, the shutter release can be depressed. However, because this is in the middle of the winding cycle, the shutter has not been fully cocked and the shutter will not fire.

So, it seems as if the whole mechanism got out of line with itself somehow. I do not have a clue how I would remedy this. And, all of this still does not explain the fact that the film advance is firing the shutter and the film advance does not stop. I wind the advance lever, shutter fires. I wind the advance lever, shutter fires. Etc.

I know no one had an answer but I thought I'd reply in case someone else comes to this thread because they have the same issue. SUPER EASY FIX.

If you take off the bottom plate you see a whole bunch of gears. Well, there is a small screw to the right of the toothpick in the photo that can become loose. When that happens the small metal bar will not be able to extend far enough to cock the shutter and will mess everything up. So, extend that metal bar all the way out, tighten both of those screws on either side of the bar, and you are good to go!


I'd assume this same fix can be applied to the Hi-Matic 7, 7s, 9, etc.