Nikon EM with a needle that goes nuts

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I recently purchased a Nikon EM with a junky no-name zoom lens for $15. All of it's functions and mechanics seem to work fine and I was pleased as this would make a nice valentine's day gift for my girlfriend..

Everything on the camera works fine except for the meter and apparently
the under 1/30th beeper and viewfinder led.

The needle goes nuts when you move the aperture ring on the lens.
It just bounces around.. It's workable if you play with the ring but i'd rather the camera work as intended..

I'm thinking that the aperture lever on the body that connects with the lens is dirty. Does anyone have any experience with repairing this camera?

Thanks!

 

[kswatapug]

Hey! That was my first SLR camera. I went through three of them, two in one summer. The problem you described is a familiar one. I recall the aperture indexing ring got grit in between it and the body, so that it would stick when I changed apertures. It was easy enough to take apart, clean and put back together, if my memory serves me well. There were just four (screws) on the chrome plate that held the ring in place. Once those were removed, I could extract the aperture index ring. I don't recall if that had a string mechanism to engage the index or not (I did this on numerous Nikons), but think it was just a tab that needed to be properly aligned with a slot during reassembly.

The meter problem may be more significant than that; however. I recall mine doing the same thing after I tested its impact resistance with the granite on the back side of Half Dome.

Good luck!

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

Thank you for your reply! I did just as you described and it works fine now!
I used an old toothbrush and cleaned around and behind that index ring. It was a very simple and quick fix.

 

[Russ - SVP]

I hauled a Ricoh P&S, up the faces of Half Dome and El Cap. It died on it's third wall...(Sentinel)

Kiron Kid