Nikon FM shutter is stuck open

[MFstooges]

What happened is while shooting I press the shutter and it flipped the mirrors up and stopped there. On inspection the mirror stays up and the shutter is stuck open. I tried to rotate the shutter speed dial to no avail. Advance lever wouldn't move like it is still cocked. The diaphragm lever can be moved back and caused the mirror to get down but as soon as I press the shutter button the mirror flips up and stays there again.
I will try to open the bottom plate when I get access to small screw driver but in the meantime is there anything I can do to try to fix it?

 

[250swb]

is there anything I can do to try to fix it?

Yes, you said it, take off the bottom plate. There are numerous YouTube videos showing how to fix this simple problem and once you've unjammed it fire the shutter many times studying all the bits that move and apply an incredibly small amount of watch oil at those points. The only scary thing is if you drop a screw. While you are at it make sure the mirror foam isn't sticky, but the basic problem is dried lube 90% of the time.

 

[Chan Tran]

Also try to push the mirror up and see if it would fire the shutter and drop down. Sometimes the mirror foam keeping the mirror from going all the way up.

 

[dalahorse]

I had this happen once with my FM. I apparently nudged the self timer lever just a bit when using the DoF preview lever. Winding the self timer all the way caused the sequence to complete and the mirror to return. I definitely recommend against pushing on the mirror unless nothing else works.

 

[250swb]

If it's any help to the OP here is a video that shows exactly the little cam that commonly gets stuck, and you could just lube that part as suggested at around 10.05 in the video if you didn't want to unscrew anything else for e deeper clean



and you can get at it just by taking the baseplate off.

I've just watched a few videos to find the most helpful one and many blame the wrong thing or embark on taking far more of the camera apart than necessary.

 

[Chan Tran]

If it's any help to the OP here is a video that shows exactly the little cam that commonly gets stuck, and you could just lube that part as suggested at around 10.05 in the video if you didn't want to unscrew anything else for e deeper clean



and you can get at it just by taking the baseplate off.

I've just watched a few videos to find the most helpful one and many blame the wrong thing or embark on taking far more of the camera apart than necessary.

But the OP problem is different. The OP camera doesn't release the second curtain at times. Once the shutter is closed I believe he can always advance the film.

 

[250swb]

But the OP problem is different. The OP camera doesn't release the second curtain at times. Once the shutter is closed I believe he can always advance the film.

It's all the same related problem, and to be honest having a try costs nothing.