Pentax MX Winder broken

[Huss]

So I picked up a "for parts" MX Winder. I cleaned the contacts on the outside of the body, and the one in the battery cap. I could not reach the ones in the back of the battery chamber.
Winder does not work. If I put a coin across the terminals it does not activate it. Attached to the camera it does not wind film (or has any signs of life). With batteries in the camera itself, pushing the winder's shutter button does activate the camera's meter. But it needs to have batteries in the camera body to do that. If I take the batteries out of the camera, and have batteries in the winder it does not do that.

So what does this tell me? The contact between the winder and the camera is good, which is why when I push the winder's shutter button it activates the meter in the camera (with batteries in the camera). But the electrics in the winder itself are bad someplace because no juice seems to flow within the winder itself with batteries in the winder but not in the meter.

Any ideas?

It makes for a very nice grip w/o batteries in it, so there is that.

 

[John Koehrer]

Does it get voltage at the camera contacts when you use the release? I understand the meter turns on but don't know
if the same contacts would trip the shutter.
It could be an internal corroded wire. I doubt the winder's too difficult to remove a cover from to take a look.

 

[Huss]

Does it get voltage at the camera contacts when you use the release? I understand the meter turns on but don't know
if the same contacts would trip the shutter.
It could be an internal corroded wire. I doubt the winder's too difficult to remove a cover from to take a look.

Yeah I guess I should take it apart and have a peek.

 

[johnha]

The camera will need batteries inserted for the metering, the meter circuit won't draw power from the winder. Can you at least see the battery contacts at the back of the winder by shining light down? The winder uses black foam to hold the batteries in place, this turns to black goo 40+ years down the line, check this hasn't affected the contacts.

 

[Huss]

The camera will need batteries inserted for the metering, the meter circuit won't draw power from the winder. Can you at least see the battery contacts at the back of the winder by shining light down? The winder uses black foam to hold the batteries in place, this turns to black goo 40+ years down the line, check this hasn't affected the contacts.

Batteries are in camera to drive the meter. The contacts look fine but the foam is not there. Well bits of remnants are. This foam is meant to be where exactly?

Thanks for the help.

 

[GRHazelton]

Funny. I own both the MX with winder and the ME Super with winder. A vulnerable point on the MX is the little screw which closes the battery compartment; I can see the screw stripping out the threads or the little door getting lost. The Super's winder uses a battery tray (no foam) released by a slide. A MUCH better design. Erick Hendrickson at Pentaxs.com may be able to help. He is the go-to man for Pentax here in the States. Unfortunately the cost of repair may be higher than buying a working winder, but I skimmed over EBay; lots of winders for the ME and ME Super, but very few for MX described as working.
Here is a link from pentaxuser.com to some repair info, schematics, etc. Good luck!

 

[johnha]

Batteries are in camera to drive the meter. The contacts look fine but the foam is not there. Well bits of remnants are. This foam is meant to be where exactly?

Thanks for the help.

The foam sits around the edges of the batteries and stops them from rattling around inside.

 

[GRHazelton]

I did notice a listing on EBay which offered a winder which hadn't been tested on a camera. The seller said that when turned on the winder unattached to a camera the winder just ran without stopping.. My fully functioning ME Super winder will do that if not on the camera. I'd suspect that the ,two winders are very similar. Could be worth a gamble.....