Rolleicord IIb - Eye Mirror Springs

[rncotton]

I recently bought three Rolleicord cameras, all functional. The IIb, circa 1938, is the only one with an eye-level flip down mirror. One of the times I flipped the mirror down, it went beyond the stop so I had to remove and disassemble the hood to get it back into position. Now, for the life of me, I can't figure out where the two little springs on the pivot rod are supposed to lock. I have a long and short leg on each spring, and know they go on either side of the flip down mirror, but I can't figure out where to lock them in to tension them, and without tension there is nothing to hold the pin in place.

I've been searching the internet for about 5 days now ... no luck. As long as I had it apart, I replaced the viewing mirror inside and cleaned the glass. I'm ready to go shoot with it, but I've got to get tension on the springs ... at which point I will *NEVER* flip that stupid mirror down again.


Please help, and thank you. I've got nothing to reference, and nobody I know with Rolleis has this feature. I think I see why they got rid of it.

 

[rncotton]

Or does someone have a hood they want to sell? I'm tired of messing with this thing. I'm still trying to get the springs to tension, and realized I had to take the ground glass off again to have room to work ... and one of those stupid leaf springs went across the room into never never land.

All this, because the damn mirror went past the stop. What a horrible design.

 

[02Pilot]

If you can post some photos of the problem areas it would help.

 

[trondsi]

I recently had a similar problem with my Rolleiflex Automat. It looked easy to fix, but it wasn't. I had to find an experienced camera repairs man to fix it.