Sheared Film Wind gear Vitessa A

Found a forlorn, dirty Vitessa L with the desirable Ultron lens today at a thrift store. It appeared to wind and fire fine, but something was rattling around inside. Thinking it was the mirror detached in the rangefinder, I bought it only to find when I got home, the rangefinder worked fine and the patch moved and aligned at about the right distance.

However, I noticed a washer floating around in the film chamber when I took the back off and found out that the gear that advances the takeup spool was detached/sheared-off the shaft.

Short of buying another Vitessa to bash for parts (not likely given the prices they are going for), I thought I might be able to find someone who could cut a shaft on a mini lathe and allow me to reattach the gear.

To the point: it appears the shaft and gear might have been silver soldered where they join, in addition to mechanically pressed-on. What are the odds I can successfully remove the broken key portion of the shaft and reuse the gear?

The shaft came out easily; drove out a pin that held the film retainer and it slipped out the bottom of the chassis. Nothing special about it other than the hole for the retaining pin and the (now missing) perforation-shaped metal key that is lodged in the gear...

(edit: It's funny, I hadn't noticed it before, but you can see the washer that goes between the gear and the chassis inside the frame counter on the first two photos.)

I picked up grungy one as well today, slowly fixing the issues, one of which the shutter release had jammed, took the top plate of and found a compression spring on the shaft had squashed up a bit. Took it out through the slot and tried to get it back, doesn't seem to fit correctly and am wondering if it was something someone has fitted themselves or original.
Wondering if any one with one could take a look and see if it is there on theirs. Seems to work ok with out once I lubed everything although it still gets a little stuck once I shut the doors and reopen.

Also do unscew these three silver scews to access the view finder prisms? They are very tight and dont want risk stripping if they dont.



Nifty looking camera, hope I can get it running again.

Of course the spring is needed, you idiot. Reinserted the spring and the shutter button seems to work ok now.
The three screws undo with a bit of downward force and I managed to clean the optics and can see pretty clear now.
Also found what looks like a signature under the plate.


The vertical and no doubt the infinity adjustments are out, does anyone know how to adjust on these?
10th of a sec and slower are sticky, hate digging into the shutter, might do a shallow explore.
Lens is pretty clean except for some bad cleaning marks.
Would like to get into the plunger gears to lube, but seems to work ok.
Need to start sorting through all the light seals, they seem to be everywhere.

This is the horizontal range finding screw, need to take the top plate off and adjust, then fit the top plate to test. Will need to fit the focus wheel to get it spot on. PITA.

This is the adjustment for vertical, a square head bolt. Clockwise to move the contrast patch up and anti to move it down. Very fiddly, only need to move in very fine incraments. Took me a while to find this one, thought I had to take the cover off to adjust, then after doing that a lot of times realised it was accessible with the cover on. Looks obvious now.


Just need to work on the compur shutter and light seals and it should be good to go.
Although I wouldnt mind lubing up the film advance gears.