"T" setting on Nikon F2 not working

My F2 does not seem to notice when the collar around the shutter release is set to T. It responds as if it is still in the center position. However, the shutter will lock as it should when the collar is set to L.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Any suggestions on what might be causing that? (And I know Sover Wong is brilliant at what he does, but I don't want to ship my camera across the ocean for this small issue).

Thanks!

Is there a local shop that you can send your F2 to?

RTFM

ac12 said:

Is there a local shop that you can send your F2 to?

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The small camera shop in my town isn't too keen on working on Nikons, and I don't want anyone that isn't completely confident to work on a camera.

fstop said:

RTFM

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I have, I know how it is supposed to work, and what I am supposed to do. But it is not operating as it should, hence my post. I wouldn't waste everyone's time by asking a question that could be easily solved by reading the manual.

saman13 said:

My F2 does not seem to notice when the collar around the shutter release is set to T. It responds as if it is still in the center position. However, the shutter will lock as it should when the collar is set to L.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Any suggestions on what might be causing that? (And I know Sover Wong is brilliant at what he does, but I don't want to ship my camera across the ocean for this small issue).

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I have several F2 bodies. I don't think I have had one do this. I got my original in 1973, damn things are a tank. I always have to fiddle around to figure out the self timer-2 to 10 second exposure thing. Could the self timer be acting up?? You might try running the self timer through a few cycles see if that jiggles something loose.

saman13 said:

The small camera shop in my town isn't too keen on working on Nikons, and I don't want anyone that isn't completely confident to work on a camera.
...

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It's a sad day if there are no qualified people in the DFW area to work on the old pro Nikons.

From what I've seen of Sover Wong's work, he's excellent. Surely there's enough opportunity for a few people on this side of the world to make money repairing old Nikons.

saman13 said:

My F2 does not seem to notice when the collar around the shutter release is set to T. It responds as if it is still in the center position. However, the shutter will lock as it should when the collar is set to L.
Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Any suggestions on what might be causing that?

Click to expand...

I'm a builder by trade, however I am having a crack at fixing up an old F2 which is in bits at present. From what I can see there is a locking bar that flips into a slot in the shaft of the shutter button when in the Lock position. I suspect that in the T position there is another slot that the spring loaded locking bar flips into when the button is fully depressed, so holding the shutter open when in the B speed setting. This is used in combination with the Timer for 2 to 10 seconds or for longer timed exposures (per the manual). Doesn't look like much could go wrong with it other than some gunk may have got into the higher slot in the shutter button shaft so preventing the locking bar going into the slot - maybe! The Timer is another matter. Spent 2 hours on it before I saw the culprit and tweaked it into working again.

First photo shows the T position which allows the shutter button to be pressed down until I figure a slot appears in the shaft for the locking bar to flip into.
Second photo shows the Locked position.
Third photo just to show the internal guts and there is nothing there that appears to interact with the T or L position.

Hope this is of assistance.

Theo Sulphate said:

It's a sad day if there are no qualified people in the DFW area to work on the old pro Nikons.

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I'm actually north of Dallas proper. I'll call around deeper into Dallas to see if there is anyone that would be willing to take a look at it.

Robin Guymer said:

I'm a builder by trade, however I am having a crack at fixing up an old F2 which is in bits at present.

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How involved is it getting the top plate off of F2s? I've done it on a Pentax ME but haven't on an F2.

mshchem said:

I have several F2 bodies. I don't think I have had one do this. I got my original in 1973, damn things are a tank. I always have to fiddle around to figure out the self timer-2 to 10 second exposure thing. Could the self timer be acting up?? You might try running the self timer through a few cycles see if that jiggles something loose.

Click to expand...

.

I don't think it is the self timer because the timer works as it should for every operation other than the longer time exposures.

saman13 said:

I'm actually north of Dallas proper. I'll call around deeper into Dallas to see if there is anyone that would be willing to take a look at it.



How involved is it getting the top plate off of F2s? I've done it on a Pentax ME but haven't on an F2.

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Where did you go? Garland Camera?

saman13 said:

How involved is it getting the top plate off of F2s? I've done it on a Pentax ME but haven't on an F2.

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Fairly easy.
1/ Remove the Finder
2/ Remove the cover plate on the film advance. On one of my F2's there are 2 small holes to use a lens tool with pointy ends but on the silver F2 there are no holes so I guess you need to use like a small rubber suction tool and press down hard and turn anti clockwise (maybe another member can help?) Under the cover plate is a larger silver circular threaded ring to remove and then 4 screws that hold a round locking plate.
3/ Inside the shutter button there is a round nut. Just use a pointy tool like a dentists pick to spin this anti clockwise then the lock wheel lifts off with a spring inside.
4/ Speed dial has 4 tiny screws around it that unscrew a bit then it just lifts off.
5/ Remove the front lens mount cover plate by 4 screws. This holds the top plate at the front and the rear screw is under the finder at the rear.
After you have got that far, pulling the whole front off the camera and removing the mirror box is a piece off cake. Then you can do a clean and lube and fix the dreaded "Ping" by sticking a foam piece under the spring of the mirror shock absorber.
I photograph and write down every step and put the parts for each section in old film canisters with labels. Makes it easy for re-assembly. I will post some photos of the re-assembly process soon.
Good luck with it. I'm just an amateur tinkerer so the above is just a rough guide and maybe some experts could assist with better clarification.

I fixed it! @Robin Guymer I know you were having the same issue with one of your bodies so maybe this will be of assistance to you. It took a little bit of poking around to figure out the mechanism that causes the T setting to lock into place, and while I don't completely understand it, I figured it out well enough to fix it.
Luckily I had one body in which the T setting worked fine to use as a reference. So first, take the top plate off of the film advance side. Then, look at the small opening on the poserior side of the shutter release button.

There are two small bars that you should be able to see. There is a small hook shaped one on top (the shinier one) and a flat bar (the darker one). This shows what they should look like when the shutter release is set to the middle or L (not T).
This next photo shows what the two bars should look like when set to T. The small hook like bar moves slightly (slightly!) and makes contact with the darker bar.


Then, when the shutter release is pressed, the hook grabs the bar and holds it closer to the shutter release, and should look like this:

The hook is released when the selector is changed from T.
So, again, this is what it SHOULD look like in my body that was working. My body in which the T setting did NOT work looked like this:

Pretty obvious that the hook and bar are not where they are supposed to be. In fact, the bar was pretty loose. (side note, this is the same bar as the one that locks the camera, it is just wrapped around a small post under this middle plate. Part #266 if you're following along at home).
So, figuring I had nothing to lose, I bent the bottom bar back close to the shutter release to see if I could get it in a position where it could be caught by the hook. Now, I really mean bend it. It doesn't bend easy. I really don't know what caused it to get out of whack in the first place. But, once I bent it back into place, the hook was able to catch it and the T setting started working again. I tested it a bunch of times before putting it back together and so far so good. It even works when using the self timer for the exposure. So, Robin, hopefully this works for you too! It should be pretty easy to see if those two components are not where they are supposed to be.

Hey mate that's a great bit of DIY mechanics to sort that one out. My black body with the T lock issue has been disassembled before as the advance lever cover has the giveaway two holes from the incorrect use of a lens tool to remove it. Looking at your photos I can see that some of the screws have the tell tale marks of incorrect sized tools used to remove or adjust them, when compared to your other camera. Given that maybe both our cameras have not been reassembled properly thus the T lock issue. Anyway thanks for the info and I will pull the top off mine and have a crack at fixing it too. All the best.