Vivitar T4 adapter for Nikon F mount issue

I decided to to fix what I thought was a simple problem to remove a now unwanted lever that prevented me from opening up most T4 lenses to full aperture...I have another one w/o this little lever that works fine. Didn't realize out sophisticated these little mechanisms were until I opened up the device and and 12 ball bearings and 12 curved spacers fell out...attempting to put it all back together has been a nightmare. The little lever was cut but now to reassemble this unit is daunting. So far no luck in finding any info on the WEB...does anybody know where there might be some guidance about reassembly? Glad I still have a spare.

Follow up: After many hours attempting to figure out where all the parts go and how to put it together I gave up on that endeavor and just reassembled the four main pieces together...surprisingly every thing worked as it should...there was no slop, nothing seemed loose. Tried it on several T4 lenses with a Nikkormat and it worked. Now I am puzzled as to what were all the ball bearings and spacers for? Was this an example of over engineering? I will be careful for using this as I really need to give it a good test but so far its all good.

Dan0001 said:

Follow up: After many hours attempting to figure out where all the parts go and how to put it together I gave up on that endeavor and just reassembled the four main pieces together...surprisingly every thing worked as it should...there was no slop, nothing seemed loose. Tried it on several T4 lenses with a Nikkormat and it worked. Now I am puzzled as to what were all the ball bearings and spacers for? Was this an example of over engineering? I will be careful for using this as I really need to give it a good test but so far its all good.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one! I just did exactly the same thing. I too am trying to work out how to reassemble the damned thing - is yours still working OK without the bearings and spacers?

And what was this unwanted lever you mentioned? My T4 was on a Soligor lens which I've now taken the back off and I can't for the life of me see how the little mechanism on the T4 mount interracts with the diaphragm lever in the lens???