Yashica 635 rebuild suggestions please.

I picked up a decent 635 locally last week.

Shutter is oil free and works splendidly on all speeds and apertures. Has some metal trim corrosion, but no rust, and inside is spotless except for a little light corrosion on the fi;m guide rails. There was a spot on the back of the front element that was probably not an issue, but it gave me an excuse to figure out how to take it apart. Cleaned that off and all the other lens surfaces as best I could, cleaned the mirror, and put it all back together and only managed to make two tears in the vulcanite. There are some specks out of the lens coatings and a small chip on the front element and rear element with quite a bit of micro-scratches but no haze. It has the Yashinon lenses, FWIW.

Noticed the viewing lens seemed off a little compared to the taking lens so took it all apart again. Didn't realize it had a set screw and thought it screwed out like the taking lenses, so turn a little and the mount with lens fell out. The mount was pressfit aluminum or staked in. So I cut a small 3/8" wide piece of film negative and wedged it in the mount hole while pushing it back in with the set screw in it's access hole. Seemed pretty tight and flush to the plate it mounts to. The only true way to fix it I think would be to get a new plate with the mount and swap. Long as I don't bang it around it should be good now. Yes, I'm an idiot

To make matters worse, when I went to set the infinity focus, which what was actually off, and adjust the focus knob stops, the far side cams popped out. I now have a completely torn apart Yashica 635! Did a dry-fit and everything works on the focus rails now, but they are a little rough on the right side and hope lube will help. Need to disassemble, lube, and put it all back together. Someone had been in it before because there was a lock nut and a couple of washers on the focus knob that was missing. Long as I can get the focus back correctly I should be good to go. Might as well cement that viewing lens mount while I'm in there and pick out some new fancy pleather for the front and side coverings. Even if it doesn't work out it is cool to see how everything works.

It was suggested to me on RFF to use Super-Lube grease on the cams, shaft, and focus rails and maybe a tiny spot of oil on the smaller gears.

Any other advice on moving forward I would greatly appreciate!

As a side note Mark Hama quoted me $135 to CLA it. Considering I only spent $45 on this one it might be worth it.

last time I was in a fair I got a 635 and Mat with cases and hoods for 60GBP the pair

I've resisted the temptation to strip...

Xmas said:

last time I was in a fair I got a 635 and Mat with cases and hoods for 60GBP the pair

I've resisted the temptation to strip...

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This one the infinity focus was off by enough to be a problem so it wouldn't have done me much good as it was. This is only the 2nd TLR I've ran across in 3-4 years.

I've actually enjoyed tearing into it, even if I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. Everything seems to work mechanically still, just need to lube, polish the film guides, and set the focus.

Molybdenum grease for the focusing rails and cams.

Is the focusing axle all the way out or removable? If so, Take some Brasso on a cotton swab and polish the two bearing surfaces where the axle passes through the main body. And polish the places on the axle where it sits on these two bearings. A lighter grease is good for the slots on the axle- I use DuPont Krytox GPL-205, a nice teflon lube.

I seem to remember the Yahsicas having the adjustable spring-loaded cam followers? If so, tighten these enough so that you don't get backlash as you move from forward to backward motion. Too loose and oyu get slop. Too tight and things are, well, tight!

I picked up a complete (with 35mm bits) 635 not long ago for very cheap. Someone had adapted an LM nameplate to it with the meter so it was mislabeled. Works great except the focus is way off. At infinity, the front panel is sitting a good quarter inch off the body. I'll be cracking it open soon to see what I can do with it. I've worked on 125Gs before so hopefully this isn't much different.

Dan

The focus is pretty basic. Remove the cover on the focus knob. There is a split slotted nut on the axle. Loosen this, Turn the know and snug the knob down to allow for adjustment. Once adjusted, hold steady and loosen the nut again. Rotate knob to inifinity (assuming that was your reference focusing distance) and tighten the nut down tight.

Dan Daniel said:

The focus is pretty basic. Remove the cover on the focus knob. There is a split slotted nut on the axle. Loosen this, Turn the know and snug the knob down to allow for adjustment. Once adjusted, hold steady and loosen the nut again. Rotate knob to inifinity (assuming that was your reference focusing distance) and tighten the nut down tight.

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That's what I was attempting when the far side cams fell out of place. Looking at the build diagrams it looks like I'm missing the split locking nut that goes above the regular one and the washer between the knob and the spacer that goes to the cams. Not a lot of space taken by the washer, but I didn't loosen the knob very much for the cam to fall out. I picked up some grease today and will give a go at getting it all back together this weekend.

Mine is also lacking the split nut. Just a half turn or so to loosen and I was able to make the adjustment.

I wasnt able to find build diagrams on-line. Can you point me to them? I have the ones for the 124G if anyone needs those.

Dan

Fotoguy20d said:

Mine is also lacking the split nut. Just a half turn or so to loosen and I was able to make the adjustment.

I wasnt able to find build diagrams on-line. Can you point me to them? I have the ones for the 124G if anyone needs those.

Dan

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Here's where I found the diagrams. They are for a Yashica D, but the only difference is the 35mm wind knob mechanism. It's the last one at the bottom.
http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/repairmanuals.html

I got all the old grease cleaned out, relubed, and put back together. Put a piece of frosted plastic on the film rails with some scratch marks on the "emulsion" side and did a preliminary infinity focus inside using my Pentax MX and 135mm lens. Took it outside and used a 8X loupe on the back to check. Everything seemed on, or as close as my bad eyes will let it get. Checked at 15 feet and 5 feet as well and it seemed pretty close to me. The viewing lens was matching up as well so I didn't need to adjust it.

I'll need to run a roll through it, but today the wind is blowing 40+ mph so it's not a good day to waste film, IMO.

I think I'm going to leave the leather coverings off it as I kind of like the industrial look to it. It can be my carry around camera.

One thing that was problematic in setting the focus knob was that you could tell where the pin on the knob had been going right over the stop. I was able to loosen one bolt but the other stripped instantly (they were two different types of bolt heads as well). The must have been glued in with loctite or something similar. I ended up just bending the stop more flush with plate and that did the trick.

Went out and put a roll through it over the last couple of days. Just some snapshots and I'm still getting Tmax 100 development down. I used my Paterson reel/tank this time and I think I'm going to have to quit using it. I get uneven development on the edges nearly every time now. Not so much an issue with the Kindermann stainless.

Anyway, here's the camera now:


And here's a few shots. The two that look similar (3 and 4) were at about 6 feet and f/11 and f/5.6 respectively, FWIW. All were shot on a monopod in 15mph wind.