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[Alan]

 fixing up a battered old contaflex ii for a couple of weeks now and i'm slowly bringing it back to life. i've removed the shutter/lens assembly and cleaned both the shutter and aperture blades so they are extremely smooth and free-moving, and i'v

[Alan]

 p.s. turns out that the shutter only seems to fire when the aperture is fully closed (f22). maybe an aperture tension issue? any help greatly appreciated.

[Jon Goodman]

 Hello, Alan.  Three thoughts:  One, when you clean the shutter, make completely sure it is going to work once it is dry.  This may mean leaving it alone a day or two.  If the action is not crisp every time on the slow speeds, clean it until it is

[Jon Goodman]

 PS...when all is finished, cock the camera, set the shutter speed for 1/500 and the aperture at 22.  Remove the back, point the lens toward a light source and fire the shutter.  If you don't see a quick and very tiny point of light, your camera

[Alan]

 hi jon. 1a) action of shutter and aperture are smooth as when activated via triggers at the rear of the shutter assembly. 1b) shutter mechanism was running clean and crisp at all speeds, but after assembly slow speeds have degraded - will clean again.

[Jon Goodman]

 Hi, Alan.  The two wheels (that cock/activate the shutter and open/close the aperture) normally do not get out of whack unless they've been removed.  The cocking/activating wheel ends its travel about 1.6mm from where the end of it would allow no fur

[Alan]

 cheers Jon - had the whole shutter assembly (minus glass) soaking in naptha overnight - removed and allowed to dry this morning but same problem eventually reappeared (same thing has happened after the previous 6 or 7 flushes). tried a different approach

[Jon Goodman]

 Hi, Alan.  As long as it is working smoothly when it is good and dry, I'd say you'd be ok to leave it like this.  I've run across a few leaf shutters which for one reason or another needed some help...usually in the form of a wee bit of graphit