Graflex.org

ropedog · Joined: 19 Aug 2004 Posts: 21 Location: Central Michigan

Just got my Korean War speed graphic and the rear shutter is held closed. The shutter release is set to front and the that appears to work. The Front/Back/Trip selector will not move, but is not frozen.
Help! I'm not afraid to dig into the action but would like to know where to start.
the righthand side plate or the back????

Thanks for any insight.

troublemaker · Joined: 24 Nov 2003 Posts: 715 Location: So Cal

Maybe you tried this but the slide shuttter selector needs to be pushed in before it will slide up into the "back" position, and when in need of service, can be stiff, esspecially if you want to "trip the FPS shutter with it. The side cover plate is easily removed and the slide thumb selector stays with it. Lift the plate part way and simply line up the slot with the shutter winder key and slip it up and off. Thus you will be able to see part of what you will be getting into. It is a simple old fashioned mechansism and can be fun to work on. And hopefully cleaning and proper lubing will get things working.
I like to place a small amount of grease under the shutter selector slide with a needle and this really gets 'em moving nicely. For the body release button I place small amounts of TriFLo in the grooved slots and wipe away the excess. With the front shutter cable, being a coiled spring housing, wd-40 goes right through and is clean when wiped away on the outside. I apply that with a Qtip or small brush (which I prefer as qtips tend to leave cotton behind). and wipe with a clean rag etc...
So there's a couple quick things you can look at until someone chimes in with quotes from the manuals.
If you are going to tear down the entire rear shutter and remove the rollers, there are a few more things you'll want to know first.

RichS · Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:39 am Post subject:

I don't have a Speed here right now and there's more knowledgable people aorund to help, but...

You say "The Front/Back/Trip selector will not move, but is not frozen.". How is it frozen but doesn't move? As I remember, it has to be push in a certain direction to switch settings. this is either in towards the body or forward towards the lens. Then it will slide to a new position.

Does your winding key move at all?

My first guess is that your shutter is wound and set but the release is set for the front shutter so you can't trip the back shutter. If you can get the switch into the proper position, you can try to trip the back shutter to see if it moves. What number can you see in the little window on the side?

I'm sure better suggestions will follow. If worse comes to worse, you can get the service manual from http://www.southbristolviews.com under graflex manuals. This will show you the complete break down of the shutter mechanism.

Give that trip switch a try though to fire the back shutter. That's probably the only problem and they can be tricky...

ropedog · Joined: 19 Aug 2004 Posts: 21 Location: Central Michigan

Thanks for the insite. All that was needed was the 'push in' to release the interlock for the shutter selection.
Everything moves just fine, just the FP shutter is a little slugish at higher speeds. Looks like a good project for a cold winter's night.

troublemaker · Joined: 24 Nov 2003 Posts: 715 Location: So Cal

Good to hear. Also, the proper setting to leave the back shutter in is with the high/low speed selector (located at the bottom of the side plate) in the slow forward position, and the shutter curtain relaxed in the "0" position. I suppose one could also leave the curtain roller springs fully relaxed, but the manuals and folks around agree that it is "O", and it also prevents taking photos of nothing when using front shutters and forgetting to set up the camera for front/back opperation.
As far as the rollers, my black painted Korean war era Pacemaker Speed has lube holes in the roller guides on the strap handle side. Place a very small dab of TriFlo (but any light lube oil will do)in the top roller hole. Add a little more to the bottom roller and let it soak in and manipulate the shutter key. Do this a couple times, to get some lube down the roller pin which may help things inside the lower roller which contains the spring. Do Not use too much lube, you don't want it getting onto the curtain, but rather it has to migrate past one or two brass shim washers and get down the pin roller. It wont take much. I use two drops when I have them all apart. You can also do this on the works end of the rollers by removing the cover plate as suggested above in the previous post. For the top roller, again just a small amount of light oil where you see the roller pin coming through the inner plate. For the bottom roller, place a couple small dabs on top of the keeper and let it soak in for a bit and wipe away excess (Do not remove the keeper and tension lock screw unless you know whatwill happen, how to reset it, and not to let the lower roller pin to pul up and thus maybe misplace the shim washers on the handle side and therefore have to remove the camera back and completely dissassemble the whole thing etc...!). If you have the cover plate off, place a very small amount of grease on the slide switch parts you can get to, including the contact points that are metal to metal on the speed selector located at the bottom of the mechanism. You'll see that it is two plates sandwhiched on the inner works plate. Use light grease at the obvious wear points. DO NOT lube the actual Speed Governor (which is a phenolic metal and plastic set of counter weights that spin when ingaged and thus slow down the the curtain rollers). This runs best when cleaned properly and run dry. If lubricant, and thus dirt, cakes up on it, it will change the speed settings.
Have fun.

[ This Message was edited by: troublemaker on 2006-11-19 09:41 ]

45PSS · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:47 am Post subject:

And do not oil the govenor.

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troublemaker · Joined: 24 Nov 2003 Posts: 715 Location: So Cal

No, do not oil the governor. Tar and feather yes, lube no.

ropedog · Joined: 19 Aug 2004 Posts: 21 Location: Central Michigan

The Resouces at http://www.southbristolviews.com are great!

RichS · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:23 pm Post subject:

Thanks

I don't know about lubing a governor, but I do know ours has very well greased palms at least

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