Dial Compur #2 shutter leaf actuation problem

Hello, firstly I can tell this shutter has been previously messed with. Anyhow... The current problem / problems are:

When you hold the shutter in a normal dial upwards position, and cock the shutter... the blades open partly. If you set the time to 1 sec, and fire it, 1) the blades open, 2) the blades close promptly (like 1/30 sec or so), but 3) you can hear the slow speed run after the blades close!

When the shutter is laying on its back (shooting straight up), if you cock the shutter, the blades don't open partly. But when you fire the shutter the blades don't open at all. The slow speed runs despite no leaf actuation.

B and T work fine. From a basic look inside no issues jump out at me.

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It seems like an issue somehow with the lever at the lower part of the shutter that 'grabs' the leaf actuation lever. Note how in the photo where the blades are partly open it has engaged, but in the other photo it hasn't. [Bottom of the shutter is on the left side of pic #1]

At 1/200 the behavior is the same (except no noise from the slow speed regulator).

Thanks for any help :-)

Maybe someone gave it a bath in lighter fluid and clogged up the works, or used the wrong oil to lubricate it. It's not too difficult to get the mechanism out of the housing to give it a clean, but I'm not sure about where the lubrication points are thereafter, or what oil is best. It does sound as though a lever is just sticking a bit somewhere. These shutters are robust - and lend themselves to enthusiastic DIY, with varying results.

That would be my guess as well. I see a good bit of corrosion in there, but not a lot of dirt or gunk. These leads me to believe that it's been cleaned out at some point rather recently in its history. Shutter and aperture blades can be a pain to remove and reinstall, so a lot of DIY repair people don't touch them. My guess is they gave it a bath in lighter fluid, and all of the old gunk soaked through the bottom and settled into the rear of the shutter where the shutter blades connect. Either that, or there's some additional corrosion around that area or the spring that controls the aperture blades is weak. At least, that's where I'd start.

If this shutter is important to you, I'd send it off to a pro for a proper CLA. If it's not and you want to learn how shutters work and how to CLA them yourself, this would be a good candidate to get you started. It won't be easy, and there's a lot to learn and probably some tools and stuff you'll need to buy, and there's a high probability that you'll do more damage than good, but these old Compur shutters are pretty well built, easier to work on than most and aren't usually extremely valuable. I'd actually recommend stating on a compound shutter first, as they're even more simple in design, but this isn't a bad starting point.

A person on Photrio [apug] gave me some information regarding 'repairing' my Ilex 3 universal shutter - which does not seem very different from your shutter.

His pseudonym there is shutterfinger. I'm not certain if he is available on this forum [LFPF], but hopefully someone else can give you better contact details.

regards
Tony

If your interested in a pro repair, contact Steve Choi at Steve’s Camera Repair in CulverCity. He overhauled one for me and it runs like a Swiss watch.

I've actually found and resolved some of the issues - via the help of this video of all things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh3tGlODqCQ
Fun to watch but also great closeups, which caused me to notice a spring wire which should have been engaged in the shutter leaf actuating arm, but had slipped off and was now doing nothing.

Once I got that spring wire in place (best shot at 1:05 in the video)... two of the problems are resolved. The blades open and close in time with the slow speeds, and the blades operate whether the shutter is upright or not.

Now I'm stuck on one remaining problem... when cocked the blades open a fraction (plenty enough to admit light, see the pic in original post). Any ideas there?

Also, yes I'm committed to trying to learn and DIY. Looking at values, money spent on fixing a dial set Compur would be better spent on fixing a rim set Compur or a Syncro Compur. Since I hate to just throw things away, I'm making an effort at DIY repair.

Hello.
I bought such a lens with a shutter.
Before me, the shutter was repaired by a master with bad hands and no knowledge.
The shutter turned out to be without a spring, and a few more details.
I found the spring. but only the highest speed works.
Can you please tell me where the blades should be?
Like in the photo of the first post? (Like Compur Rapid one by one.)
Or like mine? (Blades in pairs. One opposite the other)
Thank you!
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Hello fankenstain,

The blades in your shutter are in the wrong order.

Hope this helps,