Stiff Rear Movements on a Sinar f

[mdm]

I am very new to LF and the excited owner of a Sinar f which I bought from KEH and had shipped at great expense to New Zealand. Sadly rear tilt, swing and shift are unusable, movement is so stiff and the 'knobs' are either missing entirely or stiff and don't lock anyway. Sending it back is not an option because of the expense (I did ask them to check it out before shipping, and they claimed to have done so). The main problem is with tilt and it is the right pivot that is stiff, left pivot is stiff but ok. The adjustment knob is so stiff and innefective. Lever for swing is completeley missing and doesn't lock when tight anyway. So how do I loosen it all up? Suggestions appreciated.

Also if you have any lever or knobs lying around please see my WTB post.

David

[Archphoto]

Welcome !

If you go to this site you will get the service manual for your F.

Use naphta or so to get rid of the old and stiffened grease and apply lithium grease.
Use brushes and toothpicks to remove all the old stuff.

There has been a thread about a rear P standard with troubles, you will find more data in that one.

Hopefully you are a bit on your way....

Peter

[rdenney]

I am very new to LF and the excited owner of a Sinar f which I bought from KEH and had shipped at great expense to New Zealand. Sadly rear tilt, swing and shift are unusable, movement is so stiff and the 'knobs' are either missing entirely or stiff and don't lock anyway. Sending it back is not an option because of the expense (I did ask them to check it out before shipping, and they claimed to have done so). The main problem is with tilt and it is the right pivot that is stiff, left pivot is stiff but ok. The adjustment knob is so stiff and innefective. Lever for swing is completeley missing and doesn't lock when tight anyway. So how do I loosen it all up? Suggestions appreciated.

There are several ball-bearings used as detents in the movements of a Sinar F, and these are likely caked up with hardened grease. One my first back, the detent ball for the rise column was jammed up that way, and the previous owner had used it that way for a long time apparently--the ball had worn a deep groove into the round rise column.

I attempted to buy an inexpensive multi-purpose standard (like the F's front standard) from ebay to have as a backup in case the notorious front rail clip broke. The one I received had the wrong lock screw in the rise column lock, and that had caused the lock mechanism to be bent. (I got my money back.) It would seem that people put these things together from spare parts and not always the right ones.

I've dripped a bit of Kroil into those detent balls for now, and that dissolved the hardened grease. But that's only temporary--I'll be rebuilding the camera completely soon.

The good news is that these cameras are easy to work on if you don't lose any of the parts, but spares (in poor enough condition to provide spare bits) are readily available.

Rick "who also had to tighten up the spring clip on the ground glass" Denney

[rdenney]

If you go to this site you will get the service manual for your F.

Thanks for that link--I had not found it previously.

But the link is missing the ".com" in the URL. The correct link is:

http://www.image2output-support.com/sinar/

Rick "downloading the service manual as we speak" Denney

[Archphoto]

Sorry, too hasty !

[mdm]

Thanks for your help. Will give it a try.