Ilex Universal not firing

**jantman** · 19-Feb-2004, 16:08

Well, I've had my new 14" Kodak Commercial Ektar for two weeks. I haven't even done tests with it yet. When I bought it, I noticed that once (out of about fifty tries), the shutter didn't fire. It's an Ilex No. 5 Universal Synchro. The type made for Kodak.

This afternoon, I tried it, nothing. I've tried firing it about twenty times, it only fired once. Hoping not to do any more damage, I haven't tried any more. It wouldn't fire at any speeds. All it does is click, but it sounds like the drive isnt being engaged.

Any ideas? I don't have a whole lot of money. I'll try it tomorrow and see if time fixes it (hey, i usually get lucky that way). Any ideas of a source of a used shutter?

Thanks!

**Bob Fowler** · 19-Feb-2004, 16:28

Are you firing with a cable release or are you using the release lever? Some Ilex Universal shutters get a bit touchy with a cable release and will only fire with one that has a real long throw.

If it won't fire either way, it probably just needs a good cleaning - Ilex shutters are pretty bullet proof. I picked up a lens in a #3 Ilex Acme that would fire at the same speed regardless of the setting. It turned out that there was enough gunk in the mechanism that it wasn't engaging the speeds escapement. It took about 10 minutes worth of work and it was fine.

**David A. Goldfarb** · 19-Feb-2004, 18:04

It probably just needs a good CLA. Send it to Frank Marshman (1-800-471-8133), who will get it working right and charge you a fair price (I suspect on the order of $80). The firing mechanism on these tends to migrate so it needs a longer and longer throw with the cable release until it can only be fired with the lever, and I suppose it might even get enough out of wack eventually that even that won't work.

**jantman** · 19-Feb-2004, 20:02

Well, thanks for the advice, guys.

I got ambitious and disassembled it myself. The problem was a striker arm which transfers force from the lever/cable release to the timing mechanism. It was passing over the timing mechanism instead of actuating it. I just bent it down a bit, and its fine now. Hopefully this will keep it working for a while. When it goes again, I'll think about seeing about removing the whole striker and filing a new one from brass shim stock.