Spent 3 days chasing a shutter squeak on a Nikon F3 that wasn't even there

This old Nikon F3 came in with the owner saying the shutter sounded 'grindy' and slow. I'm thinking classic dried lube, right? Tore the whole thing down, cleaned every gear, re-lubed the curtain tracks with the proper stuff, put it back together. Still had the noise. Took it apart again, checked the mirror box, the springs, everything. Finally, after like 12 hours total, I'm holding the bare body and I realize the sound is coming from the bottom. The freaking rewind knob was slightly loose and the little metal bushing inside was rattling against the body plate every time the shutter fired. Tightened one screw, noise gone. The actual shutter mechanism was perfect the whole time. I felt like an idiot. How often do you guys get sent on a wild goose chase by a customer's bad description of a problem?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma964d ago

Oh man, I once spent a week on a "sticky" shutter that was just a loose lens mount.

emmaking4d ago

Ugh, I feel this in my soul. I chased a "film advance crunch" for two days on an old Pentax. Turns out the user had a single bent sprocket tooth on the take-up spool, and it was just the film itself making that awful sound. The camera was fine.

ray_sullivan4d ago

Gotta wonder if we're overthinking these old cameras sometimes. I mean, a bent sprocket tooth making a scary noise is one thing, but the camera still worked. We hear a weird sound and immediately assume the whole mechanism is toast. Maybe half the "problems" are just normal wear sounds we've forgotten about.