Had a Canon AE-1 shutter lock up on me mid-repair this morning

I was swapping out the light seals on this old AE-1 I got from a guy on Craigslist in Portland, and everything was going smooth until I went to fire the shutter. Thing just froze up tight, wouldn't advance or anything. Turns out the gear train was gummed up with old lubricant that had turned into glue, not just the seals. Has anyone else run into that sticky gunk where the shutter mechanism meets the rewind fork?

3 comments

3 Comments

veraj537d ago

Did you check the magnet assembly on the shutter curtain?

juliashah7d ago

Did @veraj53 check the magnet gap with a feeler gauge? That's usually the culprit in my experience.

alice896d ago

5 years of fixing these things and I've never once used a feeler gauge on a shutter. That's just overcomplicating something that's usually a tension issue or a jammed linkage.