The easy way to clean and re-lube a Carl Zeiss Pancolar 1.8

eddieitman · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 1246 Location: United Kingdom

OK so i had a Pancolar F1.8 that would hardly move, and after posting on the bargain corner that i fixed mine rather easily with just a bit of lighter fluid and no major disassembly a few people expressed interest, so here is a guide
What you will need
Lighter Fluid
Silicone Grease (mine came from Lidl)
Cotton Buds.
A flat head screwdriver.
10 minutes of time.
Patience.
I take no responsibility should you damage your lens, i managed to do mine with no repercussions.

#1 What you will need for cleaning and re-lubbing

#2 after removing the rear section of the lens

#3 notice the position of the aperture at F1.8 before removing the aperture ring.

#4 With the lens at infinity make sure to remove all excess dried up grease use a dry cotton bud

#5 clean this are as well

#6 notice the hellicoid being cleaned

#7 Helicoid all clean now

#8 Add a few tiny drops of lighter fluid to the hellicoid, be very sparing only one drop should do it dont soak the lens then start to twist the focus to work it in, you should notice that it will produce a lot of black gunk once it has worked in make sure to remove as much as possible

#9 Black Gunk we talked about remove this with cotton buds

#10 once cleaned apply a tiny amount of silicone lube (be careful spraying this only a half press should do) and twist and turn the focus again remove any residual black gunk and re-assemble lens

Here is a video showing the smooth focus now i hope this helps somebody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCKqqdVYyYA

So as you can see no major dismantling, or scary bits that fall off, a simple and easy way to repair the lens
P.S i have used silicone lube for years in my car door windows, and had no detriment as to it clogging or getting stiff

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Very well done Eddie. Thanks for taking the time and effort to do this for us.

Could I make a small suggestion? Instead of spraying the grease directly on the helicoil thread, it would be better to spray and little into a shallow container, perhaps the lid of the can, and use a small artist's paintbrush to apply it.

My Pancolar has sticky blades. You wouldn't mind doing a similar guide to cleaning them for me, would you? Smile

NewStuff · Joined: 31 Mar 2011 Posts: 847 Location: Wales, UK

Cheers for that!

I'll be doing this to the Tessar once it arrives. I daresay the location will be slightly different, but the principle is the same.

Jamesb101 · Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Herts

Hi Came across your post & thought I would have a go at re lubing the one I have all seems Ok but I have a spring left over ,can anyone point me as to where it fits.
I also presume that I have the spring for the diaphragm pin correct as well?

Thanks
James

PS help I can't seem to upload any pics Rolling Eyes

eddieitman · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 1246 Location: United Kingdom

here are some pics of the springs hope you can work out where it goes, when you take it apart the way i advised there should be nothing that comes off
let me know what spring it is and i may be able to advise better

#1

#2

#3

Jamesb101 · Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Herts

Thanks for the quick response I seem to be having trouble posting pics or even a flickr link as I would show the spring in question.
any tips ?
regards
James

Jamesb101 · Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Herts

You can see pics here of the 'spare' spring & the base of the lens,although it does seem to differ from yours

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamseb101/6272138327/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamseb101/6272138781/

Regards
James

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Jamesb101 · Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Herts

Thanks for the help re posting pics i'll try again here
#1

#2

as you can now see Very Happy

on the second pic its the spring on the right , the other is the aperture pin & i presume the spring fits so .

Regards
James

aspen · Expire: 2014-02-20

Andreq · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 184 Location: Quebec, Canada

Hey,

I just got a Jena 50mm f2.8 too and I just did everything I could to get it unstuck without success.

Right now, the lens is almost fully disassembled on my desk, I can clean the male focusing screw and grease it properly.

I followed this http://oomz.net/tessar/ but my lens isn't the from same year make. Mine looks just like the one on this thread.

My question is : What should be movie with the focusing ring ?

The whole assembly with he aperture scale (the one with the red line, number 5 on the website)... doesn't make sens to me
or
The outer helicoil thread should rotate freely INSIDE this assembly (number 5)...because that's where mine won't move an inch!

We can see on the website part number 5 at the bottom of the page with all the parts... we see the "outer" helicoil atached to number 5.. are those 2 thing fixed together??

And since the focusing ring shouldn't move with the red line... I'm confused

I'll try soaking the focusing ring + outer helicoil in alcohol overnight.

I found a "stock" picture of my lens model : http://www.filterfantastic.co.uk/bayimages/3009%20Bags/BG5Q9352.jpg

Let me know if you have any idea, I'll try to post a picture tomorow... it should help a lot.

eddieitman · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 1246 Location: United Kingdom

Have you tried getting to the hellicoid from the front? Use a sink plug to unscrew the name tag once removed there should be three screws to remove the front half the lens and we should then be able to see the hellicoid to remove the glass and access the blades use a tool similiar to what i have on the 1st pic its an o ring seperator purchased from any good hardware store mine cost around £5 loks like a compass one the glass is removed you can access the blades and clean with lighter fluid

Andreq · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 184 Location: Quebec, Canada

The inner helicoil is "out", thats not my problem.

On this picture, is the Helicoil (outer) fixed to this whole assembly (part #5) ?

Mine is... and I don't see how the lens can focus that way :S

edit : Doesn't make sens at all using this picture... I'll try to mspaint something at work... go2go now -_-

edit 2 :

The blue part is out.

The red part is the "aperture assembly" (part number 5)

The green part is the focusing whell.

Is the green supposed to be stuck to the red ? The only way I can separate them is when I unscrew the focusing wheel retaining screw (a big ~1.5inch screw/ring with 2 slot for a spanner wrench). Removing this ring, the focusing wheel move freely... but doesn't move anything... thus doesn't focus :S

Had to use picasa since our proxy block the traditional upload -_-

Andreq · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 184 Location: Quebec, Canada

Anyone have a diagram of how a focus wheel work? I'm really confused with this lens... the assembly doesn't make sens. It's as if the focus wheel was attached to the lens mount (when fully assembled). Doesn't make sens, the focus ring can't turn if the mount doesn't turn with it :S

Andreq · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 184 Location: Quebec, Canada

Eureka!

I knew it... I knew that those 2 part wasn't supposed to be frozen togeter.

I finaly bought lighter fluid tonight and I was able to loosen the focus ring from the aperture assembly.... now I'm working it in until I can rotate the ring from 0.3 to infinity (getting there!)

I'll probably have to find a way to grease rotating joint, no clue if its an helicoid or just a "bearing" of some sort. I'll keep you posted.

Edit :

I did it ! I was able to remove the whole inside helicoid from the aperture assembly (part #5 on website).

I'll clean that up and regrease, then the helicoid... than I'll have to fix the aperture blades... lots of work for that little lens, let's hope it does a great job Smile

Andreq · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 184 Location: Quebec, Canada

I quit... this lens is way too much trouble. I cleaned it up, re-grease it and re-assembled it : The focus is ultra stiff on some point.. as if the lens wasn't round anymore (might have been dropped).

I lost too much hour trying to fix that thing, it's going on the bay as-is!

Just for information purpose, my lens serial number was 91xxxxx.
The easiest way to remove the helicoid is to unscrew the front part of the lens, I've figured that out WAY to late.
One must be careful as the front element will fall when this is removed.

The aperture pin (m42) is a pain it the ass to keep still when trying to screw the helicoid.

The helicoid only fit one way to get infinite focus.

Strangely enough, I didn't take any picture. If anyone is struggling with one of those lens, let me know, I'll do my best to help!

Andreq · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 184 Location: Quebec, Canada

Just to let you know,

I took 5 minute to rethink about this lens... it was looking at me, on my desk... waiting to be trashed.

Everything looked "ok" but the focus wasn't moving past 0.4m so I got that idea that maybe the focus ring was just not at the right place.

- I took the front of the lens apart (it unscrew and the front element fall with it).
- Unscrewed the focus-ring retaining disk/screw.
- Re-seated the focus ring to infinity (making sure to turn the helicoid to infinity first)
- Re-screwed everything back

Voila! It's working now! got focus from 0.35m to infinity. It's a bit stiff in the middle, I might need to work some more grease or something!

I found out that removing the front of the lens could be another way to relube the helicoid since it's way more exposed and easily accessible, I'll try to post picture when I have time. One would only have to set focus to 0.35m and unscrew the black/filter holder part.

mareinke · Joined: 14 Nov 2013 Posts: 33 Location: LA, CA

Hi all,
Recently I bought a pancolar(8 blades version) in separated parts, in this post, I got the key information about how to assemble it. many thanks to eddieitman,Andreq and other guys.

I'm almost done, just a bit confused about its aperture mechanism, the aperture lever won't work unless I pull it backward manually.
is it supposed to work in this way? or use aperture pin instead?

#1

#2

y · Joined: 11 Aug 2013 Posts: 308 Location: EU

Sorry, I have one with stuck aperture, so I can't help you.

Does anybody here successfully cleaned the aperture? I can't figure out how to reach the aperture mechanism itself. After disassembling everything in reach still have a single piece of the optic assembly. There is no obvious way to get into "the middle" of that and reach the aperture mechanism.

mareinke · Joined: 14 Nov 2013 Posts: 33 Location: LA, CA

y · Joined: 11 Aug 2013 Posts: 308 Location: EU

mareinke · Joined: 14 Nov 2013 Posts: 33 Location: LA, CA

I just followed the ideas of eddieitman and Andreq, below is how.

pic1, remove 3 small flat head screws, and pull out the Front Casing.

pic2, use a Lens spanner unscrew the retaining ring and then Front Element is out, now switch to the back

pic3

pic4

in pic3 and pic4, after removing screw #1, you get enough angle to unscrew #2 and #3.
push down #4(the aperture arm) and #6(inner lever), shake #5(aperture pin with bottom spring) out of its original place, now #4 and #5 are free to pull out.
if you like, simply pull out #7 and free #6
after removing #8 2 screws, take out the #9.
and finally the front helicoid assy can be turned out as well, mark its position for later works.

pic5, turn the outer helicoid out of inner helicoid.

pic6, remove #1 aperture plate locker

pic7, #1 inner retaining ring, take it out, pull out #2 retaining disk and #3 plate spring, and #4 aperture plate is out.

turn it upside down and get everything you want.
the rest part could be harder because of infinity adjustment.

but, anyway, I still don't know how to enable its aperture without pulling the lever, any idea?

y · Joined: 11 Aug 2013 Posts: 308 Location: EU

Thanks a lot for the detailed guide. I'll try to get into this.

mareinke · Joined: 14 Nov 2013 Posts: 33 Location: LA, CA