Please help with MC HELIOS 44m-6

[raay04]

Hello friends,i own a helios 44m-6,44m-7 ,and a helios 77m4 ,all in great cosmetic shape and grt optical shape ,but all three has stiff focus ring ,atleast the the 44m-6 is little smooth,other two r really stiff(quite a wrist excercise)!! i have seen posts here and other places but cant find a complete post ,i have seen links posted here but those r no longer working ,so if anyone knows any valid link or personal tuorial blog ,please help me!!! i wud much appreciate it!!!!

[Aanything]

I disassembled and relubed some helioses, but I didn't document the process.
IIRC, i opened them from the back, disassembling the mount part first. Once you did that, getting to the helicoid is pretty straightforward.
Just remember, in case you need to disassemble the helicoid, to mark the two threaded rings at the position they divide, so that you'll find the correct thread when reassembling. Otherwise it's long and annoying.


EDIT
Now that I'm thinking about it, you probably can access the helicoid also by unscrewing the three screws on the focus ring and moving it.
Often, after exposing it, you can cure stiffness by letting some drops of lighter fluid in, and then rotate focus back and forth.
In this case too, you have to mark the relative position of the focus ring before you unscrew it.

[raay04]

ok thank you ,i will give it a go,though wud be nice if someone can give detail description

[raay04]

can i use petrol in place of lighter fluid???

[Aanything]

I think it's ok: you need something to dissolve the grease that grew stiff over time. Petrol should do that, but I never tried it.

[cooltouch]

Petrol is an extreme fire hazard and should never be used as a solvent. This is just standard safety boilerplate. Naphtha (aka lighter fluid) is much less flammable and has excellent solvent properties. You can buy a quart can of the stuff for about six bucks here in the USA. Or you can buy a bottle of lighter fluid for less, but of course you get less.

I would suggest, however, that attempting to loosen up the focusing helical by adding a solvent to the coagulated grease is not the right way to go. The coagulated grease has lost its "light ends" -- the thinner components of its complex makeup. These light ends have evaporated, and adding naphtha is not going to restore them. For one thing, naphtha will "cook off" too fast, putting you right back where you were all too soon. Really if you're gonna do this right, you have to dismantle the helical, remove all the old grease and replace it with some fresh stuff. I like using a high molybdenum sulfide content engine assembly grease that's a sort of silvery gray in color. It does not separate appreciably over time or due to high temperatures.

If you don't feel like dismantling your lens, try just racking the focusing helical back and forth, from infinity to closest focus several dozen times. Do this only if you can without forcing things, though. By doing this, you are wiping away the thickened grease from the helical threads. Eventually, you will have wiped enough of the thickened grease from the helical threads such that the focusing ring should begin to feel somewhat loose, sort of in a well-used kind of way. If you do this, and if the helical frees up, this could last a long time before you begin to feel it stiffen up again. I have an old Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AIs that I bought used and which I've owned for over twenty years that has had that well-worn feel to it since the day I bought it, and I've owned other old Nikkor 50s that feel this same way, and they got like this from being used a lot, not giving the lube a chance to coagulate, essentially, before it's reduced to a thin film on the helical threads.

[Attila]

Very simple construction open it step by step make shoots or/and mark position on barrel with water resistant ink. You can get success easily, look heat resistant little hard grease and do it , don't worry , marks and photos will help well in assemble.

[raay04]

Thanks all of you who contributed to the post, i like to inform everyone that i have contacted one of the oldest camera repair shops In kolkata( been in business since 1970s) ,they do servicing of manual lenses and say that it wud cost around 8-9 dollars to get it relubed ,cleaned !!! cheers