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These pages describe how I repaired the control dial on my Canon A2E.
Please see the first page of this series for
the background. This page contains several photographs and may take a
minute to load.
The control dial was now as accessible as it was going to get. The
photo below shows the dial with the locking plate still in place.
To remove the control dial it was necessary to remove the screw
holding the locking button in place. This screw is unlike any of the
others, and the button is spring-loaded. Holding the button down from
the top of the cover while removing the screw prevented parts from
flying. Once the screw, button, spring, and locking lever were removed,
the broken parts were finally in full view.
Here's a view of the camera with
the dial removed. The detent ball (described later) is shown in place.
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The plastic control dial is attached to a detent ring by two very
small plastic pins. The pins are part of the control dial. They
extend through the detent ring and are heat-staked (melted) in
place. Captured inside this detent ring is a small spring and a
ball. These two parts and the detent ring provide the click-stops
you feel as you turn the dial (until it breaks, that is). On my
camera, one of the pins had sheared off. This allowed the detent
ring to skew slightly off axis. The small spring was damaged,
probably by my efforts to turn off the camera after the parts broke.
I had no choice but to cut the staked end off the remaining pin,
after which I could completely remove the parts. I had to be quite
careful to contain the tiny spring and ball. I was able to reform
the damaged spring with small needle-nose pliers.
The exploded view shows how this all fit together. The dashed
line represents the camera’s top cover. The plastic dial, the
locking button, and its spring are on top of the cover, and the
metal parts and screw are inside. You can also see in the photo at
left,
circled in red, the broken pins. My next task was to find parts
with which replace those pins.
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Next, repair and reassembly.
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