Help me to take apart zeiss amplival focus drive.

[JoMG]

Hello.

I have zeiss amplival and fully satisfied but old, german grease is problem.

My focus drive is very hard to operate because of harden grease.

So I decided to disassemble it!

But, I can not disassemble further more.

How can I disassemble this focus drive?

should I rotate the middle with a spanner wrench like first picture?

Or...Should I coarse focus drive turne in opposite directions like second picture?

I am suffering too much. Anybody please help me!

Thanks!!

[apochronaut]

I repaired one of these over 20 years ago and restored the focusing. There is a clutch inside that becomes clogged with hardened grease and also along the shaft where it rotates in bushings.

It is hard to remember exactly but I have no memory of counter rotating the knobs to disassemblet . The fine focus knobs come off with a large central screw, and after that the large pig nose nut should release the knob.

There is an Amplival owner who has written about the instrument in the past a bit , by the name of Raymond Sloss from the U.K. I know he completely relubed one. A search of his name and Amplival should come up with some contact info.

[JoMG]

I repaired one of these over 20 years ago and restored the focusing. There is a clutch inside that becomes clogged with hardened grease and also along the shaft where it rotates in bushings.

It is hard to remember exactly but I have no memory of counter rotating the knobs to disassemblet . The fine focus knobs come off with a large central screw, and after that the large pig nose nut should release the knob.

There is an Amplival owner who has written about the instrument in the past a bit , by the name of Raymond Sloss from the U.K. I know he completely relubed one. A search of his name and Amplival should come up with some contact info.

Thanks for advise.

I contact to Raymond Sloss and he said it was too old to remember exactly.

I think, releasing central pig nose part maybe solution like first picture. But it is really rock. It doesn't even budge.

[apochronaut]

Where are you located?

[JoMG]

Where are you located?

South Korea

[apochronaut]

Where are you located?

South Korea

Is there a possibility that a former dealer would have a long standing employee who would be able to provide some help? I have had that help before.

I wasn't expecting South Korea probably because they were allowed to use Carl Zeiss Jena for half the world and Aus Jena for the other half. I thought you were Aus Jena. Anyway, I'm sorry I can't remember either about the disassembly. There is the possibility that it is left hand thread?....although it would seem likely that the right hand focuser would be right hand thread, fighting gravity and all. I am pretty sure the pig nose nut comes off. Do you have a pin spanner that can apply enough torque?

[Sabatini]

Cordial greetings
I had the same problem as you.
But in my case I did not see the urgent need to completely disarm the mechanism. Which I see as a procedure which I see as too complicated due to the amount of parts and work that needs to be done
What happened in my experience is that I was too tightly tensing the coarse focus mechanism. This problem is corrected simply by using a counter-clockwise one to hold the side fine focus coarse and move the other one downward counter-clockwise... I will copy the explanation according to the Zeiss amplival manual.

Screenshot_20201202_204916.jpg (94.11 KiB) Viewed 2492 times

What I am reading is you grab the coarse focus knobs, one in each hand and turn them in opposite directions. Clockwise to tighten and counterclockwise to loosen.

If after trying with your own strength you can't ...it happened to me... try to wrap with a leather strap or a bicycle rubber and turn counterclockwise with your hands if you can not because it is too hard you should pour oil wd-40 and give him small taps with a small wooden stick you're hitting and loosening it until he releases you should pour enough wd-40 and wait a day that loosens and go tapping until he releases, and when making the force with the hand ir turns.
Then you will be able to give it the tension that suits you best.

[JoMG]

Where are you located?

South Korea

Is there a possibility that a former dealer would have a long standing employee who would be able to provide some help? I have had that help before.

I wasn't expecting South Korea probably because they were allowed to use Carl Zeiss Jena for half the world and Aus Jena for the other half. I thought you were Aus Jena. Anyway, I'm sorry I can't remember either about the disassembly. There is the possibility that it is left hand thread?....although it would seem likely that the right hand focuser would be right hand thread, fighting gravity and all. I am pretty sure the pig nose nut comes off. Do you have a pin spanner that can apply enough torque?

Yes, I have spanner and tried but spanner has bent. So I ordered strong spanner yesterday and will be arrive today. I will try again!

[JoMG]

Cordial greetings
I had the same problem as you.
But in my case I did not see the urgent need to completely disarm the mechanism. Which I see as a procedure which I see as too complicated due to the amount of parts and work that needs to be done
What happened in my experience is that I was too tightly tensing the coarse focus mechanism. This problem is corrected simply by using a counter-clockwise one to hold the side fine focus coarse and move the other one downward counter-clockwise... I will copy the explanation according to the Zeiss amplival manual.


Screenshot_20201202_204916.jpg

What I am reading is you grab the coarse focus knobs, one in each hand and turn them in opposite directions. Clockwise to tighten and counterclockwise to loosen.

If after trying with your own strength you can't ...it happened to me... try to wrap with a leather strap or a bicycle rubber and turn counterclockwise with your hands if you can not because it is too hard you should pour oil wd-40 and give him small taps with a small wooden stick you're hitting and loosening it until he releases you should pour enough wd-40 and wait a day that loosens and go tapping until he releases, and when making the force with the hand ir turns.
Then you will be able to give it the tension that suits you best.

Thanks!! you gave me another hope.

I will try wd-40, heating, and CCW turn. It is like some kind of quest.