Leica MP Take-up Spool Issue

[thenuzzler]

Can anybody familiar with the MP take-up spool take a look at these pictures? My concern is that there's something wrong with the spring inside the spool; it is too loose. How is it supposed to be looking? Thanks!

[coelacanth]

What do you mean by "too loose"?

My MP got a roll inside so I don't want to open it right now, but your MP in the photo looks normal. The spring is supposed to be just hanging there like that, the tip of the film push it down a bit when you are loading the film.

What symptoms are you getting right now?

BTW, welcome to RFF.

[thenuzzler]

Thanks, coelacanth!

It's my wife's camera. The last roll of film she has shot (she's using hand-loaded rolls of bulk film) came off the spool so we had to pull it out of the camera in the dark. That's when she noticed that the spring was protruding a bit from the take-up spool. Since we both couldn't quite recall where this spring normally sits, we thought there's something wrong.

We tried to load another film to make sure the camera is OK but had some troubles unwinding it because the spring seemed to be catching on the film, which caused the take-up spool to stagger.

[coelacanth]

Considering she is using bulk film, is the end of the film cut like regular roll of films? The film should be sitting on top of spring when you see it from bottom side of the camera up, not wrapped around the spring. Maybe the end of the film is cut too wide and it's slipping (forced) into the side of spring, causing too much "grab" by the take-up spool.

[Rob-F]

In the third photo the coil looks rather scrambled to me. Looks pretty much like mine in the first two, though. And there seems to be a sort of scratch or gouge in the wall in the last shot. Is that a sign of something gone wrong?

[Turtle]

It does look a touch scrambled but this does not mean it wont work fine.

[Boniface XIII]

Well, according to the OP, it doesn't work quite so finely. I'll check my spring tonight under strong magnification after I've finished the roll in the camera and let you know what I see, possibly uploading a couple of shots at the same time.

[thenuzzler]

The symptom is that it doesn't want to rewind the film every time. The take-up spool just gets stuck and won't unwind (unless you take the bottom cover off and start turning it manually). The other time it works just fine. Here's how the spring looks with some film on the take-up spool:

[sepiareverb]

That sounds more like a problem with the rewind switch? Spring looks much the same as mine, I've always thought the spring was a means of holding the narrower part of the film leader to keep the film tracking straight, not having anything to do with rewinding.

Give a call to a tech or Leica and ask them what they think.