Hello Marcel,
what may have happened is that corrosion has attacked the place where a wire
should be soldered at either of the battery plates (I don't have a KM so I
don't know how the battery compartment looks like). It's only speculation but
I have only seen that on other bodies I bought 'for parts'. It seems that the
little ions in 'battery leak fluids' can go through the metal and corrode
solder and wire all the same, which become non-conductive.
The usual advice is to replace the wire entirely, which involves a bit of
dismantling I am afraid. I heard the KM is not such a complicated body though,
so maybe it's easy to find said wire once the base plate has been removed.
Don't know if a service manual can be found on the internet. never seen one.
Good luck.
otherwise, an hand-held light-meter might help :)
FGa
>>>>> "ME" == Marcel Eijdems <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
ME> Hi folks,
ME> After a lot of years of P&S I have just entered the wonderful world of SLR,
ME> fstops and this elaborate mailing list ;o) by receiving an old KM body+55mm
ME> SMC lens as a gift from a friend. They have spent the past 10 years in a
ME> cellar together, but all the mechanics are still functioning very well. The
ME> only thing malfunctioning is the light meter I guess. After cleaning the
ME> battery contacts and changing the old battery (which had leaked) by a 1.5V
ME> alkaline type new one, the meter needle is way up in the +direction.
ME> Changing film speed, shutter time or aperture has no effect, the needle
ME> stays up. Is this a common way of the light sensing cell to tell that it has
ME> perished or am I doing something wrong?
ME> Further I was wondering what happens when I turn the edge of the most left
ME> dial (seen from behind). I guess its for setting film type en length but
ME> what happens exactly?
ME> Are there any user manuals and/or repair manuals available for the KM
ME> (perhaps somewhere in pdf file format)?
ME> greetz, Marcel
-
This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe,
go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to
visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
