Film takeup spool for Minolta XD-7

[Peter S.]

Dear fellow camera repairers,

I got a defective XD-7 from the bay of evil - I got it relatively cheap. First issue was a jumpy exposure time reading. I disassembled it, cleaned the poti below the ASA-dial, reassembled, and it reads out fine now!
I took a film, and ups: the grey part to take the film nozzle wasn't there! So I got a problem: Leica says, their takeup spool for the R4 were different, and broken XD-7s are rare (and not necessarily cheap). My camera was pretty dirty on the outerside, but it was totally shiny inside. So I am pretty reluctant, to use it as a spare part source for the next XD-7. Besides I ordered one of these nice cobalt blue goat skin releather kits from cameraleather.com.

So I ask myself (and You of course), whether a XG-2/9/1 were a possible source of a takeup spool for my XD-7. Does anybody know, or have the service manual for the XG-series. The part number of takeup spool is 2005-0332-11 (in case this would help). I don't mind about the few Euros it will take to buy one of these. It is just, that it will take a lot of time, to explant the spool, doing the same on the XD-7 - and then possibly find out, that all were in vain.

Thank You in advance! And best regards
Peter

[wolves3012]

If I remember correctly, the XG-M and X-700 (at least) have the same spool - worth getting a cheap dud one? Just an idea...

[Peter S.]

Thank You for Your reply! But the X-700 spool does look different, all in all rounder.
I'll try to check it out anyway, since I got a dead X-700 here in my closet.

Best regards
Peter

[wolves3012]

peters said:

Thank You for Your reply! But the X-700 spool does look different, all in all rounder.
I'll try to check it out anyway, since I got a dead X-700 here in my closet.

Best regards
Peter

Well, I no longer have an XD7 so I'm just working from memory - they certainly work in the same way so I assumed Minolta would have saved on parts by using a common spool. I could be compeletely wrong of course!

Why is the X-700 dead - not the "capacitor fault" is it?

[Peter S.]

Hi Wolfes,

the X-700 has an issue with the winding lever. It doesn't return correctly.
One has to fiddle at the coupling for the motor so that some internal
part jumps back into the original position. Otherwise the rewind lever
is blocking to next wind cycle.

I don't got a repair manual so far - maybe I'll buy one. Without the manual
I find it impossible to fix. Same holds for the XD-7, but here I bought one.
From what I saw so far, the XD-7 got a nicer internal construction. This
starts with the fact, that You don't have to unsolder cables when disassembling 1)
the top cover. And in general the XD-7 looks much more tidy inside. It is a
better camera than the X-700. If it only had TTL flash... (then I'd never touch
a X-700).

And no, the capacitor issue would not need me more than maybe half an hour
to fix. I am an engineer, developing electronics (albeit of a completely different
type), have access to an well equiped lab at work. I will get another defective
X-700, which I suspect having died the capacitor fault dead. I will repair this
one (or fix the old one by spare parts of the other one).

Best regards
Peter

1) I don't mind soldering - it is just awkward, to remember, where
to solder the loose cables back after a longer repair session.
Maybe I have to buy a digital point'n'shoot to just to document
disassembly during camera repair.