8mm Forum: Bolex 18-5 (1962) un-gunk gearing and re-lube

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Posted by Michael J. Youndt (Member # 4617) on January 08, 2015, 05:02 PM:

I have my late father's Bolex 18-5 projector, bought new in 1962. Sadly he died in 1964 when I was 3-1/2 yrs/old. It has only been used sporadically since then; I recently fired it up and rewinding is very slow, like the bearings are completely dried out.

I want to (hopefully) easily partly disassemble, carefully un-gunk with mineral spirits, then re-lube with SuperLube hi-temp synthetic grease.

Can anyone offer some straight-forward advice, or provide a copy of a service manual.

TIA

Posted by Mark Phillips (Member # 5221) on January 27, 2016, 05:33 PM:

I am in the same position. The projector works, except the rear take up reel does not turn.

Anyone have a repair manual or advice on how to fix it?

Thanks!

Mark

Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 27, 2016, 07:55 PM:

You might try some oil on the motor end bushing first and let it run for awhile. I did this with My Elmo ST1200HD and it helped get it up to speed.

ZOOM All-Purpose Turbine Oil is great for this.

Posted by Bryan Chernick (Member # 1998) on January 28, 2016, 05:35 AM:

I use the same oil Janice mentioned on all the bearings plus white lithium grease on the gears. Try to wipe some of the old dried grease off first. There are gears in the arms but they are a bit more difficult tu get to, lube the gears in the body first then go after the gears in the arms if that doesn't help.

Posted by Scott Gabriel (Member # 5208) on January 28, 2016, 06:55 PM:

Hi Michael,
I'm new here too. And just performed this task on my new 18-5 , also built in 1962. I'll preface what I say by mentioning I'm certainly no expert. But I got some good help from a couple of good folks here. I also got a "repair" manual from a member here who was nice enough to make me a copy of his. It's cool to have. But it will be of little to no help here. Only shows exploded views. But no repair steps.

That said, I think you would be unwise to disassemble any of the gear train just to clean out the old grease and re- lube. As I was informed, it could mess up the timing of the shutter and claw and then you'd be in real trouble.

Just clean off as much of the old grease from the visable gears as best you can with long, non- shedding swabs, and re- grease lightly. A drop of light machine oil at every point where you can see a shaft riding in a bushing, etc.

With a slow speed upon using reverse and my guess is that you need new rubber belts, three from the motor shaft pulley to the shutter 3 step pulley. They're probably stretched. I got mine from a guy on ebay with the handle Optech1 , and they are supposed to be OEM. Fit perfectly, and for twelve bucks, a good investment. In fact, I would start with new belts. I'll wager that is the problem.
Good luck

P.s. I'm on my Ipad now and don't know how to link to it but, if interested, look up my thread on changing belts on one of these. I had a heckuva time on my standard machine, like yours, and my thread outlines what I had to do to solve it, FWIW. But then, I acquired a later Automatic version and changing the belts on it was a cinch. Much more clearance to squeeze the belts between the shutter pulley and the rear chassis.

Posted by Barry Fritz (Member # 1865) on January 28, 2016, 08:49 PM:

Did it run OK with film and in forward? How about with film in Reverse? What Scott said is likely true. There are no belts in the reel arm assembly, only gears. I doubt that heavy old grease would be causing your problem. Here is a pic of the reel arm taken apart. Have it laying down when you do it so the gears don't tumble out. I've added an exploded view also.

[ January 28, 2016, 10:59 PM: Message edited by: Barry Fritz ]

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