Thought the old guy at the swap meet was wrong about not cleaning my shutter with lighter fluid, but the Mamiya proved me wrong

Joel Jones · 2026-10-17T02:50:03.621868+00:00

So about 3 weeks ago I picked up a beat up Mamiya at the Rose Bowl swap meet for $40 because the shutter was sticky. I figured I'd just flush it out with lighter fluid like I'd read online. This older guy with a table full of parts overheard me and said "don't do that, you'll wash the grease right out of the bearings and it'll get worse." I smiled and nodded and did it anyway because what does he know. Fast forward to now, the shutter is even more sluggish and there's a weird drag at slow speeds. I had to pull the whole thing apart to relube. Turns out the bearings were bone dry. Has anyone else had a lazy fix like that bite them, and what's the best thing to actually flush a sticky shutter with? I'm not touching lighter fluid again.

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Thought the old guy at the swap meet was wrong about not cleaning my shutter with lighter fluid, but the Mamiya proved me wrong | Camera Repairers - Thought Shares