Why your Pentax K1000 isn't firing

A few quick tricks to breathe some life into your Pentax K1000 if you find it not being able to fire. This isn't a one size fits all but hopefully it's a good entry point to help you determine the root cause of your system's malfunction.

[@Mike_Wazowski_z]

Recently found your videos and recently interested in camera repair. I just gotta say I really appreciate the casual advice and info you give in these videos.

[@gregwardecke]

Good bit of information. Appreciate the video.

[@samexclusives1873]

I have one and the advance lever is jammed. Please help

[@Appelflapps]

I was wondering if you had some advice? So my Pentax K1000 works perfectly, but every 4th shot I need to advance a little bit more. And every 8th shot or so The curtain rolls, but the mirror doesn't go up. Would you have a suggestion on where to look?

[@jordanross3591]

Isn’t that body made of some aluminum cast? So would they gears rust since they’re steel?

[@RompingBronco]

My knowledge of the elements and their susceptibility to rust is not the best so can't answer that fully but I can say that I have seen the body and gears have significant signs of corrosion due to what I would presume is rust or some other form of corrosion, probably should look into it more so might have a little follow up video!

[@jordanross3591]

@@RompingBronco from my limited understanding, aluminum (which is what the body is) can corrode but it’s not in the typical brown, red rust that we see on gears and such

[@Gerard-hu6kp]

They were built for a big commercial market so the engineering is far from perfect
But it's as damn near ...
It's been twenty odd years since they were made so any now are bound to have some fault s
But they were not over engineered so they can be easy to open up for examination.