K70 Aperture Solenoid Replacement

Having suffered from the dreaded K70 aperture solenoid failure I have finally plucked up the courage to replace the failed solenoid with a white solenoid I managed to find on Ebay. I found a very good step by step guide on the internet, bought a temperature controlled fine point soldering iron and a set of JIS screwdrivers and with some trepidation had a go.

I'm glad to say that by some very careful soldering the replacement solenoid is in place and the camera is back working fine.

For anybody wanting to repair their camera I can recommend the instructions:-

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/193-pentax-k-70/399198-tutorial-repair-penta...

The screws are differing lengths so draw the outline of the camera base, top and sides on cardboard, mark the screw locations and push a small hole in to put the screws in as you remove them, a pair of fine nosed pliers help. I would definitely recommend buying a good set of JIS screwdrivers so you don't damage the screw heads when you are removing them, particularly the screw holding the solenoid.

One word of advice is to be careful when aligning the AF/MF switch on reassembly, make sure the switch is on MF and the plastic slot in the body is at the top and focussing drive pin fully retracted into the lens mount.

Glad you were successful. I may have a similar problem with my MZ-S.

K.

Thats brilliant.. Well done. Camera back in action and saved a few quid.

I'm pleased to have the K70 back working and all for a £25 replacement solenoid. I do like the flip out screen for those awkward low shots and the built in flash is handy when you need a bit of "fill in" light and don't have a flash gun with you, both things I realise how much I miss when I use the K3iii.

Well done and good of you to let others in on the 'secret'.

regards

Karlo

Interesting post, thanks for sharing. I have a K3 but would really like to get my K30 working again, its been sitting for a while but was always a nice camera for general use and in some ways I got on with it better than the K3...!
Are you able to share the Ebay link at all for your white solenoid ?
I keep thinking about sending it for repair but baulk at the approx £150 cost. How long roughly did it take you to do the repair ?
Kind regards Dave

Search on Ebay for Pentax solenoid and it is the person who sells refurbished based in Leicestershire.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pentax-K50-K70-K500-K30-white-solenoid-for-aperture-r...

It took me about 30 mins. I'd definitely recommend getting the JIC screwdriver and an adjustable temperature fine point soldering iron.

Hi Paul

Well done on fixing your camera, it's the right thing to do rather than junking it or selling it as not working. It might interest those who wish to repair their solenoids on a K70, K50, K30 etc. that the white solenoids don't have to be bought on ebay as a single item, you can buy old camera bodies and remove them. The Pentax digital bodies up to and including the K-x all have them, as do the older film bodies such as the MZ-M, MZ-S and other cameras in the same series. You can pick up these old film bodies in a non-working condition on ebay for between £5 and £15.

Once you have the solenoid, if you're OK at soldering it's a pretty simple job to do the fix.

Kind Regards
David

Thanks for the feedback and link to the solenoid. I will certainly look into a set of the correct screwdrivers as well.
I had read about harvesting solenoids from other cameras but read somewhere the polarity might be an issue on the older MZ models, but fine with the K series etc.
Definitely keen to get my K30 working again, mine was quite an early serial number which I believe were some of the first to suffer from the solenoid issue.
Kind regards Dave

Also need to add that it might be worth trying the filing method before replacing the solenoid. You take the small metal 'plunger' and file a bit of material off the bottom of each leg to create a slight slope/edge. I've done this to many K-30 and K-50 solenoids with no recurrence of the aperture issue.

It appears that Ricoh have now, finally,found and, are supplying , a new version of the K-30 /K-50 / K-70 solenoid which seems to be "better" even than the old "white" one - see post #75 of this thread on the US forum from photogem who has done a lot of research on the subject and has repaired many of these bodies that had aperture block failures.

From this it appears that you may be able to buy these new solenoids from Ricoh's official UK repairer , John Pye Technical Services, but I cannot personally confirm that. If true then that looks like a much easier and quicker route to getting the required component (and possibly a lot cheaper!) than taking one out of an old body.