MX hotshoe problem

I have an MX on which the flash hotshoe doesn't work, but the sync sockets do. Any ideas? The circuitry is obviously ok as the sockets are fine, I'm just not sure whether there's some sort of internal switch to select one or the other?

I'm thinking about popping the top plate off and investigating when I finish the current film as it could be something very simple like a loose wire or bent contact below the hotshoe. Anything I should know? I realise the top of the winder lever is a reversed thread but what about the top of the shutter speed control?

Now I have a suitably small flash and winter is approaching I'd like to get it working, as the rest of the camera functions perfectly. It did come with a sync cable/hotshoe adapter but that just annoys me - it shouldn't need it!

Can't help I'm afraid, but I replaced the hot shoe on my first MX with the same result.

I've had the camera serviced since and it's still the same!

I'll be watching this thread with interest.

Hmm, I'm beginning to wonder whether it's worth the risk! The MX seems to be the only reliable M series I own (others being a black ME S with flickering LEDs which is ok if left for a while to settle, a chrome ME S with metering which reads about two stops underexposed, and assorted jammed or partially working MV/MV1/two more ME S). I might just use it with my Metz 45 CL-1 instead (has a sync lead)...

Weirdly my old KX and KM keep clattering along merrily despite being older. The KM is still on its original light seals and mirror foam which is only just showing signs of needing replacement, the KX has had all its foam replaced and is now my favourite film body alongside the MX. Both are older than I am by a few years!

Its an awful long time since I owned and MX but had the same problem.

I think this is what I did.

Prize up the metal spring plate in the hotshoe fom the front and slide it back, undo the screws now revealed and the hotshoe will come off, you might find a loose wire.

Thanks Ken - just done that, and I think it may have cured it! There's currently just over half of a roll of slide film in there so I can't really test it now, but I'm getting continuity between the centre pin of the hotshoe and the centre of the PC socket when I hold the little plunger down. I'll try the flash next time I take it out - it won't make any difference to a daylight landscape shot but that will tell me whether the hotshoe is working.