First, I had to remove the leatherette from the front of the camera. This exposes the screws that secure the two metal covers. I had read about some horror stories of people trying to remove this ancient material from old cameras, but mine came off in one piece and was still flexible. I could probably glue it right back on.

To remove the top cover, simply remove the four screws holding it in place. Maneuver it carefully over the controls and it's free.

Here the lens assembly and top cover are separated from the camera body.

Removing the twin lens assembly is simple. Unscrew the four screws holding it in place. It now comes free of the camera body. With my Yashica D, there is absolutely no linkage between the lenses and shutter and the film-holding portion of the camera. They are completely discrete units.

The Yashica D camera has a manual shutter cocking mechanism. For the metal lens and shutter cover to clear the cocking lever, the small knob must first be removed. It simply unscrews from the lever. But there's a catch: since the camera operator will be applying a downward force on the lever, the knob would tend to be unscrewed over time. So to prevent this, the knob is screwed into the lever in reverse. You must turn the knob clockwise to remove it.

Here the shutter cover is off.

For me, removing the shutter cover was one of the most difficult steps. My self timer lever was stuck in the fully armed position. The M/X flash sync lever was stuck in the X position. The self timer apparently wouldn't activate because the shutter was stuck, preventing the lever from moving. The sync lever was stuck because the lockout prevented it from going in M mode while the self timer was activated.

Here you can see my self timer lever and shutter sync mode levers.

Normally, this would be at least somewhat simple. The sync lever goes into the M mode where the cover has a cutout and the self timer would be in the resting (right) position where there is a cutout. You remove the five philips screws holding the cover in place. Then, by moving the shutter cocking lever as needed, you carefully jostle the cover free.

Regrettably, I had to force the hell out of mine, and bent the self timer lever pretty badly. I know no way around this. If someone out there knows a better method, please send me an email and I'll post the answer here.

Now the shutter is free. Be sure to keep the stack of rings just as they are. The order is important.

The Copal MXV shutter is easily released from the lens mounting plate by unscrewing the taking lens barrel from the back of the shutter assembly.

Getting the shutter release out of the mounting plate takes a few moments. It's like one of those twisted nail puzzles you find in gift shops where you must find the right way to align the two elements to free them. Take your time and don't force it. There is a right way to do it.

With the ring removed, the shutter cover comes right off.

The shutter speed cover is held on with a screw-on ring. A set screw keeps the ring from unscrewing by fitting into the half-circle notches in the ring. You can see that the makers put a handy dab of red paint to indicate the position of the set screw on the ring. If you do not have a mark like this already on your ring, I recommend adding one to help get the tension correct when reassembling.

Turn the set screw a half turn so that the flat side faces the ring. Now you can use a blunt instrument to push against the notches in the ring to unscrew it. Below is the shutter speed cam.

The speed cam itself is a circular metal plate that moves various pins in the shutter as it rotates. You can simply lift it out to remove. Underneath are the goodies.

Now it is easy to identify the various parts. The self timer is the part with the red lever at the bottom (A). The shutter speed regulator is the unit right next to the yellow flash sync lever (B). The mess to the left is the shutter release (C). On my manual shutter reset model, I have a shutter reset lever (D). The shutter release lever is at the bottom (E). You can operate these various levers in this state and get an idea of how the shutter works.

What really impressed me about this shutter is that each unit is a discrete mechanical unit. They can pretty much work independantly of each other. This was especially great in my case because my self timer was damaged. I was able to get the camera working without it!

At this time, you're going to want to remove the speed cam detent spring. It sits loose upon the self timer (F).

The self timer comes out neatly.

The self timer is held in with just a single snap ring. Remove it by sliding it off the post with a flat-bladed screwdriver. You can now pull the self timer unit out.

Aparently some models have a screw with a flat side at the base of the self timer unit. If this exists, you may have to give it a turn to release the self timer.

The flash sync spring

The flash sync can be removed with a single screw. You do not need to remove the flash sync. My pictures from here on out will not have it, so I figured I would explain it now. At the very least, you'll want to consider disengaging the tiny flash spring (under the aforemented screw.) This is because the spring pushes against a post - a post that happens to be the end of a screw from the other side which we will be removing to get to the shutter blades.

The speed regulator is out. You can see the location of the two shims.

There are two screws holding the speed regulator in the shutter. Remove these. The speed regulator is now free to come out. Take careful note of the placement of the shim(s) under the unit where it is attached by the screws. My unit had a small brass washer on one side and a small black triangular shim under the other side. Apparently, some models may have two triangular shims or one single large shim.

The two halves are apart. The shutter blades are free!

The next step is one of the scariest. We need to separate the shutter unit into two halves: the shutter and the aperture. Both units have metal blades that open or close when they are rotated. When the two halves are separated on the Copal MXV shutter on the Yashica D camera, the shutter blades are completely freed. They can and will jostle around. Be very careful during this step not to lose damage them. The nice thing is that the aperture blades stay put and you can still work the aperture mechanism while the halves are separated.

There are four screws on the aperture side of the unit. Rotate the aperture until the four screws are visible. All four screws were subtlety different on mine. You will want to number these or make a drawing, etc. so that you can figure out where each one goes when you put it back together. Once the screws are out, you can pull the two halves apart. This is where the shutter blades become a jumble.

Now is the time to clean the shutter blades. Mine were stuck together with old oil or grease. The standard advice with these shutters is that they were meant to run dry. So you're going to want to get them completely clean. A lot of people recommend naphtha (white gas, lighter fluid, Coleman camp fuel). I used mineral spirits (Stoddard solvent, white spirit.) Either will work. "Odorless mineral spirits" is what I happened to have on hand and can highly recommend it for this task. I put a bit in a bottle cap and used a Q-tip (cotton swap, cotton bud) to wipe the blades and let them dry several times. I just let the blades lay on a paper towel and flipped them over with a tiny screwdriver to access both sides.

From here on out, you're going to want to avoid touching the blades with your bare hands. The oils from fingers could undo the cleaning you've just done. Manipulate them only with clean tools such as tweezers.

There is a very important sequence to re-assembling the shutter blades and their shims. These pictures should save you the considerable time I spent figuring it out. Place four of the five shims on the screws and posts in the orientation I show here.

Hint: before you do this step, you may want to take a moment to practice putting the shutter assembly back into the housing with the aperture. When you complete the next few steps, you're going to have to put the shutter (loose blades and all) back into the assembly. You'll be holding the shutter so that the blades are on top to keep them from falling off. So practice in this manner. After a while, you'll get good at it.

Hint two: you may find in your above practicing that the shutter release mechanism doesn't clear the edges of the housing unless the shutter is cocked and the shutter release is pushed partly in! While rebuilding the shutter while it is in this state is a little scary (imagine if it were triggered while the blades were still loose,) it is not going to go off by itself. Still, I leave it to you to decide whether or not to put your release in this state while assembling the blades (I did.)

Now begin placing the blades on the shims, starting at the first shim in clockwise order. Not shown in this picture is a hint for this process: put a small object on your work surface that is about the same height as the shutter ring. This will help support the shutters and keep them from falling inward as you arrange them. Any object the correct size will work. I used a polishing cylinder made for the Dremel rotary tool.

Now the next blade goes atop the first in clockwise order.

The fifth and final blade goes atop the fourth. All blades except the first should overlap in clockwise order. Now you should have a single shim left. Put this on top of the fifth blade. You're done with the arranging portion.

Now break out the chamomile tea, peaceful music, and take some deep breaths. You've got to take your blade arrangement and put it up into the aperture housing (put the two halves back together.) I hope you followed my hints above and practiced this maneuver several times. I was able to get the thing together in the first try, thanks to the practice.

You've got the thing together? Great! Now keep it held together and put in your screws. Now you can see why I had you label them. You don't want to be like me, holding the unit together for dear life while examining each screw and hole under a magnifying lens to figure out which one went where!

With the four screws in, you should have a fully functional shutter. You'll want to cock and release it several times to make sure it works before you go any further. The blades should snap open and snap shut smoothly and quickly.

From here on out, everything is the reverse of the above. You'll be putting everything back together. Now is a great time to clean everything as you put it back together. When's the next time you'll be able to get the dust and muck out of this part of the camera?

I'm sure you can figure out how to put it all back together, but since I've written this much, I might as well write them out:

1. Put the flash sync spring back on the screw/post and replace the flash sync (if you took it off)
2. Put the shim(s) or washer(s) in place where the speed regulator goes
3. Put the speed regulator in and screw it down
4. Put the self timer back in and secure it with the snap ring. (Mine was damaged, as I have mentioned. The shutter works fine without it, but the frame of the self timer is needed so that the speed cam detent spring can be placed on it.)
5. Put the shutter speed cam back on the shutter mechanism. Be sure that all of the pins (shown in the picture) clear the various holes and slots provided.
6. Put the shutter speed cover on the cam so that the holes line up with various pins (on mine, the printed "B" aperture setting lined up with the post protruding out of the top of the speed cam.)
7. Carefully screw down the cover ring. Be sure it is threading properly before applying any force.
8. Turn the set screw to secure the cover ring
9. Work the shutter to make sure all of the controls work properly
10. Align the shutter release lever so that it fits into the slot in the mounting plate
11. Underneath the shutter, arrange the stack of rings so that they align. On mine, I needed the ring containing the manual shutter reset lever to be in the right position and all of the rings needed to have a slot lined up with a hole in the mounting plate so that a post from the shutter went through them all and secured them
12. Screw the lens barrel onto the back of the mounting plate, breath a sigh of relief
13. If detached, re-connect the small spring that resets the shutter reset lever
14. Line up the aperture and shutter speed levers with the controls inside the shutter cover and put the shutter cover back on. Make sure that rotating the aperture and speed wheels on the cover operate the shutter controls. Secure the cover with the five screws
15. Screw the shutter lever knob back on counter-clockwise
16. Re-attach the lens assembly to the body of the camera with four screws
17. Put the top cover back on the lens assembly with four screws
18. If desired, re-glue the leatherette. You'll probably want to play with the camera for a while to make sure it works before you do this. I've still got my leatherette off and am debating whether or not to glue the old one back on.