How can I repair a dead meter in an OM-1(N)?
The first and easiest thing to look for is whether the wire going to the battery terminal is intact. Just unscrew the four small Phillips screws on the bottom and the bottom plate comes off easily. I found that the wire on mine had corroded away. This is an extremely thin wire (maybe 22 gauge), and clearly a mistake in Olympus engineering. When you see how thin it is, you will not be surprised by how common meter failures are in OM-1s (I notice on eBay that a good percentage of the ones auctioned have defective meters). Use tweezers to carefully pull up the end of the wire so you can strip the plastic coating on it. Get a small piece of similar wire, and solder (or just twist together the ends). Re-attach the other end to the terminal. This is all a bit harder than it sounds, since there is very little room to move around, so you have to work slowly and carefully so as not to damage the gear train that sits right beside this wire. Thanks to “Peter S. Spiro”
