Canon EFS 17-85mm IS stuck/locked zoom repair/disassembly
It seems like this is a common problem with these lenses, the zoom gets stuck at 17mm with about 2mm of play (zoom movement). This problem is all due to a loose single screw on the inner lens assembly, sounds simple to fix, doesn’t it?
The challenge is trying to get to this single screw, which involves the separation of the lens into over 10 components, and the removal of about 20 small screws. Hopefully this guide will make the disassembly job a whole lot easier.
First, a reminder of what the lens looks like.
Turn the lens on its side with the connection contacts closest to you. There are 2 tiny Philips screws to remove.
Balance the lens on its front with the metal lens screw lock ring visible. There are 4 small Philips screws to remove.
The metal ring can now be hinged apart. This next step is the most difficult. The inner black plastic ring is connected to the metal outer ring with 4 plastic clips in the inside. By pushing the clips towards the center, the black plastic ring can be removed from the top of the metal outer ring. Much care is needed due to the ribbon cable still being attached to the connection contacts allowing for a gap of roughly no more than 1cm.
Once the inner black plastic ring is removed, the outer metal screw lock ring can be removed, exposing the PCB protected by a black plastic housing.
Disconnect a single pressure ribbon cable attached to the inside of the black plastic housing which will then allow for its removal exposing the PCB.
Disconnect the 5 ribbon cables from the PCB. 2 are pressure connected, 2 with a hinged clip and 1 with a pressure clip. Unscrew a single Philips screw allowing the removal of the PCB.
Remove the 5 screws (circled in red) holding the outer black plastic ring allowing the remove of the black plastic ring. Then remove the 3 inner screws (circled in blue).
Turn the lens over and remove the rubber zoom grip. It can be removed by inserting a very thin screw driver under the rubber and working your way around.
With the rubber zoom grip removed, rotate the lens until you find a black rectangle sticker, peal this off to expose some contactors.
With a Philip driver, unscrew the contactors. I actually performed this when reassembling the lens and slightly damaged them. It is better to remove them at the start to prevent this.
There are 3 screws sitting on small metal tubes between a groove, finally remove these.
With these removed the inner lens portion can now be removed from the outer casing.
You now have access to the problem screw(s) that need tightening. Once tightened, add some Loctite or nail-polish to stop the screws becoming loose again.
Some do’s and don’ts
- don’t remove the front lens sticker or 3 screws behind it.
- don’t remove the zoom sticker with m/ft increments.
- don’t touch or disassemble any of the focusing ring!
- do keep your UV filter on the lens, you can still remove the rubber grip with it on.
- do make sure the focusing pin between the inner and outer len is in place.
References
- FixYa post by Gert Jan [fixa.com]
- Canon EF 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens Repair [photo.net]
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- Replacing a cracked Canon IXUS 55 / IXY 60 / SD450 LCD screen
- Motorola RAZR V3 repair and housing change guide
- How to repair High Heel Shoes for a few dollars
Tags: Canon, disassembly, EFS 17-85mm, lockded, Repair, stuck, zoom
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 8:12 am and is filed under Repair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Any tips for how to get the metal outer ring and the plastic inner ring back together, while also getting the ribbon in there? I’m having a hell of a time getting this last piece back together.
Got it together and now the auto focus won’t work and it’s not recognizing aperture. I’m fairly certain the focusing pin is in the correct spot.
I have had the same problem with the autofocusing and manual focusing that didn’t work after the fix, as many people has been writing about in this thread, and I have been reading all the posts through and thanks to posts from especially thydzik, nige, biperx and jon cage I got my focussing to work again and now have a fully functional lens! Thanks a lot!
I will in the following try to explain how I corrected this:
1. Do as the guide tells you and strip everything down to where the loose screws are accessible.
2. As thydzik wrote in the comments and posted a picture about: thydzik.com/images/canon-17-85mm-repair-the-final-screws-that-need-tightening-th-pin.jpg
A 1 cm black plastic pin is marked with a green circle. Move this pin to the outermost position.
4. Position the two silver prongs, coming from the autofocus unit (the unit in the left side of this picture thydzik.com/images/canon-17-85mm-repair-outer-casing-removed-from-inner-lens.jpg) so they straddle the black plastic pin.
If these parts aren’t put together correctly, no focussing will take place since the focus engine/manual focus grip isn’t moving anything around.
3. Set the focus on macro and the zoom to 17 and put everything together again.
4. Voila the world isn’t blurry anymore!
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Thanks so much for this! I managed the repair with no problems and now have a working lens again!!!!
My lens is also stuck on 17mm. I sent it to a Canon Approved repair center and they have quoted me
P & P £7.00
SPARES £0.00
LABOUR £105.00
VAT £22.4
TOTAL £134.40
The following work to be carried out:
Dismantle Lens
General Service
Recalibrate All
Repair Ultrasonic Motor
Replace Aperture
I have only had this lens for just over 2 years and previously had to have the following done for a similar cost: Replace Power Diaphragm Unit
I am very careful with my camera and lenses and they do not get a huge amount of use. Seems like I have been very unlucky as I was under the impression a lens lasted many years.
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Thanks very much! My lens works fine again!!!!
(Vielen Dank für die Anleitung, meine Linse tut wieder)
(Dziękuję za instrukcję, mój obiektyw znów funkcjonuje)
Smart, useful and well done tutorial. I’ve finished in repairing my 17-85 just now. Thank you!
Many, many thanks for posting this – very clear and precise instructions that have probably saved me over £100! The repair took me about 4 hours end to end and although fiddly wasn’t that difficult.
To Shireen (and anyone else struggling to get the contacts, metal bayonet ring and black pastic piece back together), try it this way…
Screw the contacts assembly back into the metal bayonet ring before trying to press the plastic inner back into place. Now place the metal ring and contacts back into place on the lens and screw the four screws that hold the bayonet ring onto the lens to semi tight, Now locate and gently press the plastic piece until all four lugs click back into place. Fully tighten the fours screws and viola! much easier than trying to assemble all three pieces at once.
Don’t try this same fix on a Sigma 17-50mm 2.8…
SO much more wiring and a complete disassembly required to fix the exact same problem. One loose screw ruins the zoom function of the lens. Lens is out of warranty so it’s a throw-away in this case.
This worked like a charm BUT if you re here because the ZoOm stucked at 17mm with some .. trying can be shifted to 35mm or even 85mm then you can skip all steps just to the point where you remove the zoom rubber – the screws are accessable when you can still .. sometimes can zoom to 85mm. voila!
Great instructions. My lens jammed at 17mm last week, had to wait a few days for a size 00 Philips to come in the post but fixed my lens tonight. All went well and the lens is better now than before, as the zoom was always a bit wobbly (the lens was second hand). You also need a pair of small electronics type pliars to handle the ribbon cables, but I had those already.
Thanks a lot for such a great article. My lens is fully operational again. Also, these instructions saved me £100. Thanks again!
I felt obligated to leave a comment because this article saved me a bunch of money in repairs. I did exactly as instructed and everything went smoothly. I tightened the loose screw and put everything back together.
When I slapped it on the camera body I found the AF wasn’t working. After reading the comments and seeing many people had this same problem I saw Anders’ comment. After following his instructions, everything ended up working like it should!
Thanks thydzik and Anders for saving me!
Awesome. Thanks all. I postponed this for almost a month, but finally took the time to sit down and do this today. Open then lens in 30 minutes only to find the one troublesome screw missing. Very upset I assembled it again and then when I stood up the missing screw fell of my lap (it was so loose that it fell out without me noticing. Anyway, second time round was much faster and now my lens is perfect again!
Thanks, the instructions are great! Didn’t have all the tools I would have liked, so some of the reassembly was a bit touchy, especially the cables. Anyway, the problem was as described and it’s back together and working!!
Hi Travis & all the other contributors.(thanks for the info & photos)
I had the same problem (telephoto stuck at 17mm)…After looking at all the photos and reading all the posts I could find I was successful at fixing the problem( a screw had come out entirely as was suggested by Travis & others) A couple of things I did to aid in reassembly was to tag screw holes with a tiny pieces of masking tape…After inadvertlingy removing the plastic focus barrel I used masking tape to hold it together so I wouldn’t have it come apart again while I was dissasembling more pieces…( the tape also helped from stopping the small screws from falling inside the barrel when reassembling…The problem screw was glued in place with a permatex tread locker(purple coded model)…Take as many macro photos as you can to help in positioning parts when reassembling and read all the posts from contributors especially the do’s and don’ts as suggested by Tavis…Take your time and be persistent and you can do it…Thanks again to everyone who contributed…The internet community is a wonderful resource of knowledge
Bill Carlson
Great detailed information for repairing this issue. I too had the focus assembly issue.
After reviewing and following Anders additions I managed to get the Auto Focus working but the Manual focus still doesn’t engage.
Does anybody have a suggestion on how to resolve this issue? The focus ring moves freely and doesn’t engage with the lens.
jesus and I love you, man! after one hour of work, that thing is working again! thx a lot!
Thany you very much for this wonderful description. My 17-85 is working again :)
THANKS SO MUCH!
I thought I was having this same problem, but turns out the little black metal clamp thingie (removing it is going further than your tutorial) fell off and the two tiny screws that held it in place were SOMEWHERE in the lens. As I opened it all up, I found one screw & the clamp were stuck right between the side of the front lens and outer casing, and the other screw was harder to find, it was INSIDE the focussing unit, and I could barely see it through a tiny hole. It was stuck to a magnet in there, and thus the AF didn’t work any more.
Well, I solved the problem and my lens just works FINE again! :) :) Your description helped me a lot! But without the help of a youtube disassembly video I would’ve been lost with my problem. Anyways, to everyone who’s attempting to do this on their own, there are 4 basic rules to this:
1 – BE PATIENT, STAY CALM AND WORK SLOWLY!
2 – KEEP ALL SCREWS SEPARATED & IN ORDER FOR EACH STEP!
3 – DO NOT LOSE ANY OF THE SCREWS!
4 – USE A QUALITY PH00/P00 SCREW DRIVER!
Yes that last one is important too! Cheap shit screw drivers will hurt your tiny tiny screws. And you don’t want to end up with a “rounded” screw that is still attached and will stay in place forever, do you? Once you damage a screw on the lens, you might never get it out. So be CAREFUL!
Thanks very much again for this tutorial.
PS: This is the video that took me further youtu.be/c2xlM7bGHX0
When I put it all back together, some of the screw holes seem to be in a differrent position, and the screws don’t find anymore (7th picture from the top) and I can’t mount the outer plastic ring. Any ideas how this could have happened and how I can fix this?
Thanks a lot!
I have a 28=105mm 3.5-4.5 lens that had a zoom that would not go below about 40mm.
Without this instruction I would not have attempted to fix myself.
I also had trouble with the auto focus after reassembling.
I should have taken pics, but I moved the focus ring to infinity and the mating part in the end of the lens (as you look down into it) all the way the the right.
The trick is to have the lens retracted to 28mm and slide the focus ring into the lens so when you twist it to lock the cams in place the line indicating zoom will match the 28mm. When you start the line will be about 1cm the the left of 28mm on the lens.
Hope this may help.
Jeff