Dirt accumulation can cause malfunction in various parts of the projector, especially for old projectors. It is important to clean the film gate, film sprockets, take-up reel and other parts of the projector including the small screws, which may need some serious cleaning as well. It may also be ideal to remove the screws and reattach them after cleaning or simply replace them with new ones.
Dirt accumulation from surface of the projector may be easily cleaned with lint-free cloth and cotton swabs lightly moistened with rubbing alcohol or any all-purpose gadget surface cleaner. It is also ideal to have a camel's hair brush handy to blow dirt and dust, especially in the film gate area and the 8mm film ready for playback.
An old 8 mm projector's motor can malfunction after prolonged use or even after a long time of not using it. This becomes a common problem to projectors that are not regularly maintained. A problematic motor typically produces unlikely sound, which provides a higher risk of damage in the film print being played. Ideally, a projector with fully functional motor should work well with the rest of the projector's parts. Playing worn and torn 8mm film prints may also result in more operational problems.
Aside from sound issues, other problems relating to motor issues may also be readily noticeable through the speed of the motor during film playback. It may result in fast pt sluggish rewinding, which usually occurs because of hardened internal tubes, glazed rubber parts, belts and tires and losing the grip mechanism on the sprockets.
With a movie projector always requiring a bulb to show the film on screen, a burned-out bulb is a common bulb problem encountered in any projector. Replacement requires locating the bulb compartment, which is typically situated directly behind the projection lens. From the compartment's cover, which may be held in place with a small screw, the old bulb should be taken out by turning it counter-clockwise. Meanwhile, the new bulb is inserted and turned clockwise until secured in place.
To avoid shortening the life of a bulb for an 8 mm projector, it is important not to touch the bulb with the fingers because oil can smear over it and cause a weaker intensity for projection.
Most 8 mm film projectors, especially those that don't have a variable speed option during film playback, can succumb to annoying flicker problems. This becomes a more serious problem when trying to re-record the projected movie into digital material through a video camera. As it is ideal to archive old movies in a more accessible video file format; problems with non-flicker-free projectors tend to significantly lower the video quality of the original material being captured on video. The flicker problem becomes an issue because of the difference in the number of frames played by the projector and the one captured by the camera.
There are ways to add variable-speed capability to most film projectors through variable transformers attached to them. While most do-it-yourself options won't always completely remove flicker issues, minimizing this can mean a lot to the master copy produced when archiving the film in video format.