weird spud timer

[Tom Deering <tmd@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a Sputnik that is giving me a bit of difficulty.  The timer is 
different from all the others I have, and I want to know if this is a 
factory made thing, or if somebody "fixed" this one.

On my other cameras, you pull down the timer lever, which locks. 
When you are ready to take your picture, you cock the shutter, and 
press the release.  This starts the timer.

On this one, there appears that pressing the release does not start 
the timer.  The little lever inside that does this is not there at 
all.  With this one, you have to cock the shutter, pull down the 
timer (which starts ticking when you release it) and then press the 
shutter, which only goes in half way.  When the timer is up, the 
shutter clicks the other half and fires.

Does anybody else have one like this?  I can't say I like the ergonomics.

Help!

Tom