Film advance lever goes back and forth putting no tension or movement inside the camera to advance the film. Was working fine, then after taking my last shot, lever is just sort of loose., couldnt load new film. Wouldnt advance

If the lever won't advance even when there is no film in the camera, then I would say there is a problem. (p.s. You haven't told us the make and model)

is the lever moving at all? the lever will only advance after the shutter is released. You need batteries to do this.

Start simple and go from there.

I don't know if you have film in the camera so I'll read the following and choose what works for you.

I will assume the battery is working if applicable.

As stupid as this sounds press the shutter release button. If the shutter is cocked it will hold the advance. I've had people come in with this problem.

Not it?

If the film rewind has been pressed in it will disengage the film advance and stop the shutter mechanism as a result. Open the camera and close the back again resets the release.

If there is film in the camera remove it.

It there are important photos on the film and your rewind is not working use a coat to make a light proof black box. Just turn the sleeves inside out and put the camera in the coat. Wrap it so as it is closed to light. Open the camera remove the film and roll the film back in by hand.

OK so now we have a camera open with no film in it.

Open the back and look just below the shutter. On one side will be a very small "lever". This tells the camera that the film has been advanced and the shutter is cocked. Gently move the lever to the right. It should click. Now try pressing the shutter release.
Note that without film in the camera some cameras will not advance the shutter.

It should clear the problem.

If not something physical in jamming.

The film advance system could be jamming. On the side the film advance is on there will be a plastic "gear" inside the camera. Try moving by hand it should turn. You can reset the shutter this way.

Give this a try.

Hope this is helpful, if it gives you some direction please rate this answer.

Thanks

You can tighten the lever- use a tiny screwdriver - on the underside, then tighten the main screw underneath. works fine

The film is either at the end or stuck. The shutter will not release unless the film advance lever has gone all the way and back.
Make a note of the frame counter. Rewind the film and remove it from the camera (When you feel the film to come loose from the receiving spool, stop rewinding to prevent the end of the film to disappear inside the can. This way you can reload it if it was stuck in the middle.) If the film was completely exposed, take it to be developed.
With the empty camera, try to advance the lever and release the shutter. If this works, the problem was the film and not the camera. Everything is fine. If the problem persists, take it to be repaired.
If the film was stuck in the middle, load it again into the camera. With the lense cap on (preferably in a dark room or similar) 'shoot' as many 'empty' frames as you had on the counter plus two more. Finish the film and develop the pictures.
If the film stucks again at the same place, rewind it and develop normally. It was a bad film.
Hope this helped you to solve the problem.

If the film advance lever is "flopping" back and forth, the problem is most likely a jammed advance mechanism inside. The shutter is cocked *mechanically* and released the same way--no battery power is needed. One old trick you could try to release things is to push the rewind button on the bottom of the camera.*sometimes* it will free up the mechanism enough to unjam.

if the lever feels soft then you might haven't moved it till the end so try to push it untill u hear a tick if not then it's the capacitor

Yes this is fairly common with K 1000 and the Spotmatics : although the shutter is cocked and hence you cannot advance film you cannot release shutter because mirror box is not cocked. Remedy : remove bottom cover and locate mirror box lever which protrudes slightely and is movable up and down and is spring loaded. Move upwards until it licks in position ( moving up against spring tension ). Now release the shutter and camera should let you advance the film .