Clock problem baffling me

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Urotrsh

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I sent my non working clock to North Hollywood speedometer for a rebuild along with my speedo. When I got it back and installed it, it quit after a few minutes.
I thought I had a loose wire or something. I checked the hot wire and ground, both good. Took the clock back out and set up a bench test. Worked fine for three days.
Thought maybe my hot wire has an intermittent connection problem. I ran a new hot from the constant hot on the emergency flasher button. Same problem. Works for a while and quits.
Did the same for the ground, no change. I sent it back to NHS, they said they reworked it and sent it back. Same problem. I'm wondering if maybe I don't have enough current going to it. My bench test was 2 amps. I don't know what the power is to the clock wire or the flashers. Anyone have any ideas for me????
 
Is it the early mechanical clock or the quartz version?

I've rebuilt a couple of the mechanical ones and they can be temperamental with mounting position. When you bench tested the clock out of the car was it resting at a similar angle to what it would be in the car?
 
My car is a 74 and I think the clock is mechanical as I can hear the gear wine when it is running.
It was not sitting at a similar angle for the bench test.
What in the internals is causing it to stop when in the car at the angle of the dash?
Maybe I should send it to a different restorer and have them put a quartz clock in it?
 
the 74 should have had a quartz clock (i believe). of course it could have been swapped out to an older mechanical one. i had Palo Alto speedo put a quartz clock in my mechanical clock.
 
IMG_20220226_102109630_HDR.jpg

Lots of pivot points that can wear out in the mechanical clock. If one of them is worn too much it can cause moving parts to bind up.
So it is plausible if the clock is tested on its back (vertical) the wear is not showing itself as much as it would if slightly tilted in car.

Make sense?
 
Reach out to Cory Shepard, info in this thread. May be worth getting a second opinion and he was quite responsive
paul cain

Thread 'Clock Repair / Referral / Specialty Gauge'

I am off on another preservation adventure........In the process I came across a great service provider that is E9 related.
Specialty Gauge to repair your E9 / E3 dash clocks.
The owner is Cory Shepard. He is highly responsive and did a great job repairing my non quartz VDO dash clock. Reasonable and super fast to ship.
See: www.specialtygauge.com
Phone 703 402 4008
Make contact before you ship as his shipping address is new.
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The picture from Thomas76 showing the internals I believe has a plastic removable cover. Mine is one metal cover captive by the chrome deco ring. Not removable without special tools.
I drove my car today and the clock worked intermittently. It does say Quartz on the face.
Thanks for the referral for specialtygauge Paul. I'll contact him.
 
Urotrsh said:
The picture from Thomas76 showing the internals I believe has a plastic removable cover. Mine is one metal cover captive by the chrome deco ring. Not removable without special tools.
I drove my car today and the clock worked intermittently. It does say Quartz on the face.
Thanks for the referral for specialtygauge Paul. I'll contact him.
Click to expand...
If you have your original fuse box, check your fuses. The old style of fuse links can oxidize and cause poor or intermittent conductivity. The fuses and the contacts can be cleaned with a bit of sandpaper.
 
Here’s my recent experience with fixing a quartz clock:

I was forced to replace the first gear wheel due to the original one disintegrating. See this thread:

https://e9coupe.com/forum/threads/v...board-clock-watch-for-porsche-mercedes.48296/

There is a seller on eBay who miraculously makes just that one part for these old clocks. I bought one and installed it and my clocks worked again. It’s the white part in the photo below.

A week or two later I could hear the motor inside my clock running but the hands were not advancing. After taking it apart several times I discovered that the gear teeth between the clock’s motor (the silver barrel shown below) and the replacement wheel were getting bound up but only occasionally and often after the mechanism ran correctly for several minutes.

IMG_4305.jpeg


Ultimately I solved the problem by drilling out the rivets for the motor and sliding the motor slightly closer to the new gear. This made the gear teeth mesh more completely. I used m1.6 screws and nuts in place of the rivets. Unfortunately it was a total sh!tshow because I also tore off one of the delicate wires for the motor in the process of unsoldering it from the circuit board.

Conclusion: that new gear wheel might be slightly smaller in diameter than the original. I don’t know why it worked perfectly for a while before apparently being too small.

Question: was this replacement part involved in the repair done by North Hollywood Speedometer?
 
North Hollywood speedometer has had it twice now. I'm sending it back for a third try.

Thanks Blinkling for the info and the photo. I bet you are right about mine having a similar flaw.

Today I reinstalled the clock. In the quiet garage I could hear the clock running. I set the time and listened closely. Every once in a while I could hear a different gear noise for a second. Like a small flaw in the gear getting caught and then continuing. After about ten minutes it stopped and did not resume.

I packaged it up for a third try with NHS. Hopefully they will take a closer look this time. It was crazy expensive for a clock.
 
if you want to try somebody else, try palo alto - look in the FAQ - top sources (there is a link in my signature below)
 
I had good luck with these guys, and reasonable compared to the big shops...

Clock Works

The Clock Works is your full-time automotive clock service center! With over 30,000 units serviced, we are the first choice for vintage and collector car clock sales and service. No radios, no gauges, no speedometers, no tachometers... Just clocks done right!
www.clockwks.com
 
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