Honolulu
Well-Known Member
Having seen threads about fixing clocks, including Hack's recent, I thought I'd have a go at the spare clock (from the spare cluster of course, doesn't everyone have one?) J/K, but I do have a spare cluster, and had taken the clock out of it a year or three ago. So I went to the mancave and found the clock, nicely wrapped in tissue paper and a baggie, from years ago.
A "bench test" with a battery and a pair of jumper wires did not result in the clock hands moving, so (drat) I actually had a project on hand. Since it has been raining here it was a good day to make a mess on the kitchen table and that's just what I did.
After gathering tools and parking the car's battery on a spare towel on the table, I opened the clock. I had already pried off the chrome, so there it was, held together by three little straight head screws and the solder point. Off they came... and I stared at the little gears and stuff through a magnifying glass for 15 minutes.
I noticed the hands moved with very little pressure so maybe they weren't fixed to the shaft very well... so I thought I'd hook up the battery and see if the problem was hands or the guts. To my surprise the little motor started, gears turned and VOILA the clock was working. I sounds like zzt.zzt.zzt.zzt and the gears go round and round. I left it hooked up for 15 minutes and sure enough the hands turned. There is a little potentiometer (?) with a screw on it, presumably for adjusting the speed. In my amazement that it worked, I didn't check how accurate it was, and buttoned it up and soldered the pin that holds the works into the "can" in which it sits.
Now to take out and the clock in the dash and put in the working unit... I have big hands and clock removal, I read, is a bit of trouble.
Why didn't it work at first (and for the last 10 years I've had it)? I have no idea. It didn't work when sitting on the garage floor wired directly to the battery either, only started to go when on the kitchen table... think I'll verify running before trying to take the other one out of the dash.
Pictures of the clock guts are available to anyone who will use the search function (my digicam battery was on the charger so no pics by me). The clock I repaired was the "later" style quartz clock, not the earlier mechanical version. We'll see what's in my 8/72 production car but I understand that either will fit.
When the gages come out for clock replacement maybe I'll fix the odometer. On a roll here...
A "bench test" with a battery and a pair of jumper wires did not result in the clock hands moving, so (drat) I actually had a project on hand. Since it has been raining here it was a good day to make a mess on the kitchen table and that's just what I did.
After gathering tools and parking the car's battery on a spare towel on the table, I opened the clock. I had already pried off the chrome, so there it was, held together by three little straight head screws and the solder point. Off they came... and I stared at the little gears and stuff through a magnifying glass for 15 minutes.
I noticed the hands moved with very little pressure so maybe they weren't fixed to the shaft very well... so I thought I'd hook up the battery and see if the problem was hands or the guts. To my surprise the little motor started, gears turned and VOILA the clock was working. I sounds like zzt.zzt.zzt.zzt and the gears go round and round. I left it hooked up for 15 minutes and sure enough the hands turned. There is a little potentiometer (?) with a screw on it, presumably for adjusting the speed. In my amazement that it worked, I didn't check how accurate it was, and buttoned it up and soldered the pin that holds the works into the "can" in which it sits.
Now to take out and the clock in the dash and put in the working unit... I have big hands and clock removal, I read, is a bit of trouble.
Why didn't it work at first (and for the last 10 years I've had it)? I have no idea. It didn't work when sitting on the garage floor wired directly to the battery either, only started to go when on the kitchen table... think I'll verify running before trying to take the other one out of the dash.
Pictures of the clock guts are available to anyone who will use the search function (my digicam battery was on the charger so no pics by me). The clock I repaired was the "later" style quartz clock, not the earlier mechanical version. We'll see what's in my 8/72 production car but I understand that either will fit.
When the gages come out for clock replacement maybe I'll fix the odometer. On a roll here...
