The clock in my 72 hasn't worked for about 10 years, the 8 years it sat in the PO's barn/garage and 1 1/2 years it sat in my garage as I restore it. I decided to tackle the clock. It is I believe the 'older' style clock with a white plastic cover in the back as per the picture below
There are 3 small bolts holding this plastic cover. 2 are visible and the 3rd one had a plastic seal which if broken voids the waranty as per the white label on this clock. So if you think your clock is still under waranty do not break this seal. As an aside, there is also a blue ink date stamp on the top of this cover indicating the manucfaturing date ( month &year) of the clock. Here you can see the three bolts.
Once you remove the cover this is what you will see:
If you look at the above picture you will note a small copper eyelit between the 2 bolts.I studied this clock for about 15 minutes trying to understand how it worked and realized that it is basically a mechanical clock. There is a small round 'pendulum' attached to a gear. When I manually pushed this 'pendulum' the clock would work for two minutes and stop. I then noticed a part which looked like the points in the distributor which opened when I pushed the 'pendulum' back and were closed at the end of the two minutes cycle. Trying to understand what made these 'points' open I noticed the eyelit mentioned above and concluded that this small hole was not there for esthetic reasons and that it belonged somewhere. The only place it could possibly be attached was the small metal protrusion you will notice at 3'o clock of this eyelit.The picture below will show more details.
Once I connected this eyelit to the small metal protrusion at the right of it by crimping it, and then connected the electrical wires the 'pendulum' reset itself once the points closed. It does that every two minutes or so. Heres is a picture of the reconnected eyelit:
My clock now works again after being dormant for 10 years and is as good as an atomic clock. In fact, I rigged it so that it resets itself at daylight savings time. Just kidding.
BMW must have realized that it was too easy for some people to fix their ownd clocks and decided at some point to redesign it and make it more complicated by encasing the inards in a completly metal casing. While still possible to open it, you have to remove the chrome bezel. It twists off as the top of a jar would but you need to be carefull so as not to damage the bezel. The mechanism is again more complicated as the earlier clocks. This proves my signature to be accurate (see BMW mission statement below). The newer clocks also have a manufacture date but it stamped on the metal casing itself instead of being in ink.
Now the fact I was able to fix my clock obviously does not mean that it is the reason in all cases. Your clock may have a different problem but its worth a shot to investigate. It's not all that complicated. I hope this helps.
Good luck
There are 3 small bolts holding this plastic cover. 2 are visible and the 3rd one had a plastic seal which if broken voids the waranty as per the white label on this clock. So if you think your clock is still under waranty do not break this seal. As an aside, there is also a blue ink date stamp on the top of this cover indicating the manucfaturing date ( month &year) of the clock. Here you can see the three bolts.
Once you remove the cover this is what you will see:
If you look at the above picture you will note a small copper eyelit between the 2 bolts.I studied this clock for about 15 minutes trying to understand how it worked and realized that it is basically a mechanical clock. There is a small round 'pendulum' attached to a gear. When I manually pushed this 'pendulum' the clock would work for two minutes and stop. I then noticed a part which looked like the points in the distributor which opened when I pushed the 'pendulum' back and were closed at the end of the two minutes cycle. Trying to understand what made these 'points' open I noticed the eyelit mentioned above and concluded that this small hole was not there for esthetic reasons and that it belonged somewhere. The only place it could possibly be attached was the small metal protrusion you will notice at 3'o clock of this eyelit.The picture below will show more details.
Once I connected this eyelit to the small metal protrusion at the right of it by crimping it, and then connected the electrical wires the 'pendulum' reset itself once the points closed. It does that every two minutes or so. Heres is a picture of the reconnected eyelit:
My clock now works again after being dormant for 10 years and is as good as an atomic clock. In fact, I rigged it so that it resets itself at daylight savings time. Just kidding.
BMW must have realized that it was too easy for some people to fix their ownd clocks and decided at some point to redesign it and make it more complicated by encasing the inards in a completly metal casing. While still possible to open it, you have to remove the chrome bezel. It twists off as the top of a jar would but you need to be carefull so as not to damage the bezel. The mechanism is again more complicated as the earlier clocks. This proves my signature to be accurate (see BMW mission statement below). The newer clocks also have a manufacture date but it stamped on the metal casing itself instead of being in ink.
Now the fact I was able to fix my clock obviously does not mean that it is the reason in all cases. Your clock may have a different problem but its worth a shot to investigate. It's not all that complicated. I hope this helps.
Good luck
