https://www.walmart.com/ip/SHARP-Quartz-Analog-Alarm-Clock-in-Black/20554638

Rip the motor and battery casing out (will require brief plastic sawing for the battery casing) and cram it in behind the original faceplate (it will fit in the can with a little finagling).  Just did it and looks awesome.

Any pictures of the install?


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Unfortunately I didn't think to take any but here is exactly what I did:

Estimated time to completion: 1 hour

1. Open up the Z clock and remove the hands (get some wire cutters or very thin pliers and pull up on the center of the clock arms).  They will fight you, but eventually pop off.  Now you can unbolt the 3 facebolts and pull the faceplate & mounting piece off of the old clock mechanism.
2. The faceplate is held to the mounting piece by 3 tabs which you bend a bit to separate the pieces.  The new clock's center arm mechanism isn't long enough to reach through the face and mounting plate as-is due to a bit of a spacer built into those 3 faceplate tabs.  Thin the width of the tabs out a bit (I used wire cutters) so that the tabs can go further into the mounting plate's tabs and end up being flush with the plate - then bend the tabs in holding the faceplate to the mounting bracket.
3. NOTE: The mounting plate's 3 bolt holes in the center protrude outward.  Be sure to mount the faceplate on the side without the protrusions (mounting flush) - the clock mechanism will mount to these.
4. Glue the clock mechanism to the 3 bumps on the back of the mounting plate (i used superglue but you can use whatever you prefer)
5. Open the new clock and note that the clock has a variety of wires all of these can be snipped except for the 2 that go to the battery (the others are for a light, the alarm feature, a speaker, etc)
6. Remove the hands by pulling them straight up and remove the mechanism - put the hands to the side as we will add those at the end
7. Now the only physical activity you will need to do for this - get a small saw and saw through the plastic clock outer shell so you can remove the AA battery housing.  Be sure to remove as much plastic around the battery housing as possible.  The original Z clock's can does not have much spare space, so be sure to make it as small as possible while maintaining the area where the battery clips into.
8. Place the AA battery housing into the can, reattach the clock hands by simply pushing them back on the center bit (leave the red hand off as that's for the old alarm feature)

I wrote the above as detailed as possible, but it is much simpler when you actually have both clocks in front of you.

NOTE: Everything will work but there are VERY small tolerances for everything (the clock hands hover about a half millimeter above the face for example.  As long as you remove enough of the surrounding plastic for the AA battery housing, you will also be able to close the clock and everything will look factory.

Edited July 12, 20204 yr by chaseincats