clock

[thefastestz]

My clock will run an hour in 40 minutes.

I was excited when i found it actually worked.

One day i noticed it while rushing to school i was surprised it took

me so long to get there. I thought i was late, instead i was early.

:stupid:

My luck.

[Zvoiture]

I was taking some groceries out of my 77 the other day and heard the unmistakable "thwick" of a quartz movement advancing. WHAT THE...? This clock hasn't worked in years! But by golly, there is went...I froze and held point for at least a munite and again picked up that wonderful sound. It has continued to work since. The hour hand is a bit off, but it keeps great time. Crazy!

steve77

steve77

[SteveK]

Glove box light out

Glove box out (5 screws)

Undo single screw that holds clock in

Undo 2 power leads

Remove bulb

Remove 2 screws that hold clock front on

Remove 3 nuts that hold mechanism in place

Power up clock

Drop a knats **** of oil onto the pivot bearings

Mechanism started moving right away

Put it all back together

Put it back in car

Huzzah! For the first time in goodness knows how long, my Z has a working clock.

All in all it took less than a couple of hours, cheers for the advice lads , wish I'd have done it ages ago.

An absolute doddle as we would say in good old Blighty

Ps I can understand why folks don’t like taking the glove box out, that cardboard inner malarkey could get a little brittle, fortunately mine is in good nick.

[Zedrally]

Excellent write up of how to, however, I need to add a bit.

The primary reason the clock may have stopped ticking may be simply that it needs oiling!

However, just to oil the jewels may lead to erratic running as the reason for the stoppage in the first place would be binding of the balance staff to jewel, or other location holes due to a build up of dust and thickening of oil.

The correct procedure is to clean it first. The simplest way available to any budding watchmaker would be to use a small artists brush and shellite to brush away any residue that has been built up over the years, you would also use the same method on any other location holes.

Work carefully and make sure the assembly is completely dry, before applying the smallest drop of high quality mineral. We used "moebius"oil for French Clocks.

To give you an idea of how much oil to use, make yourself an oiler out of a very thin piece of wire .5mm thick and file a small taper.

When you dip this in the oil [only 1mm in] it should give you a "bee's d***" drop of oil which when deposited on the location holes will be sufficient to operate for the next 30 years!

Remember, over oiling will cause problems with binding.

Now thats how it was done.

The simple way of cleaning.

1. Buy a can of carb cleaner.

2. [Assuming you have the movement out of the movement holder]. Go outside and using the fine nozzle that comes with the carb cleaner, spray clean the movement, taking care that you don't melt any wire connections.

3. Air dry

4. Oil.

Personally I would use the brush method as you can "feel" your way along rather than blasting in, anothe r method would be to drop the movement into an ultrasonic cleaner, then oil.

*****Disclaimer*******

If you choose to follow the above, whatever you do make sure you work around ANY electrical wires. Preferably removing any coils or such prior to cleaning.

Mike

[RobertH]

I took the glove box out, pulled the clock, clean and oiled and now the clock works perfect (at least since 12:00 noon today) thanks for all the help...I also installed the window regulator today and it works perfect.

Thanks for the advice

RobertH

[SteveK]

Well

After doing the old strip clock out malarkey, cleaned it and oiled it, the clock ran for a few days then went on strike again so I thought sod it and put in a quartz mechanism that I had knocking around, modded the hands to fit the new shaft size and epoxied the mechanism to the back of the face, fits inside the old shell a treat

It took and hour or so but looks like stock and the front adjuster even works.

As for power I put some tails on it and a trim pot, tweaked it so I got about 1.5 volts and it runs from the cars supply - never have to bother with it again.

EDIT

Now using a voltage regulator as the pot wasnt a stable solution due to the voltage variance

Right, now for cold fusion

[dogma420]

Mine's just set to 4:20 and it is never off.

[Zrush]

What a coincidence, mine seems to be stuck at 4:20 also.

[59ghia]

If dis-assembly, cleaning and oiling doesn't work you may have to clean the little motor that drives the clock. You really need to be careful, but this is what i had to do. There are four very small wires that act like "brushes" on a very small 3 segment "commutator" This "commutator" gets dirty and needs to be cleaned (I used an eraser tip) This job is a real PITA but was the only way to get my clock working (one year now). The real difficult part is getting the "brushes" back arount the "commutator" Through the outside I slid a paperclip or somthing like that between the "brushes" enough to open up those very thin wires "brushes" to re-assemble. You may need to clean those wires where they touch the commutator with some real fine sandpaper , 1000 grit or so. Again be real careful if you try this as those wires are thin!

Good luck,

Dave

[Da Flash]

After reading this post I decided I'd give my very rarely working clock a try, getting it out was easy as I have both my glovebox and heater control plate off. Now that I've gotten it out and mostly apart (still haven't tried to pull the wires through the housing) how would I know what needs to be cleaned, oiled, or definately left alone?? I doubt that it's rocket-science but, all I see is a bunch of gears, a motor and some stuff that I haven't a clue as to what they are.

Also should I try to remove the arms and face plate or just leave them alone??

[NCLarry]

Years ago in my old 280 I managed the following modification:

1. Extend the shaft a few inches and attach a 90 degree elbow.

2. Add about foot extension to reach to the glove box interior.

3. Attach smallish rotor wheel

4. Insert cheese

5. Add mouse

Mice are exceptionally good time-keepers and will work diligently to keep the clock running. Their natural internal clock even adjust to their/your local time zone as they usually don't travel far from home.

I recommend this method to everyone before going to the 'quartz' last resort.

[Da Flash]

No, but seriously............