Chain on cuckoo clock is loose...what could be wrong?

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 12:17 am     Post subject: Chain on cuckoo clock is loose...what could be wrong?

I was winding my cuckoo clock this morning when the chain that runs the actual clock mechanism (not the cuckoo or music chains) seemed to come "loose." There was no resistance when I pulled on the chain, and if I had let go of it, the weight would have gone crashing to the floor. The clock no longer works, obviously, but I'm not quite sure what happened to it.

I thought that perhaps the chain had come off the gears, as I had heard that that is a common issue with cuckoo clocks, but I thought that the chain got stuck when that happened and wouldn't move, not that it came loose. I've also taken the clock off the wall (after securing the other two chains) and opened the back up, and as far as I can tell, the chain is still on the gear. The gear turns when I pull the chain, there just doesn't seem to be any resistance of any kind. I can't really see anything else out of place, but I don't really know much about clocks.

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong with it? Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:34 pm     Post subject:

from your details it sounds ljke the mainwheel click has broken. this requires the mechanism to be stripped and repaired.
however a lot of repairers now replace the more common mech's complete as they are usually worn out due to lack of service.

not something you can fix i'm afraid

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:09 pm     Post subject:

Yikes, I was afraid of something like that. Is it very expensive to have the whole mechanism replaced?

Thanks for your help