Grandfather clock tempremental

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:35 pm     Post subject: Grandfather clock tempremental

Father was winding his grandfather clock the other day and somehow the rising weight got caught up with the pendulum causing it to come detached from the mechanism.

On restarting the clock again, it will now only run for 10mins or so before the pendulum swing stops. I have tried removing the pendulum, and it runs fine by itself (somewhat fast obviously though). Is anyone able to point me to where the problem may lie?

thanks in advance

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 10:19 pm     Post subject:

There is a possibility that the weight hitting the pendulum knocked the beat out of whack. I would recommend re-adjusting the beat of the pendulum crutch arm. You may refer to your movement instructions for steps on how to do this (or see a general description of the process below).

If you know that the movement and clock case (the movement most importantly) are level, then the next step is to make certain the pendulum is in beat. The pendulum typically attaches to a metal piece called the pendulum leader. The pendulum leader, in turn, is typically fed through the crutch arm, which is an arm that extends out the back plate of the movement. Remove the pendulum and slide the pendulum leader out of the crutch arm slot. This crutch arm must swing an equal distance from center to left as it does from center to right. If it is uneven, then you can push through slight resistance so that you can gain an even swing. Replace the pendulum leader and pendulum. This would be typical beat adjustment for many brands of mechanical movements.

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 10:46 pm     Post subject:

Hi Chris,

thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I am not particularly knowledgeable when it comes to these clocks and a lot of your terminology goes over my head. We inherited the clock from my grandfather, unfortunately without any instructions however so i'm rather green to it all.

I know the clock itself is level, I assume the movement must be also being as it is fixed to the clock.

here's a pic (a pretty poor one unfort) of the mechanism from the side of the clock: http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4418/dsc01051y.jpg

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:36 pm     Post subject:

looks like everything is in place.

Just needs putting in beat. This is a matter of listening to which way the 'ticks' are uneven.

First of all try moving the pendulum all the way to any one side of the case and let go - some of the later Hermle movements are set to 'self-correct' by this method and will put itself in beat.

if this doesn't work listen to the tick both ways (beat) and try to determine the longest one. note which side it is. as Chris said then try to move the rod that goes through the leader a fraction (friction tight) to the longest beat and test again. repeat until correct - which will be as near an even beat both ways.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:17 pm     Post subject:

Referencing your photo, you have a side view of the movement within the clock case. The pendulum is the device which is hung from the rear portion of the clock movement (and it will extend down into the waist portion, or body, of the case assembly). The end of the pendulum has a bob (a large diameter brass disc) which is viewable from the front of the case.

Follow the pendulum up behind the movement. The pendulum will hook onto the pendulum leader (this is the brass piece that appears to have a twist in it near the bottom where the pendulum hooks on (referencing your photo). Note that there is a brass arm that extends from the back of the movement at an angle, travels straight down, then jogs horizontal to insert through the pendulum leader (about half way down the leader). This is the crutch arm (the arm that can be adjusted to put the movement into beat).

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:18 pm     Post subject:

If you have enough case width (or can remove side glass panels), you can try what clokfxr suggests (that is over-swinging the pendulum to see if the movement will self correct the beat). If this does not work, then you will have to manually adjust the beat (as per directions from my previous post). You can also contact our mechanical repair technician at Klockit for assistance as well.