Tubular chime movement - weights won't drop properly

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:07 pm     Post subject: Tubular chime movement - weights won't drop properly

New to the site but glad I found it. I have a Hermle 1171-850 tubluar chime movement that I just cleaned and oiled. I removed the weight cable barrels before I did the clean and disassembly and when reassembled the movement, replaced the barrels in the same locations as removed. Problem I am having now is first, the hour strike weight only dropped about 8-12 inches and stopped while the rest of the clock seemed to be running fine. I wound the weight and it would then strike again but only drops about 1/3 of the barrel windings. I removed the movement and then readjusted the barrel and then noted that the time train weight needed to be wound. It would only wind up about 3-4 inches but was still hanging down about where it would be after about 3 days running. I tried to wind the weight back up and it stopped about 1/3 of the way from being fully wound.

Is there something in the barrels that prevents them from winding or from falling a certain distance? Is the barrels designed to prevent complete unwinding or winding of the cables? Everything seeme normal until I cleaned this movement. Am I missing something? I have never had to repair or disassemble a cable wind movement before so I am a bit puzzled. Never had anything like this with a chain drive movement. Thanks for any insight, tricks or tips.

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:47 pm     Post subject:

You probably have a clock with stop gears (star shaped) on the front of the movement on each winding arbour. The star shaped gears are designed to stop the weights at the top before they hit the movement mounting board. Arrange them so they stop at the top and they should work fine.

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:11 pm     Post subject: hermle tubular

I noted that on the front of the movement there are two silver "star" looking toothed gears for each barrel. I had to remove the one that was on the winding arbor shaft on each barrel but did not notice any identifing marks or alignment points. This gear meshed with a second gear that looks the same but I did not remove that gear. Is the key to these on the other gear? They just seemed to be stamped steel with rounded teeth. When I pulled the gears on each barrel arbor shaft I did not notice any thing unusal as to marking them for reassembly. Is there some sort of notch, catch or other physical part that causes these to "lock"?

I had to pull the barrels again as the cables had skipped the grooves on the barrels during reinstallation the first time after I cleaned the movement so over the weekend I re-wound the barrels.

How should the star gears be positioned so as to get full travel out of the barrels? Right now I know that all three barrels are at there "stopping" points. I kept winging the chime barrel until the strike barrel travel bottomed out then let the clock just run till the time train stopped. So I know all three are at the star gear bottom of travel limit. The weights stop when

So which of these two gears do I need to move/adjust? Should I mark the location of the non-arbor star gear, remove the barrel and fully unwind the barrel, reassemble and then wind the barrels using the key/crank?

Thanks for a starting point! This one has had me totally baffled.

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:57 pm     Post subject:

I think I found the answer in the general forum! Silly me, thought it would be here under mechanical. I guess the issue is the winding arbor gears have one longer tooth while the stationary gears have one valley not as deep? So I get to pull the movement again, figure out direction and location of the tall tooth and reseat them. This is going to be a great place I can see already!

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:55 pm     Post subject:

Well that seems to be the issue. I took the movement out, and began to look closely at the two chrome looking "star" gears. The gear on the winding arbor has a single tooth that is visiably longer then the rest while the idle gear has one notch between the teeth that is visiably shorter. I wound the cables until about 2 inches from the bottom of the seat board, aligned the two gears so that when you wind the arbors the long and short teeth mesh preventing the movement from further winding. I started the clock and it has been running. Thanks! Just wanted to post results and a very big THANK YOU! I learned another thing about clock movements I didn't know before. Cheers!