Expert: Kenneth Saunders - 8/30/2007

Question
My Ridgeway floor/"grandfather's" clock is off on striking the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and hour: the middle weight beats the others to the bottom.  It is not only off, it strikes randomly and wrong.

I wound it accidentally :( while it was to chime the 3/4 hour.

Will I be able to straighten this out myself (with your help)?  Or shall I phone the home repair clock service?

Answer
phone the home repair clock service - because you had nothing to do with it- it has a problem internally with  the lift lever for the chime.

You say in addition that it is 23 years old. That is the "break point" for most German modern movements and it might pay to have an identical but new movement installed as the age can cause wear symptoms that you describe as well as the lift lever. If you give the repair person the movement numbers off the back brass plate of the movement then they can quote you a price over the phone for a new movement installed in your home. And you can shop by phone for the best price as some skill is needed in replacement but not much craftsmanship and you can compare prices by phone if you can give them the numbers. Most movements like yours cost the repair people from $140-240 so you can figure markup and labor in your phone shopping.