Expert: Kenneth Saunders - 3/25/2008

Question
This is a very strange thing.  It is an ansonia cast iron mantle clock with the lion heads on the side and the lion feet.  The chimes keep getting off.  I fix the problem and then within a day or so it is off again.  Like today it was 8:00 here and it struck 9 times.  I wind the hour hand up an hour to 9:00 and then go all the way around stopping at the half hour and hour marks.  It works fine striking all of the times right.  But I bet that by tommorrow or the next day it will be off again.  It seems to gain an hour rather than lose an hour.  It always strikes an hour ahead of what it should be.  One time it was 1 1/2 off but that was after a week.  Any ideas to this weird question.

thanks for any help!
Rob

Answer
the count wheel strike actuating wires need adjustment to shut off more positively.  
photo here:
http://www.clock-keys.com/CART/images/11506.JPG

there is a L shaped finger that drops into these notches and shuts off when it goes into the deeper notches. When it goes into the deeper notch, another wire attached to the same shaft inside the clock
will also drop and catch a pin on the side rim  of a gear and stop the striking-- the finger either doesn't cleanly drop or the wire inside needs to be bent to be sure to catch the pin every time.

need to remove the mechanism to work on it.