Expert: Martin Meyer - 3/27/2008

Question
"I have my mothers Mauthe chiming wall hanging clock that was bought in the 50's i believe. It has never had a problem until i forgot to wind it, and then i moved the "long" arm to set it and now i cant get it to tick tock correctly and it wont keep running.  It does the tick tock...tick tock that i think you spoke of in another post.  thank you for any help.(sorry if this is a double post,,)

Answer
Hi Jill,
     Please excuse my delay in getting back to you; I had a computer crash problem which took several days to correct.
    It sounds like you clock is out of beat. When a clock runs only a few minutes and stops, the cause is most often that the pendulum is out of beat. With the clock hanging on the wall, start the pendulum with just enough swing to keep ticking. Now listen to the tick: if your clock is in beat, the tick sound should be "tick-tick-tick", steady like a metronome. If it is out of beat, the sound will be uneven, "tick-TOCK-tick-TOCK".
   If your clock is out of beat, move it side-to-side on the wall in VERY small amounts, trying one way and then the other, until the beat evens out. The amount you move it will probably be less than you can notice when you're looking at the clock. If you have to move it so much that it looks crooked on the wall, then you'll need to have a clock repairer set the beat for you.