Expert: Kenneth Saunders - 1/1/2009

Question
I have an 8-day clock, which I bought several years ago in an auction. It never worked, but I loved it anyway. It is a nice-looking clock, but nothing extraordinary. The make is "Bentime" and there is a label saying "made in England." It is in an attractive oak case and only has one winding hole.

Recently, during the pre-Christmas house-cleaning frenzy, my partner moved the clock from its usual position to a different shelf. Surprise, surprise! - the clock suddenly started to work! It ran for the next week, until it ran down. However it did run very slow, losing almost 3 hours in that time.

Today, I took it down from the shelf, adjusted the pendulum (which has 2 arrows marked "F" and "S") and wound it (about 3 and 1/2 turns, until I met with resistance) but it refuses to run for more than a couple of minutes. This is a very old house and none of the surfaces are completely level. I have tried the clock on every surface in the house (including the high shelf where it previously worked) but to no avail. I have tried propping the front legs up, the back legs up - no matter what I do it runs for a couple of minutes and then stops. Any idea what the problem is?

Answer
these get leveled by sound of the evenness of the ticking-listen as you prop up on side or the other -----not by spirit level--the pendulum may be rubbing on something? any 8 day clock will need a lot more than 3 turns if it is in need of winding - wind it till it will not reasonably click any more! Probably did not wind it anywhere near fully and did not get it ticking evenly.