Expert: John Newman - 11/4/2009

Question
My friend's mom recently passed away leaving the house and everything within it to her daughter.  Her mom always dealt with the clocks in the home.  Unfortunately, before her passing, she never showed her daughter how to keep the clock running.  I checked the winders (right and left) and found them to be sufficiently tight and comparable to the tension my windup clock has when running.  We reset the time (daylight savings time) in the clockwise direction - not backwards or reverse and I gently set the pendulum in motion.  I could hear the ticking.  However, when the clock struck the hour mark, it did not sound and when the pendulum lost momentum ten minutes later, the time keeping stopped with it.  There are two chains with weights, however, I was assured by my friend that these are decoration only.  They did recently move the clock from one room to another.  

Any direction you could provide would be GREATLY appreciated and I thank you in advance.

Answer
Misty, You have an Asian 31-day clock with decorative weights.  I am confident it is a "safe-back" clock which means you can turn the minute hand backwards to set it.  As you turn it backwards, just do it carefully and if you feel a abrupt resistance, don't turn it anymore, as it would not be a safe back clock.  I'm going to print below my information on clocks that will not keep running.  I have a meeting in 5 minutes and have to sign off.  If the below information doesn't do it, get back with me at my shop email address below to free up the Allexperts question queue.

If you have owned the clock for a while,
did it fail abruptly or did the chimes, strike or running fail slowly
or intermittently?  I'll give you a series of levels to consider.


The first level is the setup.  If a clock movement is in operating
condition but not working, I would check the stability of the clock
in that it doesn't rock or wobble on the floor.  Is the pendulum hanging
configuration correct?  This means that the suspension spring, hanger
(Emperor calls this the Suspension Arm), verge (Emperor name, the Anchor
Arm Assy.) and pendulum are all connected properly with nothing broken,
especially the suspension spring, meaning that when the pendulum swings
you hear an even tick....tock....tick....tock.  If it is uneven, like
tick..tock......tick..tock, the clock will probably stop.  This can be
corrected by a manual adjustment of the knurled nut on the "Anchor Arm Assy.

Level 2 concerns Maintenance, which includes cleaning, inspecting, oiling and
adjusting.  In the inspection, the movement is checked for adjustments, broken or
worn parts.  If there are any broken or worn parts, we go to the
third level. If all parts are okay, a good clock oil and grease is
used.  In most cases the movement should be removed from the case
to have access to all the lubrication points.  Clock lubricants
can be bought from clock suppliers.  Using lubricants for other
applications can cause problems, as some lubricants are not
compatible with others.  This even applies to different clock oils.  
After lubricating, the operation is checked for final adjustments.

The third level, Repair, requires that the movement be broken down and all
parts inspected and repaired or replaced, and then reassembled
lubricated, adjusted and tested.  I do not recommend this except
by an experienced clockmaker.



John Newman
THE VILLAGE CLOCKSMITH
Old Prattvillage
Prattville, Alabama
klokdok@juno.com

(Due to the number of Allexperts questions and
the workload I have at my clock shop, I regret
that I cannot answer personal email questions on a timely basis
other than Allexperts follow ups.)