Expert: Martin Meyer - 2/5/2009

Question
Dear Mr. Meyer,

I received (today) an used Charles R. Sligh Centennial 200, leveled it, installed the three weights, pendulum, and it is working well for some 8 hours now. Chimes, music, all seems ok.

Unfortunatelly, four chime rods (2 of the hour strikes and 2 of the music side) seem to have popped out of the chime rod bracket, where I can see the place where they should be inserted. When I tried to unscrew the correspondent screw for each chime rod on the top of the bracket, they are so tight I thought they could break, and stopped.

Question 1: should I try to just re-insert the chime rod into the bracket, by pressure or knocking, or should really unscrew the (overtight?) corresponding screw?

Question 2: the weights were not marked (left, center or right), so I just hung them in place, at random. Is it ok? I can take them to a precision weighting gauge to check if there are weight differences... what could be the best position for each, once I determined the weight of each one?

Thank you in advance for your time, and knowledge!
Rodrigo Boos - Brazil  

Answer
Hi Rodrigo,

It is critical that the weights go in the correct positions. You may have either 2 heavy weights and 1 lighter, or you may have 1 heavy weight and 2 lighter. As you look at the clock, a heavy weight must go on the right, and a light weight must go on the left. The remaining weight goes in the center.

The broken chime rods cannot be reinserted or repaired, whether you remove the screw head or not. The rod is permanently fixed inside the screw head, its tapered end allows it to resonate in a musical tone, and each rod is tuned to its correct note, which will be lost if any repair attempt is made. Broken chime rods must be replaced, and you will need to replace the entire set to get the correct musical tones.

Clock parts suppliers have both sets of chime rods, and also complete chime assemblies with the rods already mounted in the cast iron chime block. The best choice is usually to replace the entire chime assembly. This requires finding an assembly with approximately the same configuration as the original one. On some assemblies, the rods fan out, while in others they go straight down vertically. The replacement assembly must not interfere with any parts of the movement or hit the pendulum assembly at any point. Also, the original holes in the clock case back may not line up with the new chime block assembly, and you may have to drill new holes.

I know that this sounds like a lot more work than just replacing the rods with a new set. But the problem with this method is that the screw heads of the rods are torqued into the chime block so tightly that it is almost impossible to unscrew them without destroying the soft brass screw heads. It is possible to use penetrating oil like WD40 to try to loosen them, or to apply heat with a torch to the chime block. But even these methods may not be of much help. I'm afraid that, any way you do it, chime rod replacement is a major undertaking.  http://www.clockmasteronline.com