Expert: William J Perkins - 4/18/2009

Question
Dear Sir,
I've bought 30-years old Hermle grandfather clock with 1161-853 movement. I've cleaned and lubricated this movement and it works perfect. But I got a problem. Man who sold me this clock has removed chime rods from their's iron body before sending. And now I have 12 separate rods and no idea how to put them back properly into the body. The longest one rod is 26 3/4 in long, the shortest - about 16 inches. On the iron body man can see number 10Cs 4 - the letter "s" is placed inside of circle. Are you able to tell me what is the proper position of each one rod? Hermle clocks are very rare in my country, is not possible to get this information from watchmakers and I can't find this information in network too. I will be very grateful for your answer.

Sincerely,

Jerzy Kossakowski
Krakow (Cracow)
Poland

Answer
Sorry about taking so long on this, I was hopeful that I could send you a picture of an assembled chime unit.  Unfortunately I was unable to find anything clear enough to be of help.  I have two suggestions you might wish to follow up;  1). View the on-line catalogs of the following clock materials houses.  In them you will find, illustrated, the chime unit you are concerned with.  Copy the best picture you can find, enhance and enlarge the picture, if properly done the results should guide you to correct assembly.  Now here are the firms of which I speak,  Merritt's Antiques <merritts.com>;  TimeSaver's <timesavers.com>;  Ronell Clocks <ronellclocks.com>:  The alternative #2).  I have stored away a completely assembled chime unit, unfortunately I need help in getting it out to measure.  If you wish me to get it out I could measure each rod and tell you which hole it goes into.  Should this be the route you choose, provide me your e-mail address, in the event an attachment would be require.  Under any circumstance you would have to wait until I can find myself some help.
Regards WJP

I have gotten a good look at the chime unit I described to you and can now tell you how to assemble your unit.  Take all 12 of the loose rods and arrange them before you.  Place the longest rod to your left and lay out the remaining rods in accordance to descending length.  When you have done this you will note there are two pairs of rods that are of the same length.  These four rods are to be installed in iron body so that the two shorter rods will hang towards the front of the clock and the two longest towards the back.  With those four rods installed in the block you will have 12 rods remaining and arranged in descending order of length.  Install them in the block in assending order of length, (shortest front, longest back)  With that done you will have the unit properly assembled and need only install the unit and tune.  Regards WJP