Expert: Martin Meyer - 4/8/2009

Question
QUESTION: I have a modern (about 1987) grandfather clock, bought in Germany. It is cable driven 3 weight. 3 Tunes, with Night Shut Off; lyre pendulum. I think it is a Kieninger.

I would like to remove the movement to bring in for cleaning (no repair shop near me).

I have removed the hour hand by unscrewing the nut, and pulling it off. I then pulled off the minute hand.

I still have the seconds, the night bell selection, and the
moon dial to disconnect. Do I just pull the seconds and chime selection?

Do you know of anything else I need to do to remove it?


(I think the movement comes out from the back).

ANSWER: Hi Alan,

Some movements are removed from the back, although it is more common for them to come out through the front, after removing the dial frame. In cases where there are no screws on the front of the dial frame, you can usually assume that the movement comes out through the back.

The seconds hand simply pulls straight off. The moon dial is mounted on the main dial, and will remain on the main dial when you remove it.

The chime selector and night-off are usually levers that protrude through the slots in the dial at the "3" and "9" positions. These levers are mounted on the movement, and so do not need to be removed. There is one occasional exception with Kieninger movements. In these cases, the chime selector and night-off are small dials in the upper corners of the main dial. You cannot pull these hands off, and you should not unscrew these hands, because they have a series of washers and spacers which will come off and be difficult to replace. It is preferable to remove the nut which connects the levers on the movement to the extension of the levers which goes to the small dials. These parts are between the dial and the front of the movement, and are accessed through the side doors or panels. You must be careful doing this; it is very easy to drop these small parts and lose them.

As far as other parts to remove, the dial is held on to the movement with four levers, one in each corner of the movement. The movement is mounted on the seatboard with two long screws which come up through the seatboard and into the movement. Obviously, I am assuming that you have already removed the weights and pendulum.

Having removed the hands, you are apparently planning on removing the dial from the movement before you remove the movement from the clock. Note that this is not always necessary (though sometimes it is). In many cases you can remove the movement and dial as one unit. The dial is, of course, fragile, and will need to be handled very carefully when doing this. There are so many clock designs that I'm not able to give you any more detailed information on the procedure for this.  http://www.clockmasteronline.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: How much force is necessary to pull the second hand off?
I tried a fair amount of force, and nothing budged.


Answer
Hi Alan,

It does not usually require much force to pull off the seconds hand. Occasionally, corrosion may develop and hold the hand tightly on its shaft. It is possible to pull too hard and break the hand off its pipe. This can be a stubborn problem, and I would recommend caution in pulling on the hand. If you can access the point where the seconds hands' pipe attaches to the shaft that comes out from the movement (between the dial and the front movement plate) it may be possible to push the hand off by pushing at the end of its pipe where it connects to the shaft. A small pliers is best for this; keep the pliers slightly loose so that they do not grab the shaft, and apply equal forward pressure on both sides of the pipe when you push. If you push with something like a screwdriver, you will be pushing on only one side of the pipe, and you may bend or break the shaft that comes out from the movement. This would create a very major repair problem, so exercise caution.  http://www.clockmasteronline.com