Expert: Martin Meyer - 2/3/2010

Question
QUESTION: I have an Emperor Grandfather Clock Model 401M with an Orgos movement model 03078B. The movement is a 3-chain weight driven system with a five-tubular bell chimes. The clock stopped running last fall of '09, and I removed the movement and oiled it about two weeks ago. The clock then ran fine, except the hands would stop moving after about an hour, and as a consequence the chimes would not work after the hands stopped. I removed the movement again, and oiled the shaft near the dial face, and work the hands, and things seem to move a lot easier. After installing the movement in the case, the clock will not get in "beat" as before, or if it does, it will stop after a few hours. I can start the pendulum swinging, and press on the chain driven timing weight, and that seems to always get the clock in "beat", only to stop after about two (2) hours. When it is running the chimes are in the right sequence, but about 30 seconds late - I can take care of this by removing the minute hand and rotating the attachment on the back the proper amount. What am I not doing right? Does this movement have an automatic beat adjustment, or do I have to manually adjust it?
Thanks ahead,
Robert

ANSWER: Hi Robert,

You didn't mention the age of the movement, which may be the most important factor. Your movement shows symptoms of just being worn out. The average lifespan of these movements is about 20 years, although that varies a lot from clock to clock.

I also don't know how you oiled the clock. A small drop of CLOCK OIL ONLY must be applied at every point where a pivot enters a bearing hole. You seem to be referring to the hand shaft. This shaft should never be oiled. If oiling it helped, the clock is in bad shape indeed.

I don't know if that model has automatic beat setting or not. The beat setting should not be changed by the oiling. If you're having trouble setting it, you may have oiled the clutch mechanism on the verge which automatically sets the beat. Oiling it will destroy this feature. Putting extra pressure on the weight does not put the clock in beat; the stronger swing just masks the out-of-beat tick. If a clock is out of beat, it will usually stop within a few minutes. If it runs for two hours, and has been properly oiled, the problem is probably not the beat, but that the bearings in the movement are worn out.

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

QUESTION: The movement is about 30 years old. The replacement movement is an Urgos model UM03X012. Any ideas when these will be available, and why the difficulty in purchasing any? I recently moved and leveled the clock and I don't need to apply pressure on the clock weight to get it started and in beat. I rechecked the level and found it was off on one side. This may have happen because the clock sits on carpeted flooring. I checked and  need to tweak the level front to back. After my first oiling the clock ran continuously without stopping. When I oiled the concentric shafts leading to the hands during the second oiling that seems to improve the rotation of the hands. I was told by a local repair shop that if I rotated the minute hand on a ten minute swing back and forth, I could tell if the bushing was worn on the shaft attached to the hands by the feel. Does this hold true as a valid test?
Thanks ahead,
Robert

Answer
Hi Robert,

The availability problem with this movement (correctly UW 03X012) is because it is on factory backorder, that is, the movements have to be made. It is not a distribution problem, there just aren't any. As with many items, clocks or anything else, backorder times are unpredictable; there is no date that they have scheduled.
very well for this clockmaker. But there are a couple dozen bearings that can wear out in a movement, and the center shaft bearings are not necessarily the ones that wear.

The first and most obvious sign of wear is the black "gunk" that builds up in the bearing holes. This is a mixture of old oil and finely worn metal from the bearings. My preferred method is, with the movement out of the clock, to manually rotate the great wheels back and forth. They will, of course, only move a small amount. While doing this, observe all the bearings for the train that you are moving. If you can see the steel tips of the pivots moving back and forth in the bearing hole, then there is terminal wear in the movement. The center wheel rear bearing is often a good one to look closely at. All second wheels are candidates for bad wear, also the strike train third and fourth wheels, and especially the bearing for the rear third wheel of the chime train. This is the shaft that holds the big chime drive wheel, and you can often see that wheel bobbing back and forth obviously. Also, the great wheel bearings, front and back, sometimes become so severely worn that the wheels can be visibly moved up and down, and the egg-shaped worn bearing hole is obvious.