Expert: Michael Radi - 3/3/2010

Question
My balance wheel will not keep turning.  What is wrong? Can I put it back in balance? The triple chimes work fine and it is not wound too tightly.  I'm crying. It was a used clock so I surely hope I've not thrown my money away.

Answer
There are a lot of things that can make a clock like this stop. It might need cleaning, oiling, adjusting and/or rebuilding.
The least drastic of the possible repairs is oiling and adjusting. The clock should have been oiled every two years. Most clock owners don't do this often enough or at all. The oil dries up and the clock starts to wear out. I have had pretty good success getting these going by oiling the movement so that's the first thing to try.
These movements will usually go 10 to 15 years before they need rebuilding or replacing. There should be a two digit date stamped on the back of the clock movement or a single upper case letter. Here is the code for dating them: 77 means that the movement was made in 1977 and so on. In 1988 they switched to a letter code. A=1988, B=1999, etc...
That's about all I can tell you without inspecting the movement myself.
Michael
www.norkro.com
clock parts and repair