Expert: Michael Radi - 3/21/2010

Question
Hello Mr. Radi,
I am having a few problems with my clocks. I refuse to take it back to my clockmaker, I had to sell my chickens to have my 340-020 rebuilt, and it stopped working again. Actually, the movment works, but the chimes do not work correctly. They stat to work, half way through it sounds like they are stuck. when i look at the chimes under the clock, the second one from the back appears to be stuck in the up position. I suspect something skipped a beat. I seriously love clocks, and would rather try to fix it myself, just so i know i can do it. Do you know where i can find a book that will guide me. Or can you guide me.
My second issue is i have a miller clock that the left winder appears to have a broken spring. I have a unit that i purchased on ebay, and it does not work, so i was going to take the spring out and put it in the clock with the broken spring. Does the spring actually break, or did it just jump out of the catch or something. Thanks for your help.
Larry

Answer
Regarding the 340-020: It could be that there is not enough power to run the chimes but I'm going to go with the assumption that they are getting stuck for some other reason. You will be concentrating on the chime drum and hammers. You may need to remove the movement from the case.
Check to see that the hammers don't rub on each other and that they don't hit the movement when they reach the highest point.
You can adjust them so that they don't have to lift so high. This makes it easier for the movement to lift the hammers. On the tail end of the hammer wires they rest on a bar. This bar stops the hammer on the drop. If you bend the tail so the hammers stop before they reach the chime rods the lift will be shortened. Then you bend the wire on the hammer side to lower the hammer to about 1/8" from the chime rod. You may have to adjust this a few times so that you get enough lift and the hammer still strikes the rod.

On your smaller clock you must be sure that the mainspring can be safely removed and installed. On some movements (like your 340-020) you can let the power down and remove the entire barrel with the mainspring safely inside. Most clock movements must be completely taken apart to get the mainspring out. Are there any markings on the movement?
Michael