Expert: Michael Radi - 12/21/2011

Question
Hi,
I really need help with my grandfather clock. Its driving me nuts! I bought a 1985 Ridgeway grandfather clock (with triple chime) at a yard sale recently. When I brought it back and put on the weights and pendulum, etc, it worked perfectly (time, chimes and gong) until I meddle with it when it was 10 minutes behind the correct time. I simply moved the minute hand 10 min forward and after that, it chimed the wrong number of chimes on the quarter, half, three-quarters and hourly mark. What I did next was that I kept moving the minute hand clockwise round and round the face to get the correct number of chime and gongs, without stopping for the chimes on the quarter, half, three-quarter or hourly mark to complete its chime and gongs. After some trial and error of moving the minute hand back and forth, I finally got it to chime and gong correctly, BUT it now chimes and gong ONLY every other hour. Simply put, it chimes on the quarter, half, three-quarter and hourly mark and gongs also on the hourly mark but stops altogether for the next hour and then resumes the correct chimes and gongs on the next. PLEASE HELP!!

Answer
Hi Lenny,
Here is the way it should work:
The clock movement has a feature to reset the top of the hour. In order to correct itself when the chime sequence gets off,  it will stop chiming until it gets to the top of an hour. Then everything should be in order. Try this:
Advance the minute hand to the next quarter hour, if it chimes let it complete the chime, then move the minute hand to the next quarter. Keep doing this until you get an hour chime at the top. If it strikes the wrong hour, move the hour hand to what ever hour the clock strikes.
Whenever you advance the minute hand you should let it chime every quarter before advancing.
Go on and advance the minute hand through another hour (one quarter at a time) and see if it is chiming correctly.
If not, please tell me exactly what is happening on each quarter for at least a 2 hour sequence.
Michael
norkro.com