Expert: Martin Meyer - 7/8/2007

Question
Hello, I couldn't a close enough problem similar to mine on this site - so here goes:

I have a 31 day regulator, the clock is made in Germany but I'm not sure who made it or who made the gears. No markings other than Regular and 31 Tage on the clock face. In any case, the hour hand sleeve spins freely. I have taken off both the hour and minute hands and looked closely at the gears. There is a part that regulates how many chimes will be rung, and is attached directly to the hour sleeve. It also spins freely, it just looks to me like it should be moving with the rod that it houses.

I have tightened the hour hand part that fits over the sleeve, but that doesn't seem to be the answer because that entire sleeve is loose.

Thanks for any help!

Answer
Hi Kevin,
    The only 31 Day clocks I have ever seen have Asian movements, usually Korean, and are often unmarked. They could certainly be found in German, American and other clocks. For purposes of answering your question, I will have to assume that this is the movement in your clock.
    The section of the movement that you are dealing with is called the "motion work" and is fairly complicated. Different movement have differing gear arrangements, but I will take the case of a typical 31-Day movement.
    The hour hand has a collet on it which fits tightly on the end of the hour pipe, which is the long tube which has the minute hand shaft inside it. The minute hand shaft and the hour pipe of course move at different rates, so they should be loose relative to each other.
    The hour pipe, at the end near the movement, has an eccentrically shaped piece with 12 flats on it, called the snail. The name describes the shape of the part fairly well.  The snail should be firmly riveted onto the hour pipe, and should not turn independently from the hour pipe. Behind the snail is a gear at the very end of the hour pipe. This gear is attached to the hour pipe with a clutch, so it can turn relative to the hour pipe and snail, but not freely: it should take some "push" to make it turn. This gear meshes in turn with another gear (the "minute wheel") which allows the minute hand and the hour hand to turn at different rates.
    I can't be sure exactly where the looseness that is your problem is occurring. First, the clutch that keeps the hour pipe gear from moving freely/loosely may be loose and not holding the assembly together tightly. Second, The gear on the rear of the hour pipe must be meshed with the minute wheel. There is always some sort of bracket or device that keeps the two gears in contact. If the hour pipe gear is not  meshing with the minute wheel, the entire hour pipe assembly with move freely and the hour hand will just fall down to the bottom (6:00) position all the time.
    It is likely that one of these two things is the cause of your problem. If it is the meshing of the two gears, you can probably find the bracket that holds them in line with each other and tighten its screw to correct the problem. If the clutch is loose, you have a more difficult problem, and will probably need the services of a clock repairer to rerivet the clutch tightly. Of course, there are always other less common things that could be the source of your problem.
    I know this is all pretty complicated, but I hope it is of assistance to you. If this information is not useful, you can contact me at my website (listed in my Profile) and perhaps we can exchange photos or diagrams to clarify the problem and its solution.  Thanks for your question.   Martin