Expert: Martin Meyer - 7/23/2007

Question
Clock will not strike on the hour unless I move one of the small wheels then it strikes continously until I hold the wheel to stop the hourly striking. It is a new movement that I purchased last December, URGOS UW 32316E.

Answer
Hi Vince,
    There are so many possibilities for the cause of these problems that I would have to have the movement in front of me to diagnose it. My main question would be, was this movement like this from the time you got it, or did the problem occur later? If it was like this from the start, I would simply return it as a defective movement and save yourself a lot of headaches.
    Without seeing the movement, I can't think of a single cause for both these problems. If you're moving the small wheel (I assume you mean the third or fourth wheel in the strike train) in its forward direction to get the striking going, then you're overcoming a friction resistance, that is, a stall. This usually indicates a bent pivot or defective gear tooth or pinion leaf. If, on the other hand, you're moving the wheel backwards just a bit then letting it go, that indicates a jam, generally a pin on a wheel that is not releasing from the warning lever or locking lever, or an incorrect setup of the strike hammer star wheel binding on the strike hammer lifting lever. Note that these are all guesses, as I am not looking at the movement.
    As far as the striking continuing, this is caused by the rack not falling into locking position at the end of its run. This can be caused by an incorrect alignment of the gathering pallet, an incorrect indexing of a strike train pin (on a wheel), or a burr on the rack hook end which causes it to bounce the rack back up, instead of locking.
    These are generally two different problems, and I am at a loss as to why they are both happening. It is entirely possible that a different problem altogether is at the source, but I would have to be examining the movement to even guess at what this might be.
    The strike mechanism is fairly complicated, and I regret that I can't be more specific.
    I hope this information is of some help to you. Thanks for your question.   Martin